The feast of Our Lady of Sorrows is not simply one of cultic devotion. It reveals a new way of being and acting both on a human and a Christian level. In itself, the feast urgently recalls for the practice of the virtue of solidarity with those in distress.

Thanks to her habitual recollection and prayer, Mary became increasingly aware of her God-given vocation of accompanying and supporting her Son in his Messianic mission. Sometimes her support came more as a challenge to Jesus. Two instances justify this claim. The first episode is when “the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem” (Luke 2, 43) and “after three days they (Mary and Joseph) found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions” (Luke 2, 43). Mary’s spontaneous yet supportive reaction had a rather protesting inkling. “Son, why have you treated us so? Behold, your father and I have been looking for you anxiously” (Luke 2, 48). Jesus answers to her and Joseph’s caring support by explaining to them that his intimate rapport with God the Father was the priority of his life. “How is it that you sought me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” (Luke 2, 49).

In the second episode, that of the Cana wedding feast, Mary supports Jesus by presenting to him what was troubling those who organised the wedding in order that he would fix the problem and keep everyone happy. “The wine failed” (John 2, 3). Can you imagine a wedding without wine, devoid of happiness and merriment? Fully confident in his authority, Mary interceded on behalf of those who were distressed by merely offering to Jesus the hard fact. “They have no wine” (John 2,3). Her constant support was tested by Jesus’ apparent objection: “O woman, what have you to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” (John 2, 4). Her untiring support of her Son came when she completely trusted in him. In fact, she “said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you’” (John 2, 5). In both circumstances the ending result was the same: Charged by her faith Mary got a deeper understanding of Jesus’ salvific mission. Thus, Saint Anselm’s motto fides quaerens intellectum, (faith seeking understanding), shined in Mary’s life!

Mary’s support of Jesus was never isolated from her ongoing interior journey of faith. Elizabeth’s spiritual diagnosis of “the handmaid of the Lord” (Luke 1, 38) was true indeed. “And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her from the Lord” (Luke 1, 45). God’s promises were for Mary motivating existential energies which kept her faith going on no matter what. No wonder then that she “kept treasuring them in her heart in order to savour the Almighty’s faithfulness to her!” (see Luke 2, 51). Had this not been the case, how could she support Jesus when she saw him mocked, scourged, spitted upon, and, finally, nailed naked on a cross? How could a motherly heart withstand all this cruelty if not because she deeply hanged on to Simeon’s prophecy: “Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is spoken against (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), that thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed?” (Luke 2, 34-35).

Mary’s undying lesson to parents whose children are undergoing all kinds of hardships is simply this: “Always believe that your sons and daughters are precious gifts given to you by a compassionate God. Keep supporting them!”

■ Fr Mario Attard OFM Caps