The Church gives us Mary as our September devotion. Oh, how we love our Blessed Mother! But particularly, this month we look at Mary in her sorrows. I can’t help but think about Our Lady of Sorrows framed by motherhood.
Have you ever witnessed your child take a particularly nasty spill? Or have you heard them cry but you are unable to get to them? What about when they are sick and in pain but you have no way to take the pain away? I know I get a visceral reaction – I feel it in my body when my child gets hurt. I feel like throwing up when I hear my child crying and I cannot comfort him. My chest physically aches with helplessness as my child suffers in sickness. I want you to consider what these experiences are like for you. Okay. Hold that thought for a minute.
Jesus, of all the times in history to come into, of all the places, chose the Roman empire. This was a society where torture and death was an artform, and the Romans gave him an extreme measure. Scourging. Humiliation. Taunting. Suffering. Death. And He knew it was all coming! That’s why He prayed so fervently for it to be taken away from Him if the Father willed it. On the cross, Jesus felt the weight of all of human sin. Under the weight of sin, He experienced how it feels to be turned away from the Father. So He knows exactly what it is to experience physical, mental, and spiritual in the most extreme form.
Now that thought that you had, how you share in your child’s sorrows, bring that back. Maternal co-suffering is a thing. I am sure you have felt it, deep in your heart. Imagine how our Blessed Mother would have felt as she shared the suffering of her Son in her maternal way.
Earlier this month, we learned what Mother Mary does when something troubling or sad happens. The Gospel tells us that she “kept all these things” (Lk 2:19). She didn’t try to forget them, she carried them with her. And at the moment of greatest suffering and sorrow, she stood at the foot of the cross, with Jesus.
It would be foolish to pretend that life is all butterflies and roses. We all have sufferings and sorrows. Let us not bury ourselves in pleasure or busyness or whatever our mechanism of choice is. Creating distance between us and our sorrows is not the best way to bear them. No, the best way to bear our sorrows and sufferings is to imitate the way our Lady bore hers. She carried them in her heart to the end, and with these sorrows, she stayed with Jesus.
At the cross, where Christ gives His mother to us, we can stand with her. She knows what it’s like. And more than that, she loves her children and wants to help them. Let us ask her to carry our sorrows with us, helping us offer them back up to her Son. We may not understand how in this life, and maybe not in the next, but we must always remember that God can take our tears and turn them to joy.
Our Lady of Sorrows, pray for us.
What does Our Lady of Sorrows teach you? Are you living anything particularly difficult at the moment? Perhaps you want to make a prayer request.
Until next time, let’s pray for each other. And remember, we can do Mom things through Christ who strengthens us!
Mom Things Through Christ 