Stabat Mater Dolorosa
Of all the dreadful moments that slowly passed during our Lord’s bitter Passion and Death on the Cross, we cannot over-emphasize the importance of his words to his Blessed Mother and beloved Apostle St. John: “When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son! Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home.”
Just as the Old Covenant with man is about to transition into the New, so now is made the holy transfer of our Lady’s Motherhood from Christ Jesus alone to the whole of mankind. She is now no longer only the physical Mother of our Lord, but the Mother of his Mystical Body also.
In entrusting his Mother to us, our Lord is giving us, before he dies, the greatest gift he has left to offer. After the Holy Eucharist, Christ’s very presence among us, the transference of his Mother to our care, and us to hers, is our greatest source of grace and virtue. At the very beginning of the Joyful Mysteries, the Archangel Gabriel greeted the Blessed Virgin with the words “Hail, full of grace.” Now at the very end of the Sorrowful Mysteries, let us exclaim with the angel the same words as we receive St. Mary Ever-Virgin as our own Mother. As we recite each Ave Maria of the Holy Rosary, let us proclaim Mary “full of grace” and “blessed amongst women,” as bead by bead, we sinners approach the time when we shall count most on her intercession, the “hour of our death.”
As we read in the Gospel commentary by the great Doctor of the Church St. Ambrose, “Others have written that when the Lord suffered, the earth quaked, the heavens were veiled in darkness, the sun was hidden, and the thief received, after a good confession, the promise of Paradise. John [the Evangelist] hath taught us what the others have not taught us. Upon the Cross he called her “Mother.” It is reckoned a greater thing that in the moment of triumph over agony, he should have discharged the watchful duty of a Son to his Mother, than that he should have made gift of the kingdom of heaven.”
How sad that our Protestant friends, who claim to place such high priority to the words of Holy Scripture, have chosen to disregard the Church’s interpretation of today’s Gospel and relegate one of our Lord’s Seven Last Words from the Cross to a purely literate and secular meaning. “How nice of our Lord to make sure his Mother would be taken care of once he’s dead and buried.” The Protestants ignore the devotion to Mary held by Christian people for the past two thousand years, a devotion that is still kept alive today by the Mystical Body of Christ, of which she is still the Mother.
The two greatest gifts, Eucharist and Mother of all graces, so sadly neglected by so many otherwise devout and God-fearing people! They truly don’t know what they’re missing! The sufferings of this Mother were the sufferings of her Son. She shared his awful agony at the thought of so many who would lose their souls despite his Redemption. Let us do penance this month, so that through her intercession, her divine Son may answer our prayers and “lead all souls to heaven, especially those most in need of thy mercy.”