Our Lady’s grandeur is not so much
in Her enormous pains,
but that She willed to suffer all that She suffered.[1]
Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira
In This Chapter
One must have the courage to enter the sea of pain and endure it. When we do this for the love of God, a unique sweetness penetrates us, lands in our soul, and dwells in us.
Our Lady suffered greatly throughout life but had joys like no one else. As those pains and joys continually intertwined, she endured the burden of most terrible pains but was consoled with the most admirable joys.
She taught us to be calm in pain and joy. Joy without calm is accompanied by anxiety, an element of pain. Only with calm can one have true well-being in life.
[1] 3-17-67.
* * *
Happiness That Comes from Suffering
Everyone hates suffering and runs away from it. But no matter how much you suffer, fight or face difficult things, life is worth living if only to lead an existence as dignified as possible in this valley of tears. In so doing, man has the golden share of happiness that life can give.
I realized that the Church’s influence on souls only lasted to the extent that they knew how to suffer. Suffering is for the soul, more or less what fire is for a liquid that must be purified, for example, a raw metal that must be separated from the gangue. When the soul suffers with resignation and dignity, this gives it tranquility, harmony and strength that no pleasure can outweigh. It is the well-being of Christian pain.
I would often stand before crucifixes or images of the Lord Jesus, look at them and think, “He is covered in pain, but I perceive in him such a force, coherence and resignation that I am led to conclude no man was never as enviable as the God-Man at the height of his sorrow.”
Therefore, one must have the courage to enter the sea of pain and endure it. When you do it for the love of God, a unique sweetness emerges, enters and dwells in you. It is often the happiness of pain we must wish that Our Lady gives us all: Per crucem ad lucem – through the cross to the light. Let us have courage, and we will get there! [1]
Our Lady of Sorrows
It is mistaken to believe that Our Lady had only one moment of pain in her life, the supreme pain of Calvary, the greatest pain ever felt in the universe after the unfathomable pain of Our Lord Jesus Christ in His most holy humanity. Her pain was such that it summed up all the pains of the universe. Everything men have suffered since the fall of Adam and will suffer until the last moment breath of the last human being on Earth is incomparably less than the sorrows of Our Lady on Calvary.
Some think she suffered these pains only during the Passion and not at other times. She had a happy, calm and contented life flooded with the joy of being the Mother of the Savior. Her piercing pain during the Passion only lasted until the Resurrection of Our Lord. After that suffering, she resumed her joyful life.
Our Lady’s Pains Reflect those of Jesus
This is a completely erroneous way of considering Mary Most Holy’s sorrows. One of the prophets called our Lord Jesus Christ the Man of Sorrows.[2] It was proper for Him to suffer the pains He carried in His most holy soul throughout His existence. The Passion was not an isolated fact in the life of Our Lord but the culmination of an enormous sequence of pains that began from the first moment of His Being and continued until he uttered the terrible Consumatum est. [3] He suffered continually throughout His life.
Now, since Our Lady is a mirror of Wisdom and Justice and reflects all the attributes of Our Lord Jesus Christ, it should be said that she was Mulier dolorum, the Lady of Sorrows. Her whole life was permeated with pain.
This pain was certainly proportional to the incalculable strength that grace gave her. It is also certain that it was a pain imposed by Providence, and therefore, however dilacerating it may have been, those are not the devastating pains that plunge a soul into turmoil and trial. Those pains were immense but very wise and consequential and were received with admirable serenity of soul. The words Isaias attributed to Our Lord, “Behold in peace is my bitterness most bitter,” can likewise be said of Our Lady.
In that ocean of pain, everything was balanced, reasoned, reflected, and endured with love and an incomparable balance of soul, without super-emotions, albeit with almost infinite feeling. Without rooting, panic, though with much fear and anguish, and during the Passion, with an almost crushing weight.
Our Lady suffered greatly throughout her life, but she had joys like no one else. She had all the joys of the world from the first moment that man appeared in paradise until the last moment that men existed on earth, but together, these joys do not match the great joys of Our Lady.
As her sorrows and joys continually intertwined, Our Lady bore the burden of most terrible pains but simultaneously was consoled with the most admirable joys. Thus, one should see her unfathomably holy moral physiognomy, particularly in her pains.[4]
Notes:
[1] 5-12-84.
[2] Is. 53.
[3] Jn 19:30.
[4] 3-17-67.