Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows

She Stood There

here’s one little detail in today’s Gospel that I think says almost everything we need to know about Mary on this feast. John tells us that Mary was standing by the cross. She stood there.

And we shouldn’t pass over what that must have meant. This was her Son. She had held him as a child. She had watched him grow. And now she stood there watching him suffer. She couldn’t stop what was happening. She couldn’t take away his suffering. She couldn’t fix it. All she could do was stay close to him.

And I think there are times in our own lives when that’s all we can do. We’ve probably all stood beside someone we love who was suffering. And we wanted to make things better. We wanted to say the right thing or somehow take the pain away. But sometimes there is nothing we can say. There is nothing we can fix. Mary shows us that sometimes love simply stays.

And that’s true in our relationship with God as well. When we’re hurting, when we don’t understand what God is doing, when our prayers don’t seem to be answered the way we hoped, we may be tempted to pull away. Mary does the opposite. She stays close to Jesus.

And maybe that’s the invitation of Our Lady of Sorrows today. When we don’t understand—stay close to Jesus. When we’re hurting—stay close to Jesus. When there’s nothing we can do to change what is happening—stay close to Jesus.

Because sometimes the greatest act of faith is simply refusing to walk away.