Homily for Tuesday of the 24th Week in Ordinary Time Cycle II
Theme: HELP THE SORROWING DEAR MOTHER
By: Rev. Fr. Jacob Aondover ATSU
Homily for Tuesday September 15 2020
MEMORIAL OF OUR LADY OF SORROWS
READINGS: HEBREWS 5:7-9, PSALM 31, JOHN 19:25-27
What is your pain like? What torments are you undergoing? Are you suffering in silence given the complexities of life? Are the visiscitudes toiling with your happiness? Are sickened emotionally, mentally and otherwise? Pray through Mary our Lady of Sorrows today and she’d beseech her Son Jesus Christ to attend to you. May Mary, Queen of sorrows: intercede for the oppressed, the emotionally depressed, those suffering from betrayals, the bereaved and downtrodden. Amen.
Today we celebrate the sorrows of Mother Mary; the sorrows she bore from her Son’s childhood to his death on Calvary. According to Rev. Hugo Hoever, “the object of this feast is to remind the faithful of the spiritual martyrdom of the Mother of God, and her compassion with the sufferings of her Divine Son.” To further buttress this fact, we hear St. Bernard say of Mary; “For if he could die in body, could she not die with him in spirit? He died in body through a love greater than anyone had known. She died in spirit through love unlike any other since his”.
The Church advances most prominently, seven great events of Sorrow in her life:
✓•The prophecy of Simeon in the Temple (Lk. 2:34-35).
✓•The 300 mile flight into Egypt with the infant Jesus (Lk. 2:13-15).
✓•The loss of Jesus in Jerusalem when he was just 12years old (Lk. 2:43-50).
✓•Mary’s encounter with her Divine Son on his way to Calvary.
✓•His crucifixion (Lk. 23:33), with Mary at the foot of the Cross (Jn. 19:25).
✓•The taking down of Jesus’ body from the Cross (Lk. 23:53).
✓•Jesus’ burial (Matt. 27:59-60).
Brothers and sisters, the love that existed between Mary and Christ was both that of a loving Mother to a Son and her intense love for him as God. It was and still is incomparable. Her sorrows and sufferings too are simply incomparable. Truly her heart was filled with the reproaches and reviling of those who upbraided, scoffed at, and blasphemed her Son as she stood beneath His Cross of shame. Like Lamentations 1:12 we hear her ask; “Come all who pass by the way, look and see whether there is any suffering like my suffering”. We may do well to make Mary our teacher, guide, example and mentor, for by following her lead, we will surely be on our way to sharing her Son’s glory.
Today in our gospel passage, Jesus hands Mary onto us as our Mother (Jn. 19:26-27). We are now having a mother who knows exactly the pains we bear; hence she can help bear our burdens for us whilst interceding on our behalf before Son. We have now in Mary one who can feel the pains of suffering mothers, whose children are sources of endless anxiety and pain. She will surely plead on the behalf of those whose hearts are full of misery, pain, and burdens occasioned by poverty, joblessness, want, ill health, etc.
Our Lady Queen of Sorrows, Pray for us.
HELP THE POOR, PLEASE.