Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows
(I Corinthians 12:12-14.27-31a; John 19:25-27)
In today’s gospel Jesus is doing more than providing for his
mother in his absence. He is making his Church
a family of followers. The Beloved
Disciple, faithful to Jesus to the end, represents all Christian
believers. With Mary as their common
mother, they are to love one another as brothers and sisters. That is, they now share more than common
ideas and values but an intimacy of blood -- Christ’s blood in their veins. Helping one another will be as natural for
them as an elder sister taking care of younger siblings when parents are off
giving birth to another child.
Mary provides the community a sure and substantial influence
with Christ, her Son. She is especially
close to the Lord not only because of her natural relationship as mother but, strangely
even more so, because of her attention to him as a follower. Like Catherine of
Siena’s mother followed her mystic daughter on her benevolent missions, Mary accompanied
her ever-gracious son on his salvific journey.
We do not have to pray to Mary. After all, as the Letter to the Hebrews
teaches, Jesus himself is our most efficacious mediator with God, the
Father. But there are times and
conditions when we can pray to Mary with more fervor. Certainly, a mother mourning her dead child
will have common cause with the Mother of God.
And so might most of us when we think of how close our mothers once were
to us. As hurting or needing children,
we called upon our mothers and unfailingly had their assistance.
No comments:
Post a Comment