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.”