Homily given by Rev. Michael J. Murray, Priest Director
Gate of Heaven Cemetery
September 15, 2007
During the 17th century two feasts commemorating
the seven Sorrows of Mary began to be celebrated, one on the
so-called Sorrowful Friday in the Lenten season, the other
on the third Sunday in September. The former was approved by
Pope Benedict XIII in 1724, the latter by Pope Pius VII in
1814, in memory of his return from imprisonment under Napoleon.
In 1912, St Pius X decreed that the feast should be celebrated
on Sept. 15.
In contrast to yesterday’s feast
of the Triumph of the Cross with its emphasis on Christ’s kingship,
today’s concentrates on the human side of His sufferings.
Its liturgy stems from an entirely different spiritual mentality:
the feast of the Triumph or Exaltation showed and praised the
cross as the sign of objective redemption. Today’s feast
places the accent on the human, the suffering Christ, and it
emphasizes Mary’s role as a co-sufferer. These
two feasts in honor of Christ’s cross, following so closely
upon one another, clearly show two trends of Catholic spirituality,
that of ancient times and that of the Middle Ages, trends which
are often designated as objective and subjective spirituality. The
former sees the passion as the “blessed suffering”,
the latter as the “bitter suffering and co-suffering”.
We read in today’s gospel: “near the cross
of Jesus there stood his mother..” There by the
cross of Jesus stood Mary, “Stabat Mater”. Over
a hundred years ago, Pope Pius IX drew attention to Mary standing
by her Son. He said: “We must follow her, imitate her,
and be encouraged by her example. In fact she did not say,
as did the mother of Ishmael, that she had not strength to
assist at the death which threatened her Son, but as a courageous
woman she ascended the summit of Golgotha and at the foot of
the cross she gathered from the lips of her Divine Son that
testament which comforts, teaches, and renders the Man-God
Master of Truth even from the cross.”
And the Pontiff continued:
“Therefore Mary most holy was standing with head raised at the
foot of the cross and while she heard the blasphemies of the soldiers, the
ugly jokes of the Pharisees, the insults of the priests, standing and with
her eyes turned to her Divine Son, she felt her courage redoubling, even in
the fullness of her sorrows. Standing! The sword was piercing the side of the
Crucified Lord, and she remained a motionless onlooker, not as weaklings who
were assisting at the desolating tragedy as if it were an exhibition but as
a woman meditating, suffering, and hoping. At this sight the words of the aged
Simeon came back to her: that that dear Child would be a sword of great sorrow
which would pierce his mother’s heart.”
Mary the Mother stood with Jesus! By grace
she was joined to the Eternal Word against all the forces of
evil from the first moment of her conception. Kept immaculate
by his preventive grace, she was never separated from God’s
holy love. She was with her Son or more properly he
with her, in the wonder-filled moment of the Incarnation. She
was with her S
on the night the Angels sang and he was born
and wrapped in swaddling clothes. She was with him in
the cruel exile of Egypt, in the searing moment of his Presentation
and the prophecy of Simeon and she was with him even as she
suffered the agony of losing him in the Temple. She
was with him in the precious years of the Hidden Life, with
him still at Cana at the beginning of his public ministry and
from time to time, at least, until the end. From Calvary
she went to be with John and his household confident of Jesus’ presence
and resurrection. And in the Upper Room, with the apostles
and disciples, still bearing him in her heart, she awaited
the coming of the Holy Spirit, the animation of that Mystical
Body born at the cross.
And with Mary stood the Church-the disciple John and
the other Marys-the Church of all the believers born in that
moment from the pierced heart of Jesus and with Mary the Church
stands today. We stand with her by the Cross of Calvary,
that instrument of bitter suffering and at the very same time
the inexpressible proof of God’s abounding love. We stand
with her in the joy of a people redeemed in the power of her
Risen and Glorious Son.
