Mary suffered in her Son’s suffering, Mary: Day 331

Mary suffered in her Son’s suffering

St. Alphonsus observes that, just as it would be for any anguished mother seeing her child tortured and killed, Mary suffered in her soul what her Son suffered in his body.

While other martyrs suffered by sacrificing their own lives, the Blessed

Virgin suffered by sacrificing her Son’s life—a life that she loved far more than her own. So she not only suffered in her soul all that her Son endured in his body. In addition, the sight of her Son’s torments brought more grief to her heart than if she had endured them all in her own person. No one can doubt that Mary suffered in her heart all the outrages that she saw inflicted on her beloved Jesus. Anyone can understand that the sufferings of children are also those of their mothers who witness them.

St. Augustine, considering the anguish endured by the mother of the Mac- cabees in witnessing the tortures of her sons, says: “Seeing their sufferings, she suffered in each one. Because she loved them all, she endured in her soul what they endured in their flesh.” In the same way, Mary suffered all those torments, scourges, thorns, nails, and the cross that tortured the innocent flesh of Jesus. They all entered at the same time into the heart of this Blessed Virgin to com- plete her martyrdom. “He suffered in the flesh, and she in her heart,” writes the Blessed Amadeus. “So much so,” says St. Lawrence Justinian, “that the heart of Mary became a mirror of the passion of the Son, in which might be seen, faith- fully reflected, the spitting, the blows and wounds, and all that Jesus suffered.”

St. Bonaventure remarks: “Those wounds that were scattered over the body of our Lord were all united in the single heart of Mary.” In this way, then, through the compassion of her loving heart for her Son, our Blessed Lady was scourged, crowned with thorns, insulted, and nailed to the cross. —St. Alphonsus Liguori, The Glories of Mary

IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . .  .

How does Mary’s experience of suffering make her an advocate for those who experience bereavement and other loss?

CLOSING PRAYER

From a prayer of St. Bonaventure: Lady, tell me where you stood. Was it only at  the foot of the Cross? No, much more than this, you were on the Cross itself, crucified with your Son.

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