From Zenit.org
Code: ZE04091505
Date: 2004-09-15
Mary's Sorrows a Source of Consolation, Says John Paul II
Encouragement for Those Facing Daily Struggles
VATICAN CITY, SEPT. 15, 2004 (Zenit.org).- John Paul II says that the sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary are a source of inspiration and consolation for believers facing the difficulties of everyday life.
The Pope made this observation today to young people, the sick and newlyweds who were among the crowd of 10,000 at the general audience in St. Peter's Square.
Before bidding the crowd farewell, the Holy Father recalled that today the Church was honoring the memory of the sorrowful Blessed Mother "who with faith stayed next to Jesus' cross."
"My hope is that you will find in her consolation and support to overcome all the obstacles of your daily life," he said.
Meanwhile, Father Stefano De Fiores, professor of Mariology at several pontifical universities, explained on Vatican Radio that the liturgical memorial of the Our Lady of Sorrows is much cherished by Catholics because "people identify with Mary and see in her the expression of their pain."
"However, it is salvific, not desperate, pain -- a pain that, despite the harshness of the suffering, is mitigated by faith in the Resurrection, as Mary precedes others in faith," the theologian said.
Quoting St. Bernard, Father De Fiores explained that one can speak of the "martyrdom of the spirit" of the Blessed Virgin, as the elderly Simeon predicted in the Gospel.
"Mary is on the side of Jesus, she suffers with him, therefore, she participated without a doubt in the spirit -- with a spiritual martyrdom -- in his sufferings, especially in the crucifixion," the priest said.
Yet, he added, "Mary's life was not always a martyrdom, as she also had moments of joy, moments of contemplation."
"We do not have to yield to 'dolorousness': Dolorousness is not Christianity. Christianity consists in what Jesus did, to whom his Mother also united herself: the transformation of the harshest pain, the most ignominious, into an experience of salvation," Father De Fiores said.
"This is the Gospel of suffering," he added, "the joyful news that even loneliness or the worst moments the human psyche can experience can be transformed into acts of faith, hope and love."
One of the men said to the bystanders, "Who is that women in such distress?" And someone answered, "She is the mother of the Galilean." When the miscreants heard this, they jeered at the sorrowing mother in words of scorn, pointed at her with their fingers; and one of the base wretches, snatching up the nails intended for the crucifixion, held them up mockingly before her face. Wringing her hands, she gazed upon Jesus and, in her anguish, leaned for support against one of the pillars of the gate. She was pale as a corpse, her lips vivid. The Pharisees came riding forward, then came the boy with the inscription -- and oh! a couple of steps behind him, the Son of God, her own Son, the Holy One, the Redeemer! Tottering, bowed down, His thorncrowned head painfully bent over to one shoulder on account of the heavy cross He was carrying, Jesus staggered on. The executioners pulled Him forward with the ropes. His face was pale, wounded, and blood-stained, His beard pointed and matted with blood. From His sunken eyes full of blood He cast, from under the tangled and twisted thorns of His crown, frightful to behold, a look full of earnest tenderness upon His afflicted Mother, and for the second time tottered under the weight of the cross and sank on His hands and knees to the ground. The most sorrowful Mother, in vehemence of her love and anguish, saw neither soldiers nor executioners -- saw only her beloved, suffering, maltreated Son. Wringing her hands, she sprang over the couple of steps between the gateway and the executioners in advance, and rushing to Jesus, fell on her knees with her arms around Him. I heard, but I know not whether spoken with the lips or in spirit, the words: "My Son!" -- "My Mother!"
- from The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Ven. Anne Catherine Emmerich (She will be beatified on Oct. 3rd)