Spiritual Reflection
Mary and Mothers
Martin Pable, Capuchin
Mary and Mothers
For many centuries, the month of May has been specially devoted to Mary, the mother of Jesus. Christians have always seen in her the image of a mother who shared both the sorrows and the joys of mothers everywhere. Indeed, one of the most popular devotions to Mary has been that of “the Sorrowful Mother.” An article in the Chicago Tribune some years ago reported on the throngs of people who flocked to Our Lady of Sorrows parish every Friday to attend the devotions. All through the day and evening, eleven services were conducted. These were the years of the Great Depression of the 1930’s and the Second World War in the 1940’s. Many people were out of work, hungry, worried about their children caught in the war, and longing for peace. Instinctively, they knew that Mary would understand them and intercede for them, for didn’t she go through much suffering herself?
She was pregnant without being married, and had to watch her intended husband Joseph go through a painful period of doubt about the conception of her child. When it came time for the birth, it took place in a cold and barren manger. Just when the family was settling down, they had to flee for their lives into Egypt because the life of the Child was in danger from the paranoid King Herod. We can imagine the anxiety of Mary & Joseph when they could not find the boy Jesus after their visit to the temple in Jerusalem. How could they have lost Him? Where could he be? And when they did find Him, He seemed to make light of it: “Why were you looking for me? Didn’t you know that I had to be in my Father’s house?” That must have stung.
According to tradition, Joseph died some time after this event. That was surely a heavy sorrow for Mary, being widowed when she still in her 30’s. And what was her feeling when her son Jesus decided it’s time for him to leave her in order to begin his public ministry? From now on she would be alone. During those next two or three years, she had to watch her son rise to great heights of popularity, only to be scorned and rejected in the end by the very people he was trying to help. And finally, what a heart-piercing sorrow to see him mocked, beaten, and delivered up to a most cruel death by crucifixion. Indeed, Mary is “the Mother of Sorrows.” Those who have seen “The Passion of Christ” were deeply touched by the role of Mary—her quiet dignity, her courage, her refusal to leave son’s side as He endured His sufferings.
However, there is another side. Mary’s life was not all grief and sadness, any more than our own. Somewhere in the 13th century, some Franciscan friars developed a devotion to “the Joys of Mary.” They held up for our meditation events like the angel’s proclaiming her “full of grace” and “blessed among women” because God had chosen her to be the mother of the Christ. His birth must have been a profound experience of joy for her as the angels sang and shepherds and wise men came to pay their homage. She was deeply touched when the saintly elders Simeon and Anna recognized her son as the long-awaited Messiah. There must have been an abundance of joyful and tender moments between mother and child during his growing-up years, as some scenes from “The Passion of the Christ” portrayed for us. And we can only imagine the meeting between Mary and the Risen Jesus on that first Easter morning: “Look, mother---I’m alive! The body you gave me is glorified, No more suffering.”
Pondering these scenes from the Scriptures have brought much inspiration to Christians in every age. Unwed pregnant girls and women have turned to Mary in prayer as they struggled with their situation. People locked up in prisons because they dared to speak the truth remembered her standing amid the jeers and mockeries of her son’s executioners. Women of all ages have remembered her as they had to watch helplessly while their child died. And mothers grateful for their healthy children continue asking Mary’s intercession for their guidance and well-being.
So, during these beautiful days of May, when spring flowers and warm weather grace our earth, we remember with gratitude how our mothers have graced our lives and how we have been inspired by the life and example of Mary, mother of Jesus the Lord.