III. Our Lady's Dolours
(1) May 17
Mary is the "Regina Martyrum," the Queen of Martyrs
NOTE: From this day to the end of the
month, being the Novena, and Octave of St. Philip, the Meditations are shorter
than the foregoing.—J. H. N.
WHY is she so called?—she who never had any blow, or wound,
or other injury to her consecrated person. How can she be exalted over those
whose bodies suffered the most ruthless violences and the keenest torments for
our Lord's sake? She is, indeed, Queen of all Saints, of those who "walk
with Christ in white, for they are worthy;" but how of those "who
were slain for the Word of God, and for the testimony which they held?"
To answer this question, it must be recollected that the
pains of the soul may be as fierce as those of the body. Bad men who are now in
hell, and the elect of God who are in purgatory, are suffering only in their
souls, for their bodies are still in the dust; yet how severe is that
suffering! And perhaps most people who have lived long can bear witness in
their own persons to a sharpness of distress which was like a sword cutting
them, to a weight and force of sorrow which seemed to throw them down, though
bodily pain there was none.
What an overwhelming horror it must have been for the
Blessed Mary to witness the Passion and the Crucifixion of her Son! Her anguish
was, as Holy Simeon had announced to her, at the time of that Son's
Presentation in the Temple, a sword piercing her soul. If our Lord Himself
could not bear the prospect of what was before Him, and was covered in the
thought of it with a bloody sweat, His soul thus acting upon His body, does not
this show how great mental pain can be? and would it have been wonderful though
Mary's head and heart had given way as she stood under His Cross?
Thus is she most truly the Queen of Martyrs.
