Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows

 Lectionary: 443/639

First of all, I ask that supplications, prayers,
petitions, and thanksgivings be offered for everyone,
for kings and for all in authority,
that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life
in all devotion and dignity.
This is good and pleasing to God our savior,
who wills everyone to be saved
and to come to knowledge of the truth.

Oddly, Saint Paul's Letter to Saint Timothy says nothing about Jewish ostracism or gentile persecutions. The author, who might not have been Saint Paul, and those who read this first "pastoral letter" certainly remembered the trials. But that era had passed. They would resume; they have never ceased, and will not until the Second Coming. But the Letter addresses a Church which must now live in a settled world, under the authority of Rome and its emperor, with its institutions of wealth and poverty, slave and free.

There are new problems for a new church in this new age, as should be expected; and the Divine Author urges the congregation to live peacefully with the established and legitimate government authorities. They are pagans, of course; but we should pray that they govern by the human standards of decency and fair play, "that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life in all devotion and dignity." 

The Church imagines Mary living quietly with John the Apostle in Ephesus, during this period. She has survived the trauma of Calvary and witnessed the Resurrection of her Son. She is now watching and hearing of the growth of the Church with all its challenges. Sorrow remains in the world; and despite the elation of Easter, it has its place in her heart. A living shrine of the Incarnate Son of God, she receives and prays with visitors. She can assure scoffers and doubters that her God was indeed a living baby with all the needs, frailty, vulnerability, impulsiveness, and foolishness of any human child. He was as beautiful as any baby ever born, and she always remembers that. 

She remembers as well the "sword of sorrow" that pierced her heart, "that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed." She had witnessed the worst crime in human history, the killing of Almighty God. He was the fulfillment of the "hopes and dreams of all the years," ruthlessly murdered by this world's religious, political, and military authorities. On that day in Jerusalem, the pretensions of the righteous were stripped from them and the world saw the hateful truth it had always feared, hidden, covered, denied, and known. 

The cruel acted on their cruelty, cowards acted upon their craven instincts, the greedy grabbed what they could. And all agreed "that one man should die instead of the people, so that the whole nation may not perish." (John 11:50)

Mary had known that God's will must be accomplished. She could no more understand it than Jesus could explain it; and the human intellect could find a million ways to argue against it. But she heard none of that. She knew only that her Son was dying on a cross and she must be there with him. 

And now, in her latter years, she must remain for those who find in her comfort, reassurance, and hope. 

The Church believes Mary, the Lady of Sorrow, was assumed into heaven at the end of her life. She may be gone but she is not gone far. She remains with us as she remained on Calvary, until the end when...

"He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain, [for] the old order has passed away.” (Rev 21:5)