Why, God?  Why me?  Have not many of us asked this very question when trials and sufferings come into our lives?  Despite Our Lord’s admonition that His followers must take up their crosses and follow Him, nonetheless, we ask.  Such is our human weakness and the frailty of our faith.

    In His Infinite Wisdom, God alone holds the complete answer to our anguished questions about human suffering.   Indeed, God does send crosses!   More perplexing, He seems to send the weightier ones to those who love Him the most.   Saint Teresa of Avila once complained bitterly to Jesus about this bewildering perplexity.  She too asked “Why.”   Our Lord answered her not!  When the tormented Job asked “Why,” God reminded Job that He expects complete trust in His Divine Providence. “Put your finger to your mouth,” God said, “and know that I am God!”
 
    When we are tempted to question God, let us consider the crosses carried by the one whom God loved the most, Mary!  She was the apple of His eye.  Yet, God sent her crosses and sorrows that neither you nor I could imagine, much less endure.   
   
    The Liturgy often links feasts on successive days.  The Church does this to emphasize the complementary connection of certain feasts.  For example, the feasts of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary occur on successive days.  The same is true of Saint Monica’s feast followed by her son’s, Saint Augustine.   The Church’s liturgy celebrates The Exaltation of the Cross and Our Lady of Sorrows on September 14th and 15th.  Through these liturgies, the Holy Spirit illumines our understanding of human suffering. 

    Jesus Christ is our sole Redeemer; He alone atoned for our sins.   However, in the mystery of our Redemption, Our Divine Savior willed that His sufferings on Calvary and those of His mother would unite as one.  Many in the Church pray that one day Our Lady will be proclaimed infallibly as the Co-Redemptrix with Jesus. Truly, she is Our Mother of Sorrows.

    Mary’s sufferings began long before Good Friday.  At the Presentation, Simeon took the Child Jesus in his arms.  He then made a prophecy that a sword would pierce Mary’s soul.  Saint Alphonsus de Liguori tells us that, at that moment, the Holy Spirit revealed Calvary to Our Lady.  Think of it!  For thirty-three years, Our Blessed Mother lived every moment in dreadful anticipation of her Son’s cruel crucifixion.
   
    Seven Swords pierced Mary’s sinless soul, each more devastating than the others.   Since they are a source strength for us, we have deep devotion to The Seven Dolor’s of Mary: The Prophecy of Simeon, The Flight into Egypt, The Three Day Loss, The Meeting on the Via Crucis, The Crucifixion, The Taking Down From the Cross, and finally, The Burial of Jesus.

    The Flight into Egypt was a terrifying and life-threatening journey.   Then, for seven long years there was the constant dread of being discovered.   Mary and Joseph also suffered greatly because, living in pagan Egypt, they were impeded from the pious practice of Temple worship.   
   
    The Three Day Loss, Saint Alphonsus tells us, was the cruelest of Mary’s Sorrows.  It was the only time that she could not be with Jesus.   Each moment of their frantic search filled Joseph and Mary with frightful fear. They knew well that inevitably the day would come when Jesus would be offered up.  Had His enemies already arrested Him?  Was He now being crucified?   If so, they should be with Him.  But they were not!  The Third Sword pierced the soul of Mary.

    The Fourth Sword was the horror filled Via Crucis.  After Jesus was condemned
to death by Pilate, John and Mary Magdalene accompanied Our Lady to Calvary.  On
the way, Mary saw three men carrying their crosses.  She did not recognize Jesus, so
beaten and battered was Our Savior.   Then she saw a trait that her mother’s
eye alone knew.  Only then did she recognize Him.  The Fourth Sword pierced the soul
of Mary.

    The Fifth Sword, The Crucifixion, encompassed all of Mary’s Seven Sorrows.  Saint John tells us: “She stood by the Cross of Jesus!”  In that one word, stood, John reveals her complete acceptance of the Father’s will.  Her heart was filled with an agony beyond all telling, yet she knew that our salvation was taking place.   Uniting her sufferings with those of Jesus for our Redemption, she accepted God’s will.  She pronounced anew her Fiat:  “Be it done unto me according to Thy word!”  The Fifth Sword pierced Mary’s soul as she stood by the Cross of Jesus.

    Jesus is taken down from the Cross and placed in the arms of His mother.  My dear friends, at Bethlehem Our Lady placed Jesus in our arms, a clean and spotless Babe.  On Calvary, we gave Him back to her scarred and battered and bloodied by our sins.  The astounding genius of Michelangelo’s Pieta gives us a glimpse of the serenity and acceptance of our anguished Mother.   As she held the lifeless body of Jesus in her arms, The Sixth Sword pierced her soul! 

    The final Sorrow: They placed Him in the tomb and all withdrew.  Mary knew, a thousand times over, the anguish that is ours when we must leave our loved ones at their graves.  We return home without them.   So did Mary!
   
    The answer to our question will never be answered fully in this life.  Yet, when crosses come, let us reflect on the Seven Sorrows of Mary.   Instead of asking: Why me,” we might ask instead: “Why her?”   

    We read in the Opening Prayer of the Mass of Our Lady of Sorrows: “Father, as Your Son was raised on the Cross, His Mother Mary stood by Him, sharing His sufferings.  May Your Church be united with Christ in His suffering and death and so come to share in His rising to new life, where He lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.”

    My friends, standing at the foot of the Cross, Our Mother of Sorrows shows us the way to the acceptance of God’s will.   Reflecting on her Seven Sorrows, we have the assurance that we will never have to carry our crosses alone.  Mary will be there with us always for she is Our Blessed Mother.  Mary, Our Mother of Sorrows!  Pray for us!




                   
                Father Richard J. Rego, S.T.L.