Exhaling

Every burden we bear, every suffering we endure, Christ has borne before us and bears with us. But we sometimes forget that Mary has suffered before us as well, and knows human heartache. This Mother, given to us by Christ, suffered confusion and hardship, walked the road to Calvary with Him, and was martyred in spirit as the spear pierced His cooling Heart. The glorious white martyrdom of Mary, foretold by Simeon. 

These words should not seem strong to us – any mother who has watched a child suffer knows how keenly that child’s suffering is felt, how vehemently a mother desires to bear every pain in place of that child. This kind of “suffering with” opens us more deeply to the suffering of others. We sympathize with every soul, we want to relieve every suffering, we yearn to help everyone we can. Mary’s uniquely profound sacrifice – a complete oblation offered in complete union with Christ in a way that only her pure Mother’s heart, beating always in union with His, could offer – opened her Immaculate Heart to the suffering of all and allowed her to accept the universal Motherhood Christ offered her from the Cross.

Mother of all, a Mother sorrowing with and sorrowing for her children, a Mother who knows the wages of sin and wants all to avail themselves of the spiritual freedom her Son won for all. She knows that we have each been bought with His Blood, which He (and she) offered willingly to the Father in the spirit of generous obedience – two perfect YESes echoing eternally. 

As Christ gave her as Mother of all, we need not hesitate to consider ourselves her true children. If we are hers, then we are HIS; her soul is filled only with HIM, her desire is only that we are also filled with HIM so that we are transformed into HIM – one Body with Christ as Head. The Queen does not reign without the KING. These are united Hearts – two human Hearts beating with divine love, eager to reign within us. 

I cannot claim to understand this theologically or philosophically. I only know that a wholly Christocentric heart loves Mary, and a Marian heart can only love CHRIST above all. At the very heart of the universe, two hearts beat in unison and point to one another. Whatever we entrust to Mary, she delivers directly to Him. Whatever we ask of Mary, she secures from Him. She has nothing of her own but what God gives her – but He loves her so much, He gives her everything she asks for. 

So as the Church focuses our attention during this month on Mary, we need not fear that we give her too much attention or Christ too little. She will not allow the order of the universe to be upset. Christ is all in all, Christ without beginning or end, Christ the same yesterday, today, forever. Mary will never tell us anything other than, “Do whatever He tells you.”  (Jn 2:5)