Breaking the Word

Our Lady of Sorrows, Thursday – 15^th September 2022 — Gospel: Jn 3,13-17

Model of Endurance

The celebration of the memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows focuses on Mary’s intense suffering and grief during the passion and death of Jesus. Traditionally, this suffering was not limited to the passion and death event; it consisted of the seven sorrows that had taken place in Mary’s life, which were foretold by Simeon. The seven sorrows of Mary are: The prophecy of Simeon (Lk 2,34-35); The flight into Egypt (Mt 2,13-15); Loss and finding of the Child Jesus in the Temple (Lk 2,41-50); Mary meeting Jesus on his way to Calvary (Lk 23,27-31; Jn 19,17); Mary standing at the foot of Cross and witnessing the Crucifixion and Death of Jesus (Jn 19,25-30); Mary holding the body of Jesus when taken from the cross (Lk 23,50-54; Jn 19,31-37); and The burial of Jesus (Lk 23,50-56; Jn 19,38-42). In all these events, the prophecy of Simeon that a sword would piece Mary’s heart was fulfilled. She endured each of these sorrows with perfect love, courage, and trust because she knew from the visit of the angel Gabriel and her miraculous conception that her son was the promise of salvation for her people.  More importantly, she echoed her fiat, “let it be done unto me according to thy word,” which she first uttered at the Annunciation. In recalling the Sorrows of Mary, we find that though Jesus and Mary were constantly doing Gods’ will, they were not spared from the Cross, the challenges and daily struggles of life. In the midst of these challenges, we must always remember that God walks ahead and never abandons us. And it gives us hope that sorrow and the Cross is never the end, but only a step towards resurrection and the fullness of life.

Exaltation of the Holy Cross, Wednesday – 14^th September 2022 — Gospel: Jn 3,13-17

Lifted up in the Resurrection

Jesus humbled himself by being obedient unto death, even death on a Cross (Phil 2,8). Thus the Cross becomes the universal symbol of faith and an instrument of salvation. When Moses lifted up the bronze serpent over the people, it foreshadowed the redemption through Jesus. That Jesus saw his being ‘lifted up’ on the Cross as part of God’s providential design for salvation is specified when he says that ‘the Son of Man must be lifted up’. In choosing to accept his death, Jesus saw himself as carrying out his Father’s will (Jn 8,28-29). If Jesus’ death, i.e., being lifted up, could be described simply as God’s will, we would say that those who condemned Jesus to death and those who crucified him were carrying out God’s will. Such a conclusion is obviously wrong: For it means that it was God and not sinful human beings who willed the murder of Jesus. This imagination can only lead to a gross misunderstanding of God’s role in Jesus’ life. It was not God who crucified Jesus; it was the Jewish leaders and their subordinates. God’s part is seen in what happened at the resurrection. Sinful human beings ‘lifted up’ Jesus on the Cross. God ‘lifted up’ Jesus into his eternal embrace in the resurrection. This is clearly expressed in early sermons in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 2,23-24; 3,13-15; 4,10; 13,28-30). Therefore, the Cross is significant not because Jesus died on it, but because through it Jesus rose from the dead. It characterizes Jesus’ sharing of our humanity, our suffering and our death. We identify with crucified Christ and become co-redeemers, sharing in his cross and become obedient followers until death.