Year A
1 Corinthians 12:12-14.27-31a
Psalm 100:1-2.3.4.5 (R.3c)
John 19:25-27
Our Mother in Sorrows
In yesterday's reflection about the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, I said Jesus is mostly God when he is suffering and dying on the Cross, LOVE.
Not that God can suffer or die, but through the human nature of Jesus Christ, God gets to know sin and suffering as a cancer patient knows cancer rather than how a cancer doctor knows cancer.
For today's memorial, we see the Motherhood of Mary in his sorrows. Today's memorial reminds me of Rachel's as the woman in travail;
Jeremiah 31:15"A voice was heard in Ramah, sobbing and loud lamentation; Rachel weeping for her children, and she would not be consoled, since they were no more."
Why will Jeremiah give a prophecy that concerns Rachel who has already died according to Genesis 35:16-19, when giving birth to Benjamin. According to this prophecy of Jeremiah concerning the joyful return of the exiles, in Jeremiah 31 :16, God consoles her and tell her, her children shall come back from the land of the enemy.
Micah 5:2-3
"But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, wo are little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days. Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in travail has brought forth; then the rest of his brethren shall return to the people of Israel.
This is true of our Mother Mary today. Base on this, of all her sorrows, I will reflect on her under the Cross, looking at the flesh of her flesh suffering on the Cross. It is under the Cross that the prophecy of Simeon was fulfilled;
Luke 2:35
"and a sword will pierce through your own soul also..."
Under the Cross, she suffered with the fresh of her fresh on the Cross, and by her relation with Jesus Christ as his mother, she was as his own soul (cf. Deuteronomy 13:6). Thus her soul suffered with him who was on the Cross.
But Jesus Christ who knows that he will be saving his brethren and through his pierced side water for Baptism and blood of the new covenant for the Holy Eucharist will bring them Salvation and they will become part of himself and Mary their mother also, looked at his mother from the Cross and gave her to his beloved disciple.
Just as Rachel travail was accounted as a hard work that God who consoled her will base on to redeem her children, so to Marry who is in travail under the Cross where Jesus Christ got new brethren to be part of himself, her sorrows will bring us her children Salvation, because when she suffers with his Son, she suffers with us, and when she suffers with us, she is truly our Mother.
By Sylvester Amakye-Quayson
YearA
1 Corinthians 12:12-14.27-31a
Psalm 100:1-2.3.4.5 (R.3c)
Luke 7:11-17
God has visited his people
In today's readings it is made clear the various ways God shows he is with us when we feel he is not. First of all the name of the city is Nain, which means beauty. But it looks like the tragedy of the widow shows that the beauty of the city is diminishing.
Don't we mostly deem life as ugly base on the trials and sufferings we face? Don't we detest life when there is no hope for living? This widow's only Son who is now a man and is supposed to look after his mother is dead, what hope has she again.
Jesus Christ and his disciples are going to the city of beauty but they meet an ugly situation just at the gate of beauty. Why should death meet them in front of beauty? This is one of the reasons why Atheists don't believe in God, the is evil, suffering and death in a world created by God who is all powerful and all good. In such a case will you not prefer to say boldly that what the atheists professes is true. Even at the very door of beauty there is ugliness.
To add to, the great crowd from the city who were with her shows how hopeless the situation was. Death is driving them out of the city of beauty. This is the case of us humans. But God is life and when he visits us, he brings us life.
by Sylvester Amakye-Quayson
Comments
Post a Comment