This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.
Today is the feast of “Our Lady of Sorrows,” that is, Mary as she who cooperated with Jesus’ act of redemption by suffering with Him.
Often, there are different optional readings for any given day among which the priest saying Mass may choose. The reflections found in this blog always focus on the primary readings for the day found at the Conference of Bishops link that is included. Sometimes, like today, the default is a combo platter. Today’s Gospel is for the feast of Our Lady, whereas the first reading is from the weekday–so, they were not in any way chosen to go together.
At least, not by the hand of man.
On such occasions I love to discover messages that God might have in store for us from the combination that He alone chooses.
In today’s first reading, St. Paul talks about how God creates us for the Church with special gifts to fit together neatly like the parts in a body. (I chuckle that he cites “administration” as one of the spiritual gifts. Hey bureaucrats, you have a place! lol)
In the Gospel passage, we see Mary’s role eloquently portrayed as the Mother of Sorrows.
So putting the two together, we may ask, what was and is Mary’s special role within the body of Christ that is the Church? Where does she fall within St. Paul’s paradigm?
There are so many facets to Mary’s vocation, so many titles for her. It is hard to argue, for example, that today’s title for Mary and today’s Gospel encapsulates the climax of her effectiveness as a disciple of Jesus, under the Cross–for it is the climax of Jesus’ mission.
But then we also have her as Queen of the Angels, the new Ark of the Covenant who carried the Messiah…etc.
In the end, though, if we are to sum up Mary’s special role, we might look at it like this: She is the proto-creature. (Hey! I just invented a title! Notice that it’s not capitalized…) In this, her role is distinguished even from the role of her Son. Jesus was God. As such, one thing that He couldn’t do was model for us how a mere creature with no divine attributes should respond to God’s call.
Mary is not God. She is mere creature, just like you and me. But her response, her “yes” to God, in the midst of the confusion and partial understanding befitting a creature, models for us beautifully how to respond to God in generosity and simplicity.
That “yes” was not a one-time affair at the Annunciation. It continued in the moment we commemorate today, the moment she suffered under the Cross. It was the continuum of her life.
No matter what our particular role and gifts–whether we are administrators, or miracle-workers–we can look to Mary’s yes as the model for how we can entrust full understanding of the big picture to God, and simply listen for the promptings of the Holy Spirit each day for how to channel our consistent “yes” to God.
Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Tell Our Lord that you entrust the big picture to Him. Thank Him for not burdening you with the responsibility of mastering it. Ask him for a few ways that you can show your trust today in an unconditional “yes” to Him.
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