We adore you, O Christ, and we bless yo

Because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.

Reading

Psalm 22:14-15 New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised Catholic Edition (NRSVACE)

I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax;
it is melted within my breast; my mouth is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue sticks to my jaws;  you lay me in the dust of death.

Meditation

Becoming a parent does not necessarily mean that we fully understand the complete lengths of the undertaking.  It is one thing to behold a pink smiling baby who depends on us completely; another to work through the difficulties of the teenage years as we ease our child into adulthood; and quite another to be there at their death.  It isn’t the correct order many say.  It is a world turned upside down – parents are supposed to ‘go’ first, not after their children.  Yet it happens all too often even today.  Here Jesus has come full circle in his humanity – from the woman who gave him life and shape and who nurtured him through her love and care – and now back ‘home’ we might say.

Yet Mary is not one who clings.  Jesus must return to the earth from which he was made like all humanity.  But before he goes to his tomb there is time for one last embrace.  He is bone from her bones flesh from her flesh.  But he is also the Word made flesh, the light of the world – but the world preferred darkness to the light.

Question

Am I prepared to be there come what may for the whole thing?  Can I bear, with Mary, the suffering of my own humanity as I enter into the suffering of others.  When those I love leave this life will I visit them, spend time with them, look on them with the eyes of love and gratitude?

Our Father………..Glory be……………Hail Mary………….

Prayer

Jesus, may your Mother pray for us so that we may inherit the promises of eternal life. Amen

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