“The first spear was his shameful and blameworthy nakedness, for I saw my most beloved and mighty Son stand naked at the pillar without any clothing to cover him at all.” (Our Lady to Saint Brigid).
The first spear that pierced the Blessed Virgin’s heart was the sight of the nakedness of her Blessed Son. In the account Our Lady says, “The first spear was his shameful and blameworthy nakedness, for I saw my most beloved and mighty Son stand naked at the pillar without any clothing to cover him at all.”
And I have been reflecting on that spear and that suffering of the Blessed Virgin. Why was it such a terrible suffering to see Her Holy Son naked at the Pillar?
Obviously, it would have caused great suffering to see Him beaten and scourged and degraded, but why when she spoke to Saint Brigid did she call His nakedness the FIRST spear?
I have been reflecting on that very much over the last few days on why that nakedness caused such terrible pain. You see, Our Lady was perfect and without sin, so she was not a person who would exaggerate. In other words, if she said the nakedness of her Son caused her heart to be pierced by a spear, it means that there was tremendous unimaginable suffering caused by that nakedness…
Why? I mean, today we live in a society that celebrates the “naked dress”. We routinely see nudity in our newspapers, magazines, internet, retail shopping centre advertising and on the television and our phones. In fact, we see so much nudity that I have become almost completely desensitised to it.
But now, I am thinking for a moment about Our Blessed Mother and Christ… You see, I recall Saint Jacinta of Fatima. When she was dying she was only nine years old. During her final months of life she lived in an orphanage hospital alone under the care of doctors and nurses. You see, Saint Jacinta developed a wound on her chest while she was affected by influenza. Due to a lack of adequate hygiene, the wound became infected and caused the little girl tremendous suffering, which she offered for sinners.
And yet, it was not the physical wound that distressed the saint most profoundly. It was the need to have this wound examined by the doctors that caused the saint to suffer an affront to her modesty – because they needed to see her naked chest to examine the wound.
And that has caused me to think… Saint Jacinta – while a model for all Christians – was not perfect. That means her modestly was not perfect. And yet, she suffered so greatly from having to display her body in a manner that she felt was immodest. And so now, I think again about the first spear that pierced the heart of the Blessed Virgin, when her Son was forced to stand naked before the crowd, and my heart shudders with grief! You see, when perfect modesty meet total indifference and disrespect, what a terrible suffering that is.
How great is the pain when a person has kept their body sacred and modest as a Temple of the Holy Spirit for their entire life and then has it exposed for all the world to see.
Now, I can see what a terrible terrible spear that first spear really was…
Poor Jesus. Poor poor Jesus… How could His Holy Mother stand to bear such pain? Only by accepting the Holy Will of God… No wonder she is Queen of Heaven.
Poor Jesus. Poor poor Jesus…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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