Word to the Wise
Saturday, September 15, 2012 - Sept. 15 - Our Lady of Sorrows
[Heb 5:7-9; [opt. Sequence: Stabat Mater]; John 19:25-27 or Luke 2:33-35,710]"Woman, behold your son." Then he said to the disciple, "Behold your mother." And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.
The feast of Our Lady of Sorrows moves the focus from yesterday's sufferings of Jesus to the suffering that his life would mean for others, particularly his mother! We are presented with two of the seven scenes that are considered part of the devotion to the Sorrowful Mother - the seven sorrows of Mary. Simeon's prophecy and the crucifixion scene. The others are the flight into Egypt, Jesus' disappearance in Jerusalem as a boy, the journey to Calvary, the removal of Jesus' body from the cross, and the entombment.
Jesus' family plays a somewhat ambiguous role in the gospel accounts. However, what we know of the culture of the time tells us that his mother would have been placed in a perilous situation by his death because he was the major male figure in her life. This is why the scene from the Gospel of John is important. It indicates that Jesus saw to it that she would be cared for. The scene at the foot of the cross has been the sbuject of art and music for centuries. Generations of Catholics have sung a version of the "Stabat Mater" during the Stations of the Cross in Lent.
My many years in campus ministry have acquainted me with the suffering that parents incur in the lives of their children! If they need a spiriual companion in these, Mary would be a good one to consider! AMEN
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