LIFE AT NAZARETH
3. The Loss.
One would say that God listened to Her prayer; that He had accepted Her immolation and gave the chalice of bitterness to sip.
When returning home from Jerusalem, the Child through nobody's fault was lost. Mary trusted to Joseph; while Joseph imagined that Jesus was with Mary, for the two were inseparable. But the fact remains that at the end of the first stage home, God permitted that they should find themselves without the Child. What frightful sorrow! What an excruciating trial for the heart of Our Lady!
When Joseph and Mary realized that the Child was not with any of the group, and when, after having questioned all the returning caravans they had to admit that Jesus had been lost, who could fathom their desolation? O, sword of Simeon! how steadily you penetrate and fiercely destroy the heart of the Mother! Mary without Jesus! The Mother without Her Son! We cannot possibly fathom the magnitude of that sorrow. For that we would need the heart of Mary, possess Her love, and experience what Jesus meant for Her" Her Son, Her God, Her All. What would you have done? Throw the blame on others? Vent your feelings against your neighbor? From Mary comes not a single word of complaint. As for St. Joseph She says that he has done well. She Herself it was that was overconfident and imprudent. She reproaches Herself alone. See Her weep in silence. Yet She gives way to no dramatic exaggerations, the prey of a boundless sorrow! Go you and console Her, Go and promise always to share Her sorrows. Promise never by your behavior to increase Her sufferings, since whatever She suffers, She suffers for you.
[Excerpted from 'MARIAN MEDITATIONS' Book by Rev. Dr. Ildefonso R. Villar, Salesian Philippine Province, Nihil Obstat; Imprimatur]
3. The Loss.
One would say that God listened to Her prayer; that He had accepted Her immolation and gave the chalice of bitterness to sip.
When returning home from Jerusalem, the Child through nobody's fault was lost. Mary trusted to Joseph; while Joseph imagined that Jesus was with Mary, for the two were inseparable. But the fact remains that at the end of the first stage home, God permitted that they should find themselves without the Child. What frightful sorrow! What an excruciating trial for the heart of Our Lady!
When Joseph and Mary realized that the Child was not with any of the group, and when, after having questioned all the returning caravans they had to admit that Jesus had been lost, who could fathom their desolation? O, sword of Simeon! how steadily you penetrate and fiercely destroy the heart of the Mother! Mary without Jesus! The Mother without Her Son! We cannot possibly fathom the magnitude of that sorrow. For that we would need the heart of Mary, possess Her love, and experience what Jesus meant for Her" Her Son, Her God, Her All. What would you have done? Throw the blame on others? Vent your feelings against your neighbor? From Mary comes not a single word of complaint. As for St. Joseph She says that he has done well. She Herself it was that was overconfident and imprudent. She reproaches Herself alone. See Her weep in silence. Yet She gives way to no dramatic exaggerations, the prey of a boundless sorrow! Go you and console Her, Go and promise always to share Her sorrows. Promise never by your behavior to increase Her sufferings, since whatever She suffers, She suffers for you.
[Excerpted from 'MARIAN MEDITATIONS' Book by Rev. Dr. Ildefonso R. Villar, Salesian Philippine Province, Nihil Obstat; Imprimatur]
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