“Blessed are the humble, for they shall inherit the earth.” (Matthew 5:5).
I have been reflecting on Our Lady of Sorrows over the last few days.
When Our Lady performed the Miracle of the Sun at Fatima on 13 October 1917, when a large group of spectators witnessed the sun dancing, the children of Fatima did not witness this movement of the sun. They saw something else instead.
Sister Lucia wrote in her memoirs the vision that she and Saints Jacinta and Francesco saw…. Our Lady of Fatima disappeared into the immense distance of the firmament and the children saw Saint Joseph with the Child Jesus and Our Lady clothed in a white robe and blue mantle beside the sun. Saint Joseph and the Child Jesus seemed the bless the world by tracing a sign of the Cross over the word with their hands. Some time later, that vision disappeared and the children saw instead Our Lord and Our Lady. This time it was Our Lady of Sorrows who appeared. Again, just as Saint Joseph had done, Our Lord appeared to bless the world. Then, this apparition also vanished. Once more Our Lady appeared to Sister Lucia, only this time she was Our Lady of Carmel.
And so, while the dancing sun – the Miracle of the Sun – was to create faith and belief in the crowd, the vision that the children saw served a different purpose. The vision of Our Lady of Carmel was to prepare Sister Lucia for her entrance into a Carmelite monastery when she was older.
And though I am sure that there was great significance in the children seeing Saint Joseph and God the Son as a Child and Adult, it is the vision of Our Lady of Sorrows that I have come to reflect on today.
You see, there is one commonality in the visions of Fatima, and Our Lady of Sorrows summarises it perfectly. In all the visions, the children explained that the Blessed Mother was sad. She was terribly, terribly sad and the children felt her sorrow and experienced anguish in their souls because of that sorrow. In other words, the sorrow of the Blessed Virgin for the sinful offences committed against her Beloved Son, was contagious…
And that started me thinking… you see, when I think about the sorrow of the Blessed Virgin, I reflect on the pain of the Blessed Virgin. It was not FAKE pain. She was not pretending to be sad. She was genuinely very very sad and I know this because Our Blessed Mother does not lie and she does not exaggerate. And that means that in Heaven – the perfect place of eternal rest – those who most love God are the most sad. Because they can see the suffering that sin causes to souls and the sorrow of God at seeing the destruction of all that could be good when souls commit themselves to hell…
And thinking about that terrible sadness of the Blessed Virgin today, I weep… Not because I am sad as the Blessed Virgin, Our Lady of Sorrows is sad. I weep, because I am not as sad as she is… And that is surely the most terrible thing…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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