Word to the Wise
Wednesday, September 15, 2021 - Sept. 15 - Our Lady of Sorrows
[Heb 5:7-9; [opt. Sequence: Stabat Mater]; John 19:25-27 or Luke 2:33-35]WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2021 OUR LADY OF SORROWS [1 Timothy 3:14-16 and John 19:25-27 or Luke 2:33-35] Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved he said to his mother, "Woman, behold your son." Then he said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother." And from that hour the disciple took her into his home. [John]
The devotion to the "sorrows of Mary" is older than the feast, which was initiated by the Servite friars in the 17th century. The famous statue of Mary, holding the dead body of Jesus after its removal from the cross (the "Pieta") was carved by MIchelangelo in 1498-99, I suspect the statue is far better known than the feast. Nevertheless, the liturgy includes the well-known "sequence," the Stabat Mater, which many of us know from the Stations of the Cross.
The feast highlights certain events in the life of Mary that were times of sorrow: Simeon's prophecy at the presentation in the temple, the flight into Egypt, the boy Jesus' "disappearance" in Jerusalem, the road to Calvary, the crucifixion, the removal from the cross, and the entombment.
I regularly read an internet blog by the title, MIGHTY IS HER CALL, which is directed to Catholic moms and written by Catholic moms. If one wanted to identify the "sorrows of Mary," one could find them plentiful in the accounts of their lives by the moms at this website. One might also stop and think of the times when one might have been a sorrow to one's mom!
The statue captures a terrible moment. The feast reminds us of the commitment that Mary made and its cost to her and extends then to the commitment our own mothers made for us. She was the first disciple and we follow in her footsteps. AMEN
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