55 — THE SEVEN SORROWS OF MARY

Friday of Passion Week

Presence of God. — Receive me, O Mary, near the cross and let me share with you in the Passion of Jesus.

Meditation

1 — The first explicit declaration of the part that Mary Most Holy would have in the Passion of Jesus is found in the prophecy of the old man Simeon: “a sword will pierce your soul” (Lk. 2, 35); a prophecy that finds its full realization on Calvary. “Yes, O blessed Mother — comments St. Bernard — a sword has truly pierced your soul. For only by passing through this could it penetrate the flesh of your Son. And certainly, after your Jesus had given up His spirit, the cruel lance, opening His side, did not reach His soul, but rather pierced your soul. For His soul was no longer there, but yours could not be detached from it” (BR.). A beautiful interpretation that helps us understand how Mary, as Mother, was intimately associated with the Passion of her Son.

The Gospel does not tell us that Mary was present at the glorious moments of Jesus’ life, but it does tell us that she was present on Calvary: “Near the cross of Jesus stood His Mother and... Mary of Cleophas and Mary Magdalene” (Jn. 19, 25). No one had been able to prevent her from running to where her Son was to be executed; and her love gives her the courage to “stand” there, upright, on her feet, near the cross, to assist at the most painful agony and death of Him whom she loved above all things, since He was both her Son and her God. As one day she had accepted to become His Mother, now she accepts to see Him tortured from head to foot, accepts to see Him snatched away by a cruel death.

And not only does she accept, but she offers. Jesus had gone spontaneously to the Passion, and Mary voluntarily offers her beloved Son for the glory of the Most Holy Trinity and for the salvation of men. The sacrifice of Jesus thus becomes the sacrifice of Mary, not only because Mary offers it together with Him and offers in Him the Son who belongs to her, but also because with this offering she makes the most profound holocaust of herself, since Jesus is the center of her affections, of her whole life. God, who had given her that divine Son, on Calvary demands Him back and Mary offers Him with all the affection of her heart, with the most complete adherence to the divine will.

2 — The liturgy of the day places these moving words on the lips of the sorrowful Madonna: “O you who pass by the way, stop and consider if there is any sorrow like my sorrow” (MR.). Yes, her sorrow is immeasurable, but her love is even greater, so great that it can contain that sea of sorrow; of no creature as of Mary can it be said that her love is stronger than death and in fact it made her capable of enduring the most bitter death of Jesus.

“Who could remain impassive contemplating Mary suffering with Christ her Son?” sings the Stabat Mater and immediately adds: “O Mother... let me feel the vehemence of your sorrow, that I may weep with you. Cause that I bear in my heart the wounds of Christ, make me a sharer in His Passion, cause that I be inebriated with the Cross and Blood of your Son.” Following the invitation of the Church, let us contemplate, let us compassionate the sorrows of Mary, let us ask her for the great grace of sharing with her in the Passion of her Jesus. And let us remember that this participation must not remain in the realm of sentiment — even though it be good and holy sentiments — but must lead us to true compassion, that is, to suffer together with Jesus and with Mary. The sufferings we encounter in our life are given to us precisely for this.

The vision of the Madonna at the foot of the cross makes the lesson of the cross ever harder and ever more bitter to us; the maternal example of hers encourages us to suffer, makes the way of Calvary more sweet to us. Let us go, then, with Mary to reach Jesus on Calvary, let us go with her to meet the cross and, sustained by her, let us embrace it voluntarily to offer it together with that of her Son.

Colloquy

“O Mary, holy Mother of Jesus crucified, tell me something of His Passion, because, among so many who were present there, You more than all felt and saw it, having gazed upon it with the eyes of the body and of the mind, and having considered it with every attention, since You greatly loved Him” (Bl. Angela of Foligno).

“O Mary, let me stand with you beside the cross, let me contemplate with you the Passion of your Jesus; let me share in your sorrow, in your weeping. O Holy Mother, imprint deeply in my heart the wounds of the Crucified, let me suffer with Him, associate me with His and your suffering” (cf. Stabat Mater).

“O Queen of virgins, You are also Queen of martyrs. But the wound of the dagger opens in your heart, because in you everything happens within...

“Oh! how beautiful you are if I contemplate you during your long martyrdom, so serene, mantled with a majesty that emanates strength and sweetness together! You had from the Word Himself how those must suffer whom the Father has chosen as victims, whom He has decided to associate with the great work of the Redemption, those ‘He has known and predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son’, crucified for love.

“You are there, O Mary, at the foot of the cross, erect, in strength and courage; and the Master says to me: ‘Behold your Mother’. He gives me you for mother! Now that He has returned home, that He has put me in His place on the cross, that I may suffer in myself ‘what is lacking to His Passion for His body which is the Church’, You, O Mary, are still there, to teach me to suffer with Him, to repeat to me, to make me understand the last song of His soul, that song which You alone, the Mother, could understand” (E.T. II, 15).

O sweetest Mother, that my desire to suffer may not be vain, help me to recognize in every daily suffering the cross of your Jesus and to embrace it with love.