Tomorrow would have marked my parent’s 70th wedding anniversary, so my thoughts are swirling around my mom, on today’s Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows. Mary stood beneath the Cross, watching as her Son die a horrible death. The words of Simeón at the Presentation in the Temple, a week after the birth of Jesus, had to have surfaced in Mary, standing beneath the Cross: “A sword shall pierce your heart,” Mary’s heart.
I was born with a number of physical difficulties causing much suffering for my parents. Especially my mom. Every mother’s heart is “pierced” at the suffering of her child. I gave my mom plenty of opportunities for having her heart pierced in worry, tears and a good amount of suffering. There is something about a mother’s love that is precious, like a “pearl of great price.” Some moms are perhaps unable to expressly show this love, but it’s there. Moms are humans and make mistakes.... don’t we all?!?!?
I honor my mom on this Feast of Mary’s Sorrow, knowing that we all have TWO mothers: our precious moms and Mary, our spiritual mother who watches over us and is always asking her Son to help us out. Remember, it was Mary who told her Son to do something about the wine at the wedding in Cana. She clearly felt for that couple and wanted their celebration to be complete. Jesus came through....
Mary, our Mother, wants our lives complete and fulfilled, something only her Son can accomplish for us. She is your greatest Advocate, the woman, disciple, mother...filled with the Spirit. Like the six water jugs filled to the brim, with the water transformed into the choicest of wines, Mary is the human vessel filled to the brim with the Spirit. Her only desire is that we share in this abundance.
Peace,
Fr. Frank