+ Today we celebrate the sorrow that Mary carried with her throughout the entire life of her son, Jesus. From the time that Simeon prophesied that Jesus would be a sign of contradiction his whole life long, and that a sword would pierce her own heart, the suffering of Jesus and her own suffering would be intermingled. How could they not be? Never had or will there ever be again a mother – son relationship like this one!
Jesus accepted his cross from the first moment of his life, and it overshadowed everything he ever said and did; Mary always gathered and pondered the meaning of everything her son said and did, and saw it all leading somewhere – to some specific, preordained, magnificent event. And it did occur – when Jesus was raised up on the cross for us and for our salvation, and she stood right there by him with a heart torn with grief and joy! She was sad that his "hour" was so dreadful; but she was joyful because his "hour" was so brief, and now her hope reigned supreme as she awaited his resurrection in three days' time.
Jesus learned obedience from what he suffered; and the perfection of obedience in Jesus was the price of our salvation and the recipe for our own participation in the redemption: we too must obey the commandments of God, we too must obey the dictates of the Church, we too must obey the dictates of our own rightly formed consciences! We have the Spirit of God himself to help us do these things: they must be done or else we have disqualified ourselves from the fruits of the death and resurrection of Jesus; and who would want to do that? (And yet, there are some who choose this!)
At the cross her station keeping, stood the mournful Mother weeping, close to Jesus to the last!
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