Ave Maria Meditations
The Messiah came to the temple in His Mother’s arms. No one would’ve paid much attention to the young couple who are taking a little child to present Him to the Lord…
The time will come when Jesus will not be offered in the temple nor in the arms of Simeon, but outside the city walls on the arms of a Cross. The time will come when He will not be ransomed with money but will Himself redeem others with His own Blood, for God the Father has sent Him as a ransom for His people.
The suffering of His Mother, the sword that will pierce her soul, will have as its only cause the agony of her Son, His persecution and death, the uncertainty about when these things will happen and the resistance to the grace of the redemption, which will be the ruin of many. Mary’s destiny is bound up with that of Jesus in its operation and without any other possible reason.
The joy of the redemption and the pain of the Cross are inseparable in the lives of Jesus and Mary, as if God through His most beloved creatures in the world wished to show us that happiness is to be found close to the Cross. Right from the start then, the lives of our Lord and of His Mother are stamped with the sign of the Cross… Mary’s suffering has an especially suitable meaning and is related to the sins of mankind. It is a co-redemptive suffering and that is why the Church gives to the Blessed Virgin the title of Co-redemptrix…The holy Mass is the most suitable moment for offering all that is most painful in our lives. And there we will encounter Our Lady.
From “In Conversation with God” by Fr. Francis Fernandez
