Word to the Wise
Friday, September 15, 2023 -
[1 Tim 1:1-2, 12-14 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]
Devotion to particularly sad moments (the "seven sorrows") in the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary dates back to the 13th century. A Latin copy of the well known hymn (liturgical "sequence") Stabat mater, dating from that time, was found in the library of a Dominican nuns' monastery in Bologna, Italy. Although this "sequence" is celebrated on this feast, I think most of us will recognize it from the Stations of the Cross in Lent with the familiar opening line: "At the cross her station keeping...." One of the "sorrows" is famously represented by Michelangelo's statue known as the Pieta, in which Mary holds the body of Jesus, just taken down from the cross.
This feast day is somewhat overshadowed by the feast of the Holy Cross on the day before. But it can be an invitation to reflect on the "sorrows" of every mother. The scene at the foot of the cross is certainly poignant but others come to us every day in the wake of disasters or wars that claim the lives of children - whether small or adult - and drive that particular sorrow home to any mother. I have heard these stories many times over in my pastoral/itinerant preaching experiences. Jesus' care for his own mother is reflected in the gospel scene from the Gospel According to John. But that care was not a replacement for the sorrow and grief expressed in the Pieta. This feast can invite us to do our own reflection on the challenges of motherhood. AMEN