THURSDAY
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Our Lady of Sorrows
Yesterday we reflected on the Cross of Jesus – his suffering and death in love for us and for all people. Today we think about Mary, his mother standing beside the cross, watching as her son died. One of the greatest sorrows a parent can experience is watching their child die. It seems so wrong that a child should die before a parent.
Mary, standing beside the cross of Jesus, experienced the pain and hurt that any parent would understand. The violent way in which Jesus died would have made her pain all the worse. In a very real and human way, Mary suffered with Jesus.
We must not forget, however, that Our Lady of Sorrows is also Our Lady of Joy because she also experienced the wonder and joy of seeing her son rise from the dead.
Through the suffering of the cross comes the joy of the resurrection.
Jesus says to us
‘Take up your cross and follow me …’
Mary did just that, she was him at his birth, through his life and in his suffering, death and resurrection.
You and I are called to do the same.
Mary shows us that we can take up our crosses and follow Jesus as she did. We can stand by his cross and suffer with him and we can be filled with joy when we know that he conquered death and rose to new life.
Yesterday we read some advice from Pope Francis and it is worth thinking about it again:
‘Standing before him with open hearts, letting him look at us, we see that gaze of love …. How good it is to stand before a crucifix ….. and simply to be in his presence!’
Today we can stand at the cross with Mary and ‘simply be in his presence’ – we can remind ourselves that he accepted the cross for us – each of us can say ‘for me’.
As we stand with Mary and look at Jesus on the Cross, we know that we are loved.
Whatever hard times come our way, we can always remember some words of Pope Francis: