Note: On Tuesdays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.
It was a truly sorrowful earthly life for Mary, if you want to look at it that way.
- Fleeing into Egypt with her family because an angel told her husband her son was in deadly danger
Image by Zarateman; found at https://bit.ly/2ZulDOI and used under license found at https://bit.ly/2GWkadx
- Losing her young son for three days
- Hearing Simeon’s prophecy that a sword would pierce her
- Seeing the beaten and bloodied Jesus carrying a cross, being present for his crucifixion, and watching the piercing of his side and attending his burial
Who would not become bitter and angry at God, having that much uncertainty and tragedy and pain in only thirty-three years or so?
Perhaps Mary didn’t lose herself in her sorrows. Perhaps she also remembered the tender moments with Jesus and Joseph and their extended family. Perhaps she also remembered the joy of the weddings and parties and feasts and festivals. Or perhaps, in that pondering in her heart we know she did amid the awful and confusing times, she drew the faith to power through them.
We know how it ended for her: her assumption, body and soul, into heaven to join her son. Her presence at his right hand, petitioning for us as only a mother can.
Swords pierce all of us: lost family, lost friends, lost love, lost health, lost jobs. It does not make us weak or ungrateful to spend some time mourning those losses. But at some point, if we listen with our hearts and souls, we will hear that whisper that we don’t need to start those tentative first steps back to joy alone. We have the Holy Trinity; cheerleaders here on earth and in heaven; and that woman who knew more sorrow than any of us ever will—and believed.
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