Today’s feast is a reminder of what sorrow means and how a Christian should face suffering and sorrow. We can have sorrow for something or someone, or with someone. The sorrow Mary experiences at the foot of the Cross is sorrow for sin. It is not her sin, but how sin has ravaged the life of her innocent son and how sin ravages us all, even when we are not responsible for it. Mary received special graces in her to life to protect her from the effects of Original Sin (see Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception), but those graces were won by her son on the Cross, who suffered and died due to sin. Mary’s sorrow comes from the love and gratitude she has for her son.
The sorrow Mary also experiences is the sorrow that stems from compassion. Compassion literally means “with suffering”: Mary’s sorrow comes from making her son’s suffering her own. The sorrow we share when a loved one is suffering makes a deep connection. It is a spiritual solidarity that helps the afflicted see that they are not alone. Our Lord himself in today’s Gospel entrusts the Blessed Mother to his Beloved Disciple so that she too would not have to suffer alone. Our Lady of Sorrows continues this mission of compassion: when we are suffering, she is there to console us and to suffer with us, and we thank her for that today.
Our Lord promised there’d be trials in the world. Let’s thank Our Blessed Mother today for suffering them with us and show compassion toward others who are afflicted.
Readings: Hebrews 5:7–9; Psalm 31:2, 3b–6, 15–16, 20; John 19:25–27. See also Good Friday, Commemoration of the Lord’s Passion (2), Our Lady of Sorrows, and Good Friday, Commemoration of the Lord’s Passion.
