The Other Side of the Cross!

Monday, September 15, 2025

Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows!

Heb 5:7-9; Jn 19:25-27

The Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows invites us not only to find the woman in grief but also the Mother of hope who dared to see the other side of the cross.

It is true that Mary carried her daily cross, but she did not think that the cross and the death it led to were final. She firmly believed in God’s promises and today invites us to do the same. 

The celebration of the feast provides us with two key insights. 

Suffering Rooted in Love: Mary suffered. But her suffering was not empty. Hence, it was not in vain that she suffered with her son on the cross. Her life reveals two secrets: with her loud ‘yes,’ she participated in God’s plan of salvation; with her silent agony, she participated in the cross of her son. While Mary’s ‘yes’ to God always remained unconditional, she always remained faithful to her words, regardless of the fact that it drove her to Egypt or Calvary. Thus, we can see that both her joy of being the Mother of God and her grief under the cross were salvific. The one who offered everything to God had the courage to accompany God’s will with a ‘come what may’ attitude. 

Suffering Founded on Hope: Mary’s suffering reveals another new dimension, which is the dimension of hope. How was Mary hopeful even when she was surrounded by the agonizing realities of life? Because, for Mary, suffering would be meaningless if not for Christian hope. Hence, while she stood under the cross, her hope-filled heart looked forward to witnessing the other side of it. Thus, the grieving woman was not a hopeless observer of her son’s death but a Mother who exuded faith, strength, and hope because she firmly believed that on the other side of the cross was found the glory of resurrection. Yes, Mary was sorrowful, but she was also hopeful. Hope was her weapon to fight grief and despair. 

In her suffering, Mary did not throw tantrums. Instead, the one who kept discerning God’s will hoped that the faithful God would fulfill His promises. 

The reality of the cross could not move Mary to tears of despair. Instead, it gave her the eyes of faith with which she looked upon the glory of the resurrection. 

Let us pray that, following the example of Mary, we may continue to walk the way of sorrow, without stopping in fear or despair. 

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar