Triumph of the Cross and Our Lady of Sorrows

Ah, September is just loaded with wonderful feasts and memorials, and I love it! In particular, we've had three Marian feasts (Nativity, Most Holy Name, and Our Lady of Sorrows) in the past week, and it has been glorious. Some of you know that I'm a particular devotee of Mary, and so having all these feasts to reflect on her life, and ultimately how I can conform mine to hers, is wonderful. In the middle there, we had the Triumph of the Cross yesterday, and it struck me how beautifully intertwined that memorial is with Our Lady of Sorrows, which is today.

Yesterday, our chaplain preached on how the cross is honorable because it is both a sign of God's suffering, and a weapon of His triumph. God willingly went to the cross to suffer and die that we might live forever with Him. He suffered pain, injustice, humiliation and death for love of us, as we were told in John 3:16, so that we might not perish, but have eternal life. The cross is a weapon of God's triumph over death because, by it, He accomplished what was necessary for death to be conquered once and for all. That is the triumph of the cross, that a symbol of a humiliating death became the sign that nobody had to die ever again. It's really quite beautiful.

Today we commemorate Our Lady of Sorrows, and the seven sorrows she suffered throughout her life. I find that we often don't think about the sorrows of Mary, save for the Triduum, when we think of her seeing Jesus on the cross. Other than that, though, we don't tend to think of her suffering. This could possibly change in our lifetimes, if the Church declares, as she is now considering, that Mary holds the title co-redemptrix. This is sticky, because it leads a lot of people to believe that somehow Jesus on the cross was not enough for salvation, or that He couldn't have saved us without Mary. This is untrue. What it means is that because Mary was so united to Jesus in all things, His sufferings were hers, and, as I heard it beautifully expressed, Mary's cross was not being crucified.

The beauty of these feasts being so close together is that we commemorate the seven sorrows of Mary, the chief of which, I assume, was seeing Christ crucified, and as His mother, being powerless to stop her son's suffering, especially because that suffering was necessary to salvation. We also commemorate that fact that though this was the height of sorrow and evil, not just in Our Lady's life, but in all of history, it was ultimately one of the greatest joys and goods that ever occurred, as well.

The triumph of the cross was not just the triumph of Christ, but through Him and in Him, the triumph of Mary, the angels, and all creation. It is important to remember the sorrow, but always in light of the joy. Good Friday is only good in light of the resurrection, and Mary's seven sorrows are only significant because they were suffered on the path to a much greater joy. I have to hand it to Holy Mother Church, I think she knew exactly what she was doing when she decided to commemorate the Triumph of the Cross and Our Lady of Sorrows back to back, because all the sorrows of life should be weathered and remembered in light of the joy of Christ's resurrection.