Mary, the Mystical Rose, Mary: Day 153

Mary, Queen of Martyrs
Though Mary never suffered a bodily martyrdom, Blessed John Henry New- man insists that her soul suffered a worse sort of martyrdom.
Why is Mary called the Queen of Martyrs? She never had any blow, or wound, or other injury to her consecrated person. How can she be exalted over those whose bodies suffered the most ruthless violence and the keenest torments for our Lord’s sake? She is, indeed, Queen of All Saints, of those who “walk with Christ in white, for they are worthy” (see Rv 3:4); but how is she queen of those “who were slain for the Word of God, and for the testimony which they held” (see Rv 6:9)?

To answer this question, it must be recollected that the pains of the soul may be as fierce as those of the body. Bad men who are now in hell, and the elect of God who are in purgatory, are suffering only in their souls, for their bodies are still in the dust; yet how severe is that suffering! And perhaps most people who have lived long can bear witness in their own persons to a sharpness of distress which was like a sword cutting them, to a weight and force of sorrow which seemed to throw them down, though bodily pain there was none.

What an overwhelming horror it must have been for the Blessed Mary to witness the passion and the crucifixion of her Son! Her anguish was, as holy Simeon had announced to her, at the time of that Son’s presentation in the tem- ple, a sword piercing her soul. If our Lord himself could not bear the prospect of what was before him, and was covered in the thought of it with a bloody sweat, his soul thus acting upon his body, doesn’t this show how great mental pain can be? Thus is she most truly the Queen of Martyrs. —Blessed John Henry Newman, Meditations and Devotions

IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .
Have I ever experienced anguish so sharp, grief so heavy, that physical pain could not compare with such suffering? How might Mary come to my aid in such a situation? How might I come to the aid of others who suffer this way?

CLOSING PRAYER
Sometimes I must say with the prophet Jeremiah, “O Lord, behold my affliction! . . .
Look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow . . . . For these things I weep; my eyes flow with tears” (Lam 1:9, 12, 16). But unlike Jeremiah, I need not say, “a comforter is far from me,” for your mother is near me to console me.

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