THE SEVEN SORROWS OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY - PART TWO

    HYMN

What a sea of tears and sorrow

Did the soul of Mary toss

To and fro upon its billows,

While she wept her bitter loss;

In her arms her Jesus holding,

Torn so newly from the cross.

Oh, that mournful Virgin-Mother!

See her tears how fast they flow

Down upon his mangled body,

Wounded side, and thorny brow;

While his hands and feet she kisses—

Picture of immortal woe.

Oft and oft his arms and bosom

Fondly straining to her own;

Oft her pallid lips imprinting

On each wound of her dear Son;

Till at last, in swoons of anguish,

Sense and consciousness are gone.

Gentle Mother, we beseech thee

By thy tears and troubles sore;

By the death of thy dear offspring,

By the bloody wounds he bore;

Touch our hearts with that true sorrow

Which afflicted thee of yore.

To the Father everlasting,

And the Son who reigns on high,

With the co-eternal Spirit,

Trinity in Unity,

Be salvation, honour, blessing

Now and through eternity.

The Martyrs suffered under the torments inflicted on them by tyrants, but Our Lord, Who never abandons His servants, always comforted them in the midst of their sufferings. The love of God burning in their hearts rendered all their pains sweet and pleasing to them. So that the greater their love for Jesus Christ, the less did they feel their pains; and, in the midst of them all, the remembrance alone of the Passion of Christ sufficed to console them.

With Mary it was precisely the reverse; for the torments of Jesus were her Martyrdom, and love for Jesus was her only executioner. Here we must repeat the words of Jeremias: Great as the sea is thy destruction: who shall heal thee? As the sea is all bitterness, and has not within its bosom a single drop of water which is sweet, so also was the heart of Mary all bitterness, and without the least consolation: Who shall heal thee? Her Son alone could console her and heal her wounds; but how could Mary receive comfort in her grief from her crucified Son, since the love she bore Him was the whole cause of her Martyrdom?

“To understand, then, how great was the grief of Mary, we must understand,” says Cornelius a Lapide, “how great was the love she bore her Son.” But who can ever measure this love? Blessed Amadeus says that “natural love towards Him as her Son, and supernatural love towards Him as her God, were united in the heart of Mary.” These two loves were blended into one, and this so great a love, that William of Paris does not hesitate to assert that Mary loved Jesus “as much as it was possible for a pure creature to love Him.” So that, as Richard of St. Victor says, “as no other creature ever loved God as much as Mary loved Him, so there never was any sorrow like Mary’s sorrow.”

Prayer

My sorrowful Mother, by the merit of that grief which thou didst feel in seeing thy beloved Jesus led to death, obtain me the grace, that I also may bear with patience the crosses God sends me. Happy indeed shall I be, if I only know how to accompany thee with my cross until death. Thou with thy Jesus–and You were both innocent–hast carried a far heavier cross; and shall I, a sinner, who have deserved hell, refuse to carry mine? Ah, Immaculate Virgin, from thee do I hope for help to bear all crosses with patience. Amen.

The Blessed Virgin already understood the Sacred Scriptures; she well knew that the time foretold by the Prophets for the coming of the Messias had arrived; she knew that the Seventy Weeks of Daniel were completed, and that the sceptre of Juda had passed into the hands of Herod, a stranger, according to the prophecy of Jacob; she also knew that the Mother of the Messiah was to be a Virgin. She then heard the Angel give her praises, which it was evident could apply to no other than the Mother of God. May not a thought or doubt have entered her mind, that she was perhaps this chosen Mother? No; her profound humility did not even allow her to have a doubt. Those praises only caused her so great fear, that the Angel himself was obliged to encourage her not to fear, as St. Peter Chrysologus writes: “As Christ was pleased to be comforted by an Angel, so had the Blessed Virgin to be encouraged by one.” St. Gabriel said, Fear not, Mary; for thou hast found grace with God. (Luke i. 30). As if he had said, Why fearest thou, O Mary? Knowest thou not that God exalts the humble? Thou in thine own eyes art lowly and of no account, and therefore He in His goodness exalts thee to the dignity of being His Mother. Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a Son; and thou shalt call his name Jesus. (Luke i. 31).

Virgin of the Annunciation  

ANTONELLO da Messina

In the meantime the Angel waits to know whether she is willing to be the Mother of God. St. Bernard addresses her, saying: “The Angel awaits thy reply; and we also, O Lady, on whom the sentence of condemnation weighs so heavily, await the word of mercy.” “Behold, O holy Virgin, the price of our salvation, which will be the Blood of that Son now to be formed in thy womb. This price is offered to thee to pay for our sins, and deliver us from death; we shall be instantly delivered, if thou consentest.” 

“Thy Lord Himself desires thy consent; for by it He has determined to save the world. He desires it with an ardour equal to the love with which He has loved thy beauty.” 

“Answer, O sacred Virgin,” says St. Augustine, “why delayest thou the salvation of the world, which depends on thy consent?”