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Nine Questions About Our Lady of Sorrows – Answered – by St. Alphonsus Liguori

Nine Questions About Our Lady of Sorrows – Answered – by St. Alphonsus Liguori

1. Did the Resurrection heal the pain Our Lady experienced after watching Our Lord suffer on the Cross?
Even after the Ascension, Our Lady’s "heart was always occupied with thoughts of sadness and of suffering," and, whether she ate or worked, the memory of His Passion was "was deeply impressed and ever recent in her tender heart."

2. When did her martyrdom begin?
"And from this we shall see that Mary was not only a true martyr, but that her martyrdom surpassed that of all the other martyrs, for it was a longer martyrdom, and, if I may thus express it, all her life was a long death. [Her grief was] a grief sufficient to cause her not only one, but a thousand deaths."

3. What were some of the things that caused Our Lady so much pain throughout her life? 
When Jesus was contradicted in His doctrine (accused of blasphemy), in His reputation (dismissed as a mere carpenter), in His wisdom (questioning the origin of His knowledge), in His mission (accused of being a false prophet), in His sanity (accused of being a madman), in His virtue (accused of being a friend of sinners and a drunkard), in His goodness (accused of being a devil), and in His holiness (accused of being a heretic and possessed).

4. What was the most significant of the seven Sorrows?
Losing Jesus in the Temple. "Some writers assert, and not without reason, that this dolor was not only one of the greatest, but that it was the greatest and most painful of all. For in the first place, Mary in her other dolors had Jesus with her…but in this dolor she suffered at a distance from Jesus, without knowing where he was: 'And the light of my eyes itself is not with me.' Mary understood well the cause and end of the other dolors, namely, the redemption of the world, the divine will; but in this she did not know the cause of the absence of her Son. The sorrowful mother was grieved to find Jesus withdrawn from her, for her humility, says Lanspergius, made her consider herself unworthy to remain with him any longer, and attend upon him on earth, and have the care of such a treasure."

5. What was the only sorrow in which Our Lady complained?
Losing Jesus in the Temple. "Certainly there is no greater grief for a soul that loves God than the fear of having displeased him. And therefore Mary never complained in any other sorrow but this, lovingly expostulating with Jesus after she found him: 'Son, why hast thou done so to us? Thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing.' By these words she did not wish to reprove Jesus, as the heretics blasphemously assert, but only to make known to him the grief she had experienced during his absence from her, on account of the love she bore him."

6. Why did the love of Christ ease the sufferings of the martyrs but not Mary’s?
"While the other martyrs…are all represented with the instrument of their passion; Saint Andrew with a cross, Saint Paul with a sword, Saint Lawrence with a gridiron; Mary is represented with her dead Son in her arms, for Jesus himself alone was the instrument of her martyrdom by reason of the love which she bore him."
"Therefore, the more she loved him, the more bitter and inconsolable was her sorrow. 'Great as the sea is thy destruction, who shall heal thee?' Ah, queen of heaven, love hath alleviated the sufferings of other martyrs, and has healed their wounds; but who has ever soothed thy great sorrow? Who has ever healed the cruel wounds of thy heart? Who will heal thee? -'Quis medebitur tui?'- if that same Son, who could give thee consolation, was by his sufferings the sole cause of thy sorrows, and the love that thou didst bear him caused all thy martyrdom?"

7. Did the presence of Our Lady at Calvary provide a comfort to Jesus, who was then surrounded by enemies on all sides?
"Thus the afflicted mother saw her Jesus suffering on every side; she desired to comfort him, but could not. And what caused her the greatest sorrow was to see that, by her presence and her grief, she increased the sufferings of her Son. The sorrow itself, says St. Bernard, that filled the heart of Mary, increased the bitterness of sorrow in the heart of Jesus. St. Bernard also says that Jesus on the cross suffered more from compassion for his mother than from his own pains: he thus speaks in the name of the Virgin: I stood and looked upon him, and he looked upon me; and he suffered more for me than for himself. "

8. What was Mary's one consolation in the sea of bitterness?
"Therefore, we know that by the merits of her dolors she co-operated with Christ in bringing us forth to the life of grace, and therefore we are children of her sorrows: Christ, says Lanspergius, wished her whom he had appointed for our mother to co-operate with him in our redemption; for she herself at the foot of the cross was to bring us forth as her children. And if ever any consolation entered into that sea of bitterness, namely, the heart of Mary, it was this only one; namely, the knowledge that by means of her sorrows, she was bringing us to eternal salvation."

9. When did the virtues of Mary, always present, attain their highest degree of splendor?
"Of these virtues the life of Mary bears in all its phases the brilliant character; but they attained their highest degree of splendor at the time when she stood by her dying Son. Jesus is nailed to the cross, and the malediction is hurled against Him that 'He made Himself the Son of God.' But she unceasingly recognized and adored the divinity in Him. She bore His dead body to the tomb, but never for a moment doubted that He would rise again. Then the love of God with which she burned made her a partaker in the sufferings of Christ and the associate in His passion."

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