The Tears of Salvation.
Today we celebrate the memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows. I believe that it is no coincidence that the church puts this feast immediately following the exaltation of the cross. For in these days Mary also experienced the pains of the cross in a way that no person or creature ever has. We may call it a privileged encounter of the cross, but certainly it is privileged in a way only she will understand. She suffered with her son who took on human flesh through her. She bore the pains of a fallen humanity–of her children scattered across the land of Cain, in a way that is ever mysterious. Only a mother can know such a pain and even so, only She as the mother of humanity itself can understand this enormous agony.
Todays feast is a reminder to us of what true love looks like; it is never without suffering. This is not because we seek to suffer or because God wants us to suffer. If that were the case, he would not have taken our suffering upon himself to save us from it on the cross. Nevertheless our suffering comes from our courage and ability to love which requires by its nature a choice and an open, vulnerable heart. A heart that is soft and tender and malleable. It must be so, that the Artisan can shape and mold it to the image according to his will. In this way the pains of life and all its sufferings that we encounter, all turn us back to Love. Like Mary, the pain of her sons death on the cross kept her eyes gazed upon him. Her tears were from her head steadfastly raised up to her Son. She was no less trusting because of her tears, for it was her tears that made her trust. St. Oscar Romero once said “there are some things that can only be seen through eyes that have cried.”
Often the temptation arises for us to separate the cross from Christ and say with St. Peter “God forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.” Christ crucified has never been popular to proclaim. It has always been as St. Paul said “a stumbling block to the Jews and absurdity to the gentiles.” When we have this reaction toward the crucified Christ today, he gives us the same reply “get behind me Satan.” A Christ that is detached from his cross does not exist, just as a Christ that remains in the tomb does not exist.
We often have the temptation to diminish the role of Mary in this story as well by calling her “just the mother of Jesus.” As if that’s not big enough. Jesus is God; she is the mother of God. Because of this divine motherhood and because Jesus is also fully human, she is made at the foot of the cross also the mother of humanity itself.
We look to Mary daily because her tears always have in their reflection the glimmer of her crucified Son exalted on the cross. It is in the reflection of her tears–which are a sign of her strength more than her weakness–that we see our Lord and Saviour with his head bowed to us all.
This paradox is something deeply mysterious and even scandalous to us. It should unsettle us. For we are the ones who should bow our heads in shame yet he bows his for us. While his head remains bowed, ours are lifted up by him–tilting our heads upward to look at Him who is our Hope and our Salvation.
May we all look to our Blessed Mother so that in the reflection of her tears we can be led Home to God which can only be found in our crucified Saviour on the cross.
Praise be Jesus Christ. Amen.