Dear Parishioners of Mary Immaculate and Saint Rose,

The fifth of the sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary is the Crucifixion. When I reflect on the crucifixion praying the rosary, I generally meditate on it from the point of view of the suffering of Jesus. I reflect on His pain, His humiliation, His final words, and His death. But in the Seven Dolors devotion, the reflection is from the point of view of the Virgin Mother. It is different to think of this with the suffering, humiliation, and tears of a mother.

Crucifixion was a horrible, painful, and shameful way to die. It was conceived as a means to prolong a terrible agony. It was a terrible humiliation because it was so public. It was shameful because it was a death reserved for the most heinous of criminals.

The Virgin Mary’s heart must have been pierced with each pounding thud of the hammer as the nails were viciously driven into the flesh of Jesus. Then as the bruised and broken body of the Son of God was lifted up on the Cross, her Immaculate Heart must have been broken with sorrow. And yet the attempt to defile the flesh of the Son of God only serves as a means of benediction for those at the foot of the Cross. The instrument of death, the bloody tree of the Cross, becomes the tree of life. Once lost by the sin of Adam and Eve, it is now restored in the sacrifice of Jesus as He dies that we might live.

Mary stands at the foot of the Cross. She is in union with the holy will of God as no other human has been since the fall of Adam and Eve. Her life has been a constant “Yes!” to God. But that does not diminish the sorrow as she stands witness to the death of Jesus. This is a sorrow like no other, to witness the death of the only Son of God, her only son as well. How she longs to relieve His pain, how much she would like to spare Him this. Is there no other way?

From the Cross, Jesus entrusts Mary into the care of John. In doing so, he entrusts her to each of us, and each of us to her. Now it is her mission to be Mother to each one of us. She has become the hope and refuge of sinners. Her suffering contributes to helping us on our journey to salvation.

Out of this sorrow comes our hope.

    Msgr. Cox

Christ on the Cross, Mary, Mary Magdelene, Saint John and Saint Francis of Paola  Nicholas Tournier (1635)