MARY, OUR MOTHER

SIMEON'S PROPHECIES ABOUT MARY

3. Relentless Sorrow.
A foreseen and unescapable evil can embitter all our joys. The patient who has been given up by the doctors is never without anguish, no matter if there are painless moments. The very fact that there is no cure, that he is doomed to death renders him joyless and sad. If we do not tremble at the thought of death, it is because we persuade ourselves that death is not so near; it is something far-off.

But that was not the case with Mary. Good Friday was always present to Her mind. And therefore all Her joys, all the sweetness of the presence of Jesus would always be tainted with this remembrance. Watch Her in Bethlehem, in Nazareth, in Egypt. Picture in your mind any of those tender moments between Mother and Son. And when you see Mary in ecstasy before the charming beauty of Jesus, when she is enjoying His presence, realize how the dark remembrance of those fateful words, the sword of the prophecy is cutting into Her heart. Always the remembrance, the words, the sword of Simeon.

And it will always be so: whenever She pressed Him against Her heart, whenever She combed His beautiful hair, when serving Him at table, when watching the delicate traits of that most beautiful face, when absorbing the shining light of those eyes, when admiring those rosy cheeks of the Infant Jesus, She would suddenly shudder with horror. All that beauty would one day be defiled by spittle, by buffets and scourges, by thorns and nails, which would barbarously torture Her adorable Son.

And so day after day, night after night, Her imagination is tortured by the vision of such horrible scenes.

Learn also to sacrifice yourself generously if Jesus so wants it. Be ready to renounce even spiritual enjoyments as did Mary throughout Her life.

[Excerpted from 'MARIAN MEDITATIONS' Book by Rev. Dr. Ildefonso R. Villar, Salesian Philippine Province, Nihil Obstat; Imprimatur]