%e9vfarian Library !1\&ws{etter No. 22 (New Series) Spring, 1991 Mary, Mother of Sorrows: The Mystery of Images from Marian Comfort and Hope Library Collections: I want to stand with Juxta crucem tecum stare you next to the cross ac me tibi sociare and I want to join you in your in plantu desidero. grieving. Make me bear Christ's death Fac utportem Christi mortem make me share his passion passionis fac me sortem make me recall his wounds et plagas recolere. Ten or twenty years ago, it would dying captivated generations of believers. have been unthinkable or, at least, The embodiment in art and poetry and Sketch by Polish artist improbable to consider writing about music of the Mater dolorosa suggests that Alina Rochowicz Mary as the mother of sorrows. Devotion priority needs to be given to the primary to Mary under that title and in Roman experience which is both imaginative and Catholic circles had its heyday in the 40s affective. and 50s. Time has passed and given us An example of giving priority to the larger perspectives. The flood of peppy imaginative is found in the remarkable and overly optimistic postconciliar medieval hymn Stabat Mater (verses spiritualities failed to satisfy people, above). When these and other similar precisely because they did not and could verses are read in a perspective of male­ not engage people on the level of suffer­ female dynamics and spirituality, some ing. significant conclusions emerge. The poet, There is a vast quantity of suffering in a man, is asking a woman, Mary, to help the world. It extends from deeply per­ him to identify with, join with, partici­ Icon from Priory ofA may, sonal and hidden domains through social pate in the sufferings and death of an­ Belgium patterns and global realities; it even other man, Jesus. reaches a cosmic dimension. These Read in this way, the Stabat Mater abstract levels of suffering are marked out highlights the need or, perhaps more very specifically by sorrowing mothers. In accurately, the necessity of Mary in the some particular and powerful way a large spiritual journey. Gerald May says, " .. .in quantity of human suffering coalesces in my experience I have never met a sincere the hearts of mothers. In this context, the Western spiritual seeker who did not early and, in the Christian tradition, have to encounter Mary at some point paradigmatic figure of Mary, mother of along the way, regardless of that seeker's sorrows is worth pursuing for greater religious denomination. The image of understanding. Mary allows both men and women to Even before a theology of suffering relate their images of the divine in ways was elaborated, the images of a young simply not possible with a totally male and suffering mother bearing a child in a divinity" (Gerald G. May, Will and Spirit: hostile world and an older mother stand­ A Contemplative Psychology, pp. 147-8). Sketch by Pierre Franfois Lehoux ing before the cross of her son as he was (Continued on nextpage) 1 The Stabat Mater, I suggest, captures a Mary's "yes" is not mere acquiescence but way in which Mary gives access to all active engagement in the unfolding of believers to the mystery of Jesus Christ. In salvation. Mary's response to suffering by a particular way, she provides male way of struggle becomes clear in the believers with a possibility for intimate Magnificat. Here we find suffering, relationship with the suffering and dying struggle, hope, courage and anticipation. Jesus, that is, on the level of his vulnera­ 2) PRESENCE -As she shares in the bilities and our vulnerabilities as well as sufferings of her son, Mary accompanies on the level of strong affect or feeling. him, does not "do" anything. Hers is an Although admiration and veneration active and engaged presence which are both historically and theologically includes: knowing, understanding, valid and appropriate, another dimension accepting and loving. When "nothing can of Marian devotion, recently recovered be done" medically, socially, psychother­ Wood Carving from the and reemphasized by Paul VI in Maria/is apeutically, or whatever way, then the Shrine of Our Lady of Cultus, needs our attention. The other core needs of people emerge. They are: Africa, Abidjan, Ivory Coast dimension is identification with Mary or being known, being understood, being the imitation of Mary. Identification with accepted, being loved. These elements Mary means that Christians see her and form the content of Mary's presence. say not only "Look, there is the mother of 3) EXPANSION- A significant re­ sorrows," and admire her, they also say, sponse of Mary to suffering is an expan­ "Here is a life and faith pattern which I sion of consciousness and of concern. can call my own." The gospel narratives are quite clear If we are to trace the biblical witness about this. At the cross, in John's gospel, to Mary's sufferings, her experience of she faces the greatest loss. Precisely at sorrow, a fundamental distinction is that moment, she expands her embrace necessary. We are following the experi­ and receives the beloved disciple and, ence of someone whose title is sorrowful symbolically, all other disciples as their mother, not depressed mother. In the mother. In the face of her most intense gospels as documents of faith, we have suffering, she expands the arena of her Mary's experience of suffering presented concern. Painting by Gerard Dottori in a context of faith, hope, and love. 4) SURRENDER- Mary's surrender is Were the gospels to chronicle her pain a surrender to God. Psychologically, that simply in a context of sadness, perhaps means not clinging to her control over anger, a lack of resolution, and ultimately matters or outcomes. In faith, it means without perceived hope, then she would the radical acknowledgement of God's not emerge as a pained, sorrowing, yet sovereignty. In hope, it means re-imagin­ faith-filled person but rather as a de­ ing the future, not simply making the pressed person. future an extrapolation of the present. In The sufferings endured by Mary were love, it means the movement toward the complex. As we noted, the gospel narra­ union of wills with the one who loves us tives often mix a joy and a sorrow. Their absolutely, unconditionally. layered descriptions ring true to the The mystery of suffering is a mystery texture of real life. In a similar way, one of connection and disconnection. The would expect and correctly find a com­ overall pattern of Mary emergent in our plexity in the responses of Mary to reflection is to link us with Jesus in his Sketch by jean Bernard suffering. Although we instinctively look suffering and dying and rising, to link us for a single solution t9 "the problem of with one another as we share common suffering," faith and, more specifically, struggles and suffering, to link us with a the Mary experience in the New Testa­ larger world of concern. Mary comforts ment lead us to a multifaceted approach. I primarily by being a sacrament of God's will describe her responses under the compassion, enduring, promising, sup­ categories of struggle, presence, expan­ porting. sion, and surrender. How can Mary be the sorrowful 1) STRUGGLE- Mary's first response mother if she has been gloriously as­ to suffering is struggle. Because of an sumed into heaven? Recall the image of excessively passive piety in the past, we the appearing risen Lord who continues Painting from the Church of may be surprised that struggle can be to bear the wounds of his passion. He is the Sorbonne, Paris named the first response to suffering. (Continued o~ bottom of next page) 2 God,s Word and Medjugorje: Yugoslavian Bishops' Statement At a special meeting of the Yugoslavian bishops' Marian Apparitions conference, November 27-28, 1990, in Zagreb, a statement was adopted regarding Medjugorje and All forms of Marian devotion are related in some the apparitions of Mary reported there. A Catholic way to God's Word given us in Christ, and the Church is News Service translation of the Croation text the servant of the Word. In its creeds, councils and follows: solemn pronouncements, the Church proposes to its members those truths founded in God's Word. These "From the very beginning, the bishops have been truths, known as public or foundational revelation, are following the events of Medjugorje through the local to be professed by all members of the Church. bishop, the bishops· commission and the commis­ Since the earliest days of the Church, individuals sion of the Bishops· Conference of Yugoslavia for have claimed to witness apparitions or to receive Medjugorje. on the basis of studies that have been messages, sometimes accompanied by miracles or other made to this moment, it cannot be confirmed that supernatural signs beyond the realm of human explana­ supernatural apparitions and revelations are tion. Frequently, the message recalls a truth of God's occurring here. Word which is neglected or forgotten-the need for penance, reconciliation. All of these specific messages "Yet, the gathering of faithful from various parts of belong to what is known as private or particular revela­ the world to Medjugorje, motivated by reasons of tion, and they are not proposed by the Church for belief faith, requires the pastoral attention and care of the in the same way as public revelation. bishops. Therefore, in the spirit of Church commu­ Both the Fifth Lateran Council (1516) and the nion, our bishops' conference is willing to assist the Council of Trent (1545-1563) gave guidelines for investi­ diocesan bishop in organizing the pastoral activity in gating apparitions and the miracles which may accom­ Medjugorje so that a proper liturgical and sacramen­ pany them.