Newsletter n. 4/23 – The sorrows of Mary Most Holy

Mary Most Holy, even if in Heaven, does she suffer?

The problem is serious, and the provocation is great. Above all, however, the provocation is particularly for those who live a facade of Christianity, who do not disturb the quiet life; the one who almost always wants to come to terms with the world, the flesh and even the devil; that world for which Jesus did not pray (cf. Jn 14:27), for those who clothe themselves with shouted slogans – but substantially false, even if pleasant – such as: first of all peace, justice, love…

How not to think of that famous phrase by Shakespeare: “There are more things in heaven and Earth, Horatio, / Than are dreamt of in your philosophy” (W. Shakespeare, Hamlet Act I scene 5 [1.5.167-8]). Famous phrase that we must always have in front of us when some difficulty presents itself in the eyes of our reason, because we must remain in the indispensable humility to understand something of the reality that we find ourselves having to face. Horace, Hamlet‘s friend, was looking for reasons to explain the appearance of the ghost of Hamlet’s father, here the apparent scandal has another argument.

However, while remaining in the great mystery, we can at least guess something. Pius XII also faced the problem when he had to shed light on the Assumption (11-1-1950): “Without a doubt Mary is eternally happy in Heaven and she suffers neither pain nor sadness; but she does not remain insensitive to it because she, on the contrary, always nourishes love and pity for the miserable human race, to which she was given as a Mother when she, painful and weeping, stood at the foot of the cross, where her son was affixed” (17 -10-1954). Cardinal Martini expressed a similar concept regarding the saints: “the happiness of the saints is not so imperfect that it does not agree to involve itself in human unhappiness”.

All this is true, but it must be understood well. The pain of Mary Most Holy is not connected to original sin, it does not depend on it as for all of us, and it is not even a physical or psychic or mental pain. Mary suffers from maternal love. What the ancient Greeks called “pathos” – tha tmeans “compassion” – is what happens to her. That is, it depends on the category of “compassion”. A further clarification is necessary: it is the compassion that the prophets spoke of the impassive God by definition as He observed the sins and misfortunes of Israel: “I saw all the misery of my people in Egypt… Therefore I went down to free them from the hand of the Egyptians” (Ex 3:7-8). Paradise – and therefore God who revealed himself in Christ – is not the impassive reality of philosophers or esotericists, infinitely distant and totally insensitive to human pain. The prophets were not pagan haruspices or soothsayers who scrutinize an already established future, and therefore indifferent to the misfortunes they perhaps foretold. This same “compassion” of God is also present in Mary Most Holy, and of this sharing she lives today in Paradise. The words written by Maria Valtorta are explained thus. “Mary is the eternal puerpera who gives birth to you with unparalleled pain, because she knows that that pain generates not the blessed in Heaven but, for the most part, the damned in Hell. She knows that she begets creatures who are dead or destined to die soon”. This pain of compassion for those who have decided to keep themselves far from God will remain in her, Mother of all the Living, until Christ returns victorious and glorious: “When time ceases to exist, then Mary will cease to suffer, because the number of the blessed will be complete”. All this also tells us the mysterious closeness that the Mother has with us today. The “pathos” of sharing thrills her until the last day.

So I think I can add that Mary Most Holy will experience this involvement even after, but it will be a participation for the redeemed in Paradise. It will be the joy of all the joys, that only Grace will allow her to enjoy. Close to us now, participating in our choices now and, hopefully, participating in our joy forever.

“But in the ‘Full of Grace’ there was also the knowledge of the centuries to come, in which incalculable hordes of men would continue to wound her Son spiritually, and she was alone. The deicide did not end on Golgotha at the hour of my death. It repeats itself every time one of my redeemed kills his soul, desecrates the living temple of his spirit, raises the sacrilegious mind to blaspheme Me, not only with obscene foul language, but with a thousand ways of living today, more and more contrary to my Law. and ever more neutralizing the incalculable merits of my Passion and Death. Mary, excellent Coredemptrix, does not cease to suffer, as I do not cease. In the intangible glory of Heaven, We suffer for the men who deny and offend Us. Mary is the eternal puerpera who gives birth to you with unparalleled pain, because she knows that that pain generates not the blessed in Heaven but, for the most part, the damned in Hell. She knows that she begets creatures that are dead or destined to die soon. Dead, because my Blood does not penetrate certain creatures, as if they were made of extremely hard jasper. From a young age they kill themselves. Or destined to die soon, that is, those who, after a ghost of Christian vitality, succumb to their inertia that shakes nothing. Can Mary not suffer from seeing her creatures perish which cost the Blood of her Son? Blood shed for all and benefiting so few! When time ceases to exist, then Mary will cease to suffer, because the number of blessed will be complete. She will have generated, with unspeakable pain, the body that does not die, of which her Firstborn is her head. If you consider this, you can well understand how Mary’s pain was the greatest pain. You can understand how – great in her Immaculate Conception, great in her glorious Assumption – Mary was very great in the cycle of my Passion, that is, from the evening of the Supper to the dawn of the Resurrection. Then She was the second – in number and power – the second Christ, and while the sky darkened over the accomplished tragedy and the veil of the Temple was torn, our Hearts were torn apart by the same wound seeing the immeasurable number for which the Passion was useless” (Notebooks 1943, pp. 137-138 – italian edition).

Holy Easter!