September 15, 2016 Our Lady of Sorrows
We
Are All Co-Redeemers
The Church traditionally commemorates
seven “sorrows” of Mary:
1. Simeon prophesies that a “sword” will
pierce Mary’s soul (Luke 2:34-35);
2. The flight into Egypt (Matthew 2:13);
3. Jesus is “lost” three days (Luke 2:41-50);
4. Mary sees Jesus carrying his cross;
5. Mary sees Jesus crucified (John 19:25-27);
6. The removal of Jesus’ body from the cross;
7. Jesus is laid in the tomb.
2. The flight into Egypt (Matthew 2:13);
3. Jesus is “lost” three days (Luke 2:41-50);
4. Mary sees Jesus carrying his cross;
5. Mary sees Jesus crucified (John 19:25-27);
6. The removal of Jesus’ body from the cross;
7. Jesus is laid in the tomb.
John
19:25-27 tells us Mary
was at the foot of the cross. None of the Gospels tells us that Mary followed
Jesus on the way to Calvary, helped to remove his body or to bury him. That
simply stands to reason.
What doesn’t obviously stand to reason is
why God didn’t spare Mary the sight of her Son’s suffering. He could have
arranged for her to be out of town that week and let her mourn his death when
she learned of it without bearing the vivid memory of what she saw him suffer.
But Mary had to be there.
Even more, she had to join in the act by
which Jesus offered himself. She had to stand beneath the cross and say to the
Father, “Be it done unto him
according to your word!”
What mother could do that? This had to
have been unimaginably more difficult than the surrender she made when she said
about herself, “Let it be done unto me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). But she had to do it. It was
required of her. Why?
When God asked Mary to be the Mother of
the Savior, there was more mystery there than just giving birth to his body.
First,
everyone who would ever be redeemed was going to be part of that body. We are
saved, and our sins “taken away” (rather than just “forgiven”) because by
Baptism we were incorporated into Jesus’ body hanging on the cross. We died in
him and rose in him as a “new creation,” with no history of sin, to live
henceforth as his risen body on earth,. This is why Jesus could say with total
realism to Mary about John, “Woman, here is your son.”
And
say to John about Mary, “Here is your mother.” The words apply to all of us.
All who have become the real body of Christ through Baptism have Mary as their
real mother.
Second,
in asking Mary’s consent to be Jesus’ Mother, God was giving to her — and to
every member of the human race — an active part in the work of salvation. God
does not want to save us as inert matter. He wants the human nature he created,
which freely brought about its own corruption through sin, to have a part in
its own redemption through free cooperation with grace. Mary is the prototype
of this. She is “the beginning and the pattern of the Church in its perfection”
(Preface for the feast of the Assumption).
This
meant that Mary had to have an active part, not only in Christ’s birth, but
also in his death. As “priest in the Priest” she had to offer his body on the
cross — and as “victim in the Victim,” she had to offer herself “with him, in
him and through him.” Offer his body, the fruit of her womb; offer her body as
the fruit of his labor on the cross, from which the Church was born.
And so do we. At Baptism and at every
Mass we offer ourselves with Christ.
Initiative: At every Mass, say in unison with
Jesus, to every member of the human race, “This is my body, given up for you.”
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