Our Lady of Sorrows

Our Lady of Sorrows
Abbot Raymond's talk at Guesthouse 15th Aug 2007

Mother of the Maccabees

The Mother of Jesus invites us all to help her to accompany her Divine Son on his way to Calvary. She wants to reveal to us the sentiments that were in her heart. And we should be very eager to enter into them and share them with her.

Some of these sentiments are obvious. For instance, the sentiments we find expressed in that wonderful hymn, the Stabat Mater .

"At the Cross, her station keeping,
Stood the mournful Mother weeping,
Close to Jesus to the last.
Oh how sad and sore distressed
Was that Mother highly blessed.......etc

These sentiments of grief, pain and compassion are all familiar to us as is her sense of appreciation of his work of atonement and redemption by his Cross. But there is another sentiment of great importance which we must become aware of and participate in, and this sentiment is not so obvious.

The Old Testament prepares us for this understanding of the heart of Mary on the way to Calvary by giving us the story of the Mother of the Maccabee Martyrs of ancient Israel, (cf. 2 Mac 7:1-41). In this story she is a prototype and foreshadowing of Mary accompanying the passion of her Son, (cf. Lk 2:35; Jn 19:26-27).

The Mother of the Maccabees was made to witness her seven sons being tortured to death for their faith, one after another, before her very eyes, from the eldest down to the youngest. They had their tongues cut out, their scalps torn off, their hands and feet cut off and, through it all, the brave Mother stood encouraging them to be faithful no matter what they had to suffer.

In this we can understand that one of the most important sentiments of Mary on the way to Calvary was one of encouragement for her Son to carry on bravely to the end. When Jesus would fall, far from Mary asking the soldiers to leave him be as he had already suffered enough; instead she was in her heart praying that he would have the courage and the strength to rise again and carryon to the bitter end. In her heart she was praying "Rise up Jesus! Rise up in the strength of your love for us! Rise up Jesus, keep going for the sake of our great need for your sacrifice! Rise up again Jesus! What will happen to us if you fail to go through with it?" These sentiments of encouragement are, I am sure, a great support to Jesus in his Passion.

The Seven Sorrows:

1 * at the prophecy of Simeon;
2 * at the flight into Egypt;
3 * having lost the Holy Child at Jerusalem;
4 * meeting Jesus on his way to Calvary;
5 * standing at the foot of the Cross;
6 * Jesus being taken from the Cross;
7 * at the burial of Christ.