The Blessed Virgin has witnessed the cost of sin at the moment of His Brith, at the moment of His Death and again when we commit those future sins for which He died.
The other day I participated in a fun-run and it went on and on for about fourteen kilometres. During the race I experienced some discomfort. I certainly was not pushing myself to the brink. I certainly was not trying to move as fast as possible. I had no intention to perform in my best time or to achieve a notable result. Instead, what I was trying to do was just to get to the end…
I was trying to haul my butt across that finish line in such a way that I would be able to say that I had done what I had set out to do (and actually finished the race).
And this is actually what happened.
Now, prior to participating in this fun-run I had not completed any preparation. I had not trained or worked or aimed to do anything in particular. Instead, I had woken up on the morning of the race and decided (at the last minute) to participate and then – knowing that I wanted to participate, I had got myself to the event start line and started walking along with the crowds.
This in itself was a mistake. Clearly the human body must be conditioned to that sort of exercise. If I have not participated in any sort of similar physical training and then one day decide to run (or simply walk) a marathon, the result is unlikely to be very enjoyable the next day.
What actually happened, was that the suffering that I experienced on the day – during the walk, which at the time felt terrible – was only a small foretaste of how bad things really could get. The next day I was quite stiff and, in the days afterwards, the stiffness increased before it started to reduce.
And I have been thinking about that today. You see, when a soul experiences some suffering, it can feel, at the time as though that suffering is unbearable. At the time, one might feel as though this is the pinnacle of suffering. But – just as the suffering in the race was less than the suffering of stiff muscles in the days afterwards – the suffering is often only beginning. When the Blessed Virgin witnessed the suffering of Her Beloved Son on the Cross, that would have felt at the time as the greatest possible suffering. But her greater suffering was to come in the millennia since. Since that day of His Death on the Cross, the Blessed Virgin has experienced the sins of all of the world which have continued to injure her Beloved Son on that Cross. She has witnessed the cost of sin at the moment of His Brith, at the moment of His Death and again when we commit those future sins for which He died.
And when I think about the suffering involved in that, my stiff muscles tighten even further. Because it seems that the Blessed Virgin continues to experience the aftermath of her suffering – over and over again across the millenia…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
Comments