Meditating this morning on that wonderful work of Father Faber on the sorrows of our Lady: The Foot of the Cross, I was reminded about how sad it is to see a young child
afflicted with some terrible and painful disease such as cancer, or even worse that they should suffer abuse at the hands of those who ought to love and care for them the most. And I
thought further about why it was so much worse than seeing an adult or even a
young adult suffering in the same way.
Seeing
anyone suffer, particularly for someone who has a tender heart (whether
natural or cultivated), is always difficult, but the difference is that
seeing a young child (especially a very young child) suffering (and
often doing so rather valiantly) is to see the "suffering of
innocence". To see someone suffer who we can, even if it is only in
some small way and only in the back of our minds, say that they somehow
might "deserve" that suffering makes it not as terrible to us. But when
the one suffering is a pure and innocent child who we could never think
"deserves" what they are getting it seems to magnify the awful nature
of what is happening and pulls at something deep our souls.
Now
consider that Jesus is innocence Itself and His Mother Mary was the
most pure and perfectly innocent creature He ever created and let us
wonder at the fact that these two least deserving of any suffering or
punishment took on that which we all deserved for our sins and
consequently suffered more terribly than every other human person has
ever suffered combined. In fact Saint Alphonsus in his first discourse
on the sorrows of our Lady quotes Saint Ildephonsus who said that:
"to say that Mary's sorrows were greater than all the torments of the Martyrs united, was to say too little."
And
yet despite perfect innocence suffering more terribly than any other in
history, and that for our sake, how often do we take time to
compassionate their sorrowing hearts? And how often do we not outrage
them anew and heap only greater sorrows upon them by our many sins? Why
are we are we not striving for holiness nor often making fervent acts
of reparation for our sins and those of the whole world?
I
say all this because I am the worst offender in this regard. How many
and terrible have been my sins, especially of the most despicable and
diabolical sin: pride. And I suspect it was because of my pride that
for many years I could feel little or no compassion in my heart for our
Lord in his passion except for on very rare occasions. Yet when I would
read the life of a Saint, and would read of their heroic and holy
death it would often bring tears to my eyes and inflame my heart with love and
admiration for them. I was so disturbed by this unsettling dichotomy
that I brought it finally to my spiritual director who, in his wisdom,
explained that each saint is an image and reflection of our Lord and to
have compassion for them and love them was to love our Lord who it was
that I saw in them.
Still I struggled with this difficulty until my two favorite Saints and our Lady came to my rescue.
First,
my dear little sister in heaven Saint Therese of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face taught me much about suffering, and in reading the
incredible work: "The Passion of Saint Therese" by Guy Gaucher and "Saint Therese: Her Last Conversations"
which is a collection of quotes written down by her sisters while she
lay suffering for months on her death bed. I saw this pure and innocent
and incredibly holy young woman (who at the time of my reading these
works was the same age as me at that point in her life) suffering so
valiantly despite unimaginable suffering of body, mind, and soul; and
yet she did so with such joy, even going so far as to attempt to cheer up
her sisters who were so sad watching their beloved little Therese die
before them. And she also was ever thinking of our Lord and having
compassion for Him in His passion. I realized what a weakling I was and
how little I really put up with in my daily life and that our Lord
suffered so much more and it ought to be my daily occupation to
compassionate Him...yet I had such a difficult time doing this.
It was not then until re-reading Saint Alphonsus' "The Incarnation Birth and Infancy of our Lord Jesus Christ"
for probably the 4th or 5th time that I finally began to make the
connection between Therese's two appellations in religion: "of the Child
Jesus" and "of the Holy Face" for in these she connected our Lord as
an infant and our Lord in His Passion. And it was then that I could see
Him with the eyes of His Mother Mary who, I then understood, hadn't seen our Lord on the cross as He would have appeared to any other
onlooker at Calvary, but rather she saw nothing other than her little
baby who she carried in her womb for nine months, cradled Him in her
arms, picked Him up when He fell as a little boy, and then was watching
Him be put to death in the most brutal manner ever conceived of in human
history.
I
finally realized for the first time, at least in some small way, what
it was that our Lady experienced on Calvary, and what Simeon meant when
he told her: "and thy own soul a sword shall pierce, that, out of many
hearts, thoughts may be revealed." (Lk 2:35)
This devotion to the Seven Dolors (Sorrows) of our Lady would give rise to the orders such as the Servites and the Passionists. It
is into the charge of the Servites that was given the one of the great Scapulars of
Our Lady: that of the Black Scapular of our Lady of Sorrows. And it is September that has been especially dedicated as the
Month of our Lady of Sorrows.
Let us then work to compassionate our Lord and our Lady and their Sacred and Immaculate Hearts, which are so outraged in these days. For our example let us look no further than that great little Saint Jacinta Marto of Fatima. When her brother lay on his
death bed she said to him:
“Give my love to our Lord and our Lady, and tell them that I suffer all they ask of me to convert sinners, and in reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.”
She
said this to him just before he died on the 4th of April 1919, she was
8. And when lying on her own death bed less than a year later her
cousin Lucia asked her what she would do in heaven and she said:
“I’m going to love Jesus a lot, and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and pray and pray for you, for the Holy Father, my parents, brothers, sisters and for everyone who asked me and for sinners. I love to suffer for love of our Lord and our Lady. They love those who suffer for the conversion of sinners.”
The Nine First Fridays Devotion
The Five First Saturdays Devotion
