Fourth Joyful Mystery ~ Presentation in the Temple
St Alphonsus de Liguori:
Mary, I say, was already well
aware of all these tortures that Jesus would have to suffer, but Simeon's
words, And Thy own soul a sword shall pierce, revealed to her all the details
of those sufferings, internal and external, that were to torment Him, as Our
Lord Himself revealed to St. Teresa. She consented to everything, however, with
a steadfastness that filled even the Angels with astonishment. She pronounced
the sentence that condemned Her Son to death------a death so ignominious and
painful------when She said: "Eternal Father, since You will that it should
be so, not my will, but Thine be done [Lk. 22: 42]. I unite my will to Your
most holy will, and I sacrifice my Son to You. I am happy to have Him lose His
life for Your glory and the salvation of the world. At the same time I
sacrifice my heart to You so that it may be pierced with sorrow as much as You
please. It is enough for Me, O My God, that You be glorified and content with
my offering: Not my will, but Thine be done."
O immeasurable charity! O
unparalleled constancy! O victory deserving the eternal admiration of Heaven
and earth!
St. Thomas teaches
that the very office of motherhood gives mothers a special right over their
children. Thus, inasmuch as Jesus Himself was innocent and did not deserve
punishment, it seemed only fitting that He should not be condemned to the Cross
as a victim for the sins of the world without the consent of His Mother. Now while Mary
consented to His death from the moment that she became the Mother of Jesus, God
nevertheless wished that she should make a solemn sacrifice of herself in the
Temple on this day by making a solemn offering of the life of her Son.
We begin to see now
how much this sacrifice cost Mary in the way of sorrow, and what heroic virtue
she had to practice in order to assent to the sentence of death passed on her
Son. Imagine, for instance,
Mary on the road to Jerusalem on the first Presentation Day. She hurries toward
the place of sacrifice and holds the beloved Victim in Her arms. She enters the
Temple, approaches the altar, and there, unassumingly, humbly and devoutly
presents Him to the Most High. Meanwhile holy Simeon, who had been promised by
God that he should not die without first having seen the expected Messias,
takes the Divine Child from the hands of the Blessed Virgin and, inspired by
the Holy Spirit, tells her how much the sacrifice of her Son will cost her. He
tells her too that together with Him her own blessed soul will also be
sacrificed.
Yes, Mary was to
suffer in her heart. Her compassion for her most beloved Son was the sword
which was destined to pierce her motherly heart, as St. Simeon accurately
foretold: And thy own soul a sword shall pierce [Lk. 2: 35].
St. Jerome assures us
that the Blessed Virgin was well versed in the Sacred Scriptures and therefore
was aware what the Redeemer would have to suffer during His life, and even more
at the time of His death. She fully understood from the Prophets that He was to
be betrayed by one of His own disciples: Even My friend who had My trust and
partook of My bread, has raised his heel against Me [Ps. 40, 10]. And that He
would be abandoned by them: Strike the shepherd, and the sheep shall be
scattered [Zach. 13: 7]. She knew all about the contempt, the spitting, the
blows, the scorn that He would be made to suffer at the hands of the people: I
have given My body to the strikers, and My cheeks to them that plucked them: I
have not turned away My face from them that rebuked Me and that spit upon Me
[Isa. 50: 6]. She knew that He was to become the reproach of the vilest men and
the outcast of the people, and would be overwhelmed with insults and injuries:
But I am a worm, not a man: the scorn of men, despised by the people [Ps. 21,
7]; And that finally, hanging on a Cross, He would die for the salvation of
mankind: And they shall look upon Me, Whom they have pierced [Zach. 12: 10].
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