This was one of the many sorrows that she carried in her heart her entire life.

Read more in Our Lady of Sorrows: A Compilation of the Teachings of St. Alphonsus Liguori, from SlayingDragonsPress.com

At her meeting with St. Simeon, when the baby Jesus was presented to the Lord in the Temple, the man of God prophesied, “Behold this child is set for the fall, and for the resurrection of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be contradicted.”[1]

St. Alphonsus explains, in this book, “The holy Virgin herself said to St. Matilda that, at the announcement of St. Simeon, all her joy was changed into sorrow. For, as it was revealed to St. Theresa, the Blessed Mother, although she knew before this that the life of her Son would be sacrificed for the salvation of the world, yet she then learned more particularly and distinctly the sufferings and cruel death that awaited her poor Son.”

St. Alphonsus Liguori outlined the Eight Ways in which Our Lord was contradicted and how this treatment He that received from the Jews made their request for His Crucifixion impossible for Pilate to dismiss.

First Contradiction: Doctrine

Our Lord was contradicted in His doctrine. St. Alphonsus said, “Instead of being believed, he would be esteemed a blasphemer for teaching that he was the Son of God, as the impious Caiaphas declared him to be, saying: ‘He hath blasphemed, he is guilty of death’.”[2] 

Second Contradiction: Reputation

Our Lord, as St. Alphonsus stated, “Was contradicted in His reputation, for He was noble, of royal lineage, and was despised as a peasant: ‘Is not this the carpenter's son?’[3] ‘Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary?’[4]” 

Third Contradiction: Wisdom

Our Lord, as St. Alphonsus highlighted, was Wisdom itself but He was treated as an ignorant man: “How doth this man know letters, having never learned?”[5] 

Fourth Contradiction: Mission

Our Lord was contradicted in His mission and regarded as a false prophet: “And they blindfolded him and smote his face … saying: ‘Prophesy who is this that struck thee’.”[6] 

Fifth Contradiction: Sanity

Our Lord was treated as a madman by His persecutors: “He is mad, why hear you him?”[7] 

Sixth Contradiction: Virtue

Our Lord was contradicted by the accusations that He was simply a drunkard, a glutton, and a friend of sinners: “Behold a man that is a glutton, and a drinker of wine, a friend of publicans and sinners.”[8] 

Seventh Contradiction: Goodness

Shockingly, Our Lord was also contradicted by those who even accused Him of being a sorcerer: “By the prince of devils he casteth out devils.”[9] 

Eighth Contradiction: Holiness

Finally, Our Lord was contradicted by the accusation that He was a heretic and a possessed man: “Do we not say well of thee, that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil?”[10] 

As a result of all of these, His Death was made certain…

In light of the existence of these contradictions to His mission and to His very Person, St. Alphonsus clarifies that this presented an insurmountable situation for His earthly judge. As he stated, “In a word, Jesus was considered as so bad and notorious a man, that no trial was necessary to condemn him, as the Jews said to Pilate: ‘If he were not a malefactor, we would not have delivered him up to thee’.”[11]

It was this understanding which Our Lady carried in her soul from the moment of the Presentation of the Child Jesus in the Temple, when St. Simeon prophesied that Jesus would be “a sign which shall be contradicted” and, to Our Lady, that “thy own soul a sword shall pierce.” It was these that burdened her Immaculate Heart as she nurtured Him from infancy to His burial in the tomb. Every time she looked upon Him, with a love beyond our comprehension, she could not avoid seeing His destiny and the immense suffering that would one day take Him from her side, placing, in His stead, the prophesied sword of her immense sorrows.

St. Alphonsus explains further, “The Lord exercises His compassion towards us, namely, that He does not make known to us the crosses that await us; that if we are to suffer them, at least we may suffer them only once. But He did not exercise this compassion with Mary, who, because God wished her to be the queen of dolors, and in all things like His Son, and to see always before her eyes, and to suffer continually all the sorrows that awaited her; and those were the sufferings of the passion and death of her beloved Jesus.”

Read more of the eloquent wisdom of St. Alphonsus Liguori as compiled in Our Lady of Sorrows, by SlayingDragonsPress.com.