Offering It Up: Uniting Our Suffering with Christ through Mary
‘The Lord Jesus proclaimed, “for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.” (Matthew 25:35-36)
In identifying Himself with the suffering patient, the Lord Jesus conveys that He is one with those in affliction. What consolation it is to know that we share in Christ’s dignity when we suffer! When we are sick or ill, we are united with Christ, sharing in His suffering just as He shares in ours. This connection is forged as we align our pain and trials with Christ’s redemptive passion on the Cross at Calvary. Our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ empowers us to endure the challenges of seeking medical assistance, whether curable or not. Despite the physical and emotional toll of sickness, through our faith, we offer our pain and suffering to Christ, enabling us to participate in the salvation of souls through the merits of our united suffering.
In our suffering, we can also turn to the Blessed Mother Mary. At the foot of the Cross, Mary stood as a source of consolation and strength for Jesus. She cradled Him in her arms when His lifeless body was taken down from the cross – a poignant image known as the Pieta. This moment encapsulates the profound union of Mary’s extreme sorrow and Jesus’ salvific wounds. In our own suffering, we too are linked to Mary, as we are joined with Christ, wounded and breathless, in the comforting embrace of His mother.
Simeon prophesied, “and a sword will pierce through your own soul also.” (Luke 2:35). Truly, the sorrowful sword is vividly manifested at the foot of the Cross. The spear that pierced Jesus’ heart also pierced the soul of Mary. She, our co-Redemptrix, embraced the divine will of her Son and her God, consenting out of love.
Again, the Lord Jesus said: For… I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.” These words of Jesus apply perfectly to our Mother Mary Most Holy. Jesus was hungry, and Mary not only fed Him in her function as a mother, but also she fed Him with her obedience to the salvific plan of incarnation and passion and resurrection. Jesus was and is hungry for souls that are willing to surrender everything to Him so that those souls will be united with the Will of God (“Thy will be done” – Matthew 6:10) so that God’s designs will save more souls through us. Mary represents the perfect example of feeding Jesus’ “hunger for righteousness” (Matthew 5:6) with her obedience and surrender to the Will of God.
