OUR MOTHER OF SORROWS – SIXTH SWORD

SIXTH DOLOR OF THE BLESSED EVER-VIRGIN, MARY THE MOTHER OF GOD

THE PIERCING OF THE SIDE OF JESUS, AND HIS DESCENT FROM THE CROSS

St. Alphonsus Liguori – The Glories of Mary

Oh, all ye that pass by the way attend, and see if there be any sorrow like to my sorrow. Devout souls, listen to what the sorrowful Mary says to you today: My beloved children, I do not wish you to console me; no, for my heart can never again be consoled on this earth after the death of my dear Jesus. If you wish to please me, this I ask of you, turn to me and see if there has ever been in the world a grief like mine, when I saw him who was all my love torn from me so cruelly. But, oh Lady, since thou dost not wish to be consoled, and hast such a thirst for suffering, I must say to thee that thy sorrows have not ended with the death of thy Son. Today thou wilt be pierced by another sword of sorrow, when thou shalt see a cruel lance piercing the side of this thy Son, al ready dead, and shalt receive him in thy arms after he is taken from the cross.  And now we are to consider today the sixth dolor which afflicted this sorrowful mother. Attend and weep.

Let us consider what anguish it would cause any mother to receive the lifeless body of a son! it was revealed to St. Bridget, that to take down the body of Jesus, three ladders were placed against the cross. Those holy disciples first drew out the nails from the hands and feet, and according to Metaphrastes, gave them in charge to Mary. Then one supported the upper part of the body of Jesus, the other the lower, and thus took it down from the cross. Bernardino de Bustis describes the afflicted mother as raising herself, and extending her arms to meet her dear Son; she embraces him, and then sits down at the foot of the cross. She sees his mouth open, his eye shut, she examines the lacerated flesh, and those exposed bones; she takes off the crown, and sees the cruel injury made by those thorns, in that sacred head; she looks upon those pierced hands and feet, and says: Ah, my Son, to what has the love thou didst bear to men reduced thee! But what evil have thou done to them, that they have treated thee so cruelly? Thou wast my Father, Bernardino de Bustis imagines her to say, my brother, my spouse, my delight, my glory, my all. Oh, my Son, behold how I am afflicted, look upon me and console me; but thou dost look upon me no more. Speak, speak to me but one word, and console me; but thou dost speak no more, for thou art dead. Then turning to those barbarous instruments, she said: Oh cruel thorns, oh nails, oh merciless spear, how could you thus torture your Creator? But what thorns, what nails? Alas! sinners, she exclaimed, it is you who have thus cruelly treated my Son. Thus Mary spoke and complained of us. But if now she were capable of suffering, what would she say? What grief would she feel to see that men after the death of her Son, continue to torment and crucify him by their sins? Let us no longer give pain to this sorrowful mother; and if we also have hither to grieved her by our sins, let us now do what she directs. She says to us Return, ye transgressors, to the heart: Return, Sinners, return to the wounded heart of my Jesus; return as penitents, for he will receive you. Flee from him to him, she continues to say with Guerric the Abbot; from the Judge to the Redeemer, from the tribunal to the cross. The Virgin herself revealed to St. Bridget that she closed the eyes of her Son, when he was taken down from the cross, but she could not close his arms: 

The Disciple relates  that there was once a poor sinner who, among other crimes, had killed his father and a brother, and therefore be came a fugitive. Happening to hear one day during Lent, a sermon upon the divine mercy, he went to the preacher himself to make his confession. The confessor having heard his crimes, sent him to an altar of the sorrowful mother to pray that she might obtain for him compunction and pardon of his sins. The sinner obeyed, and began to pray, when behold, suddenly over powered by contrition, he falls down dead. On the following day when the priest recommended to the people to pray for the deceased, a white dove appeared in the church and let fall a card at the feet of the priest. He took it up, and found these words written on it: The soul of the dead, when it left the body, immediately went to paradise; and do you continue to praise the infinite mercy of God.

Prayer:

Oh afflicted Virgin! oh soul, great in virtues and great also in sorrows! for both arise from that great fire of love thou hast for God; thou whose heart can love nothing but God; oh mother, have pity on me, for I have not loved God, and I have so much offended him. Thy sorrows give me great confidence to hope for pardon. But this is not enough; I wish to love my Lord, and who can better obtain this for me than thou thou who art the mother of fair love? Ah Mary, thou dost console all, comfort me also. Amen.

Taking Christ down from the Cross and being laid in Mary’s Arms

The Sixth Sword that pierced Mary’s heart is forever etched in the famed statuary The Pieta. Before capturing that moment, the Mother of God stood weeping at the foot of Her Son’s Cross, and watched as He breathed forth His last agonizing breath, and gave up His soul to His Almighty Father. She watched as the soldier thrust a lance through His side, piercing His Most Sacred and Merciful Heart. She winced in physical pain for Her Son could no longer feel pain. He was dead. Thus the full physical pain mystically transferred to her who bore the brunt for the sake of souls around her and those to come in all future generations. She watched as the nails were pulled and yanked from His gnarled hands and brittle wrists, now smaller than her own, and His bloody, blackened and mud-caked feet. It must have seemed like an eternity as the lifeless body was lowered to the ground where Mary sat, waiting to cradle the dead body of her Divine Son. Can we possibly imagine the pain? Can we possibly imagine how she felt at that moment? Michelangelo Buonorotti captured it best in his stunning, world-renowned inspired sculpture of The Pieta residing today behind glass to the right of the entrance into St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Even more, can we understand that throughout everything Mary bore all her sufferings bravely, many times in silence or alone, never wavering in her total obedience and fiat she had promised God at the Annunciation.

Meditation and Prayer for the Sixth Sorrow that pierced Mary’s Immaculate Heart

It is consummated. Dark clouds have appeared in the sky and upon the world. Jesus is dead. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus take down the Body from the Cross. and Mary receives It in her arms. She is filled with a sadness that no human heart has known. This is her Son. Once she had cradled Him in her arms. listened to His voice, watched Him working at the carpenter’s bench. Now He is dead. She does not weep, her grief is too great for tears.

V: O God, come to my assistance;

R: O Lord, make haste to help me

V: Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.

R: As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

I grieve for thee, O Mary most sorrowful, in the wounding of thy compassionate heart, when the side of Jesus was struck by the lance before His Body was removed from the cross. Dear Mother, by thy heart thus transfixed, obtain for me the virtue of fraternal charity and the gift of understanding.

Hail Mary