Homily for
the Memorial of
Our Lady of
Sorrows
Sept. 15,
2026
Collect
Heb 5: 7-9
John 19:
25-27
Christian
Brothers, St. Joseph’s Residence, N.R.
The Virgin of Seven Sorrows
(Absolon Stumme)
When Christ our Lord “was lifted high
on the cross … his mother [stood] close by and shared his suffering.” We pray that our sorrows and sufferings may
participate in the Lord’s passion alongside her, and thus we “share in his
resurrection” (Collect).
According to the Letter to the Hebrews,
Christ wished ardently—“with loud cries and tears”—to be spared from his
passion. But Hebrews affirms that he was
“saved from death” because of his reverence and his obedience to his Father
(5:7-8).
Being “saved from death” refers to his
resurrection. Passing from bodily death
into eternal life, “he was made perfect” (5:9); his human nature was perfected,
defeating death. His perfected humanity
“became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him” (5:9).
“All” includes his mother, who first
appears in the Gospels as a model of obedient discipleship (Luke 1:26-38) and
perfects her obedience by accompanying him to Calvary. There she stands close by and suffers with
him as only a mother can (Collect).
When we hear Jesus entrust his bereaved
mother to the beloved disciple, we find it tender that, as he’s dying, he sees
to her care, entrusting her to his most cherished follower. St. Bernard has a different take, finding this
entrustment another source of pain for her.
He addresses her in a sermon:
Were not those words: Woman, behold your
Son, not more than a sword to you, truly piercing your heart, cutting
through to the division between soul and spirit? What an exchange! John is
given to you in place of Jesus, the servant in place of the Lord, the disciple
in place of the master; the son of Zebedee replaces the Son of God, a mere man
replaces God himself. How could these words not pierce your most loving heart,
when the mere remembrance of them breaks ours, hearts of stone and iron though
they are![1]
Mary & St. John's Journey to Ephesus
(German Hernandez Amores)
But how fortunate for us that we, also
Christ’s beloved disciples, have been given his mother, a mother who knows our
sufferings as intimately as she knew his
and is prepared to stand with us, to lend us courage and patience that we may
join our sorrows and pain to hers and to his, and to guide us thru her Son’s
passion toward his resurrection—a resurrection she already shares because of
her lifelong and complete reverence and obedience.
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