The Church’s liturgy for this weekend is surely a gift given to us by Divine Providence, given to us in order to proclaim the unchangeable truths of our salvation in the midst of the confusion and blasphemy which echoes all around us.
Just as the feast of Corpus Christi was instituted by the Church in order to provide another opportunity to give honour to and reflect upon the reality of the Eucharist – the Church fearing that the feast of Holy Thursday alone be insufficient given the very many themes to be reflected upon during Holy Week. So too with the feast of the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady on the Friday of Passion Week and of course the Commemoration of the Passion on Good Friday, the Church provides another occasion in the liturgical year to honour and reflect upon these mysteries in the feasts of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross followed by the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows.
Even by the very dates, Holy Mother Church teaches her children that the Cross and Our Lady cannot be separated. And when the Church says ‘the Cross’ it means the saving death of Our Lord Jesus Christ which accomplished the redemption of the world. The saving redemption of Christ intrinsically includes Our Lady. People can start to feel uncomfortable with statements like this but, whilst we have to acknowledge the utter dependence of Our Lady on God for all that she was and did, nevertheless we must acknowledge that it was God’s plan to include this most perfect creature of His at the very centre of his work of salvation.
It is from the mystery of Our Lady’s union with the Cross of Her Son that we speak of Her as Co-Redemptrix. This form of title first appeared in the Church in the middle ages and has remained part of popular devotion ever since. The title was first used in a papal pronouncement by Pope Leo XIII but then subsequently by Popes Benedict XV, Pius XI and Pius XII. In each of these statements, the Popes remind us of Our Lady’s union with Christ in the redemption of the world and that therefore we can say that “with Christ she redeemed mankind.”
The saving Cross of Christ includes, by God’s Will, the maternal offering of Our Lady whose soul was pierced as the lance pierced the heart of Her Son.
The Cross of Christ, with which Our Lady is intrinsically united, is the only way to salvation. “Ave Crux, spes unica!” the Church cries out, “Hail O Cross, our ONLY hope”. Yet now apparently the Church no longer makes this acclamation but instead recognises that all religions are paths to God and that no religion is more important than any other. Francis recently decided that he would remove the sacred sign of the Cross from a blessing, in order to make it “valid” for everyone. This action and these claims by the current bishop of Rome are not only heresy but a shocking blasphemy against the one Saviour of the world. In May of this year, Francis also said in an address that “our cultures have taught us to call God by a name, a different one, and to find him in different ways…All religions, all cultures, look to the one God in different ways.” There is no other name by which anyone can be saved except by the name of Jesus and those who claim otherwise reveal that they bear the spirit of anti-Christ.
It is somewhat missing the mark however to see what Francis has said as somehow a problem particular to him. Francis is the pure fruit of the errors of Vatican II. The Council stated that other religions contain elements of truth which come from God and that these religions are therefore ordered towards the same Creator worshipped in truth by Christians – the ludicracy of these pronouncements can be easily deduced by the fact that some religions don’t even have a concept of a creator, or, like Buddhism, don’t even believe in God but instead encourage followers to annihilation of self, to becoming nothing. “The gods of the heathens are devils” the psalmist reminds us.
As we honour and seek the intercession of Our Blessed Mother on this feast in which we are reminded of Our Lady’s intrinsic role as Co-Redemptrix with Christ: we reject Francis’ claim that this title is “foolishness” (Homily, 12th December 2019) and we ask Our Lady to help us be ever more united with the Cross of Her Son. Our Lord and His Blessed Mother underwent sufferings beyond our comprehension in order to save souls, in order to gain for all people an opportunity to be freed from sin. To state that we must not try and convince people of this Truth, as Francis continues to state, not only endangers souls but is the most heinous ingratitude for what Christ and Our Lady underwent for us.
Here in the Sacrifice of the Mass, we stand with Our Lady at the foot of the Cross and we could perhaps find no better way to pray the Mass more deeply than to repeat the words from the Stabat Mater that we prayed before the Gospel:
Let me share with you His pain,
Who for all our sins was slain,
Who for me in torments died.
Can the human heart refrain
From partaking in her pain,
In that Mother’s pain untold?
O sweet Mother! fount of love,
Touch my spirit from above,
Make my heart with yours accord.
Make me feel as you have felt;
Make my soul to glow and melt
With the love of Christ, my Lord.
Holy Mother, pierce me through,
In my heart each wound renew
Of my Saviour crucified.