As we continue on our Lenten preparation, let us meditate on the third sorrow of Our Lady: Mary spends three days in search of the Child Jesus in Jerusalem (Luke 2:43-50). Most of us can only dare to imagine the love that a mother’s heart has for her child. Yet the Immaculate Mary has a love for her Divine Son that infinitely surpasses all other motherly love. How great then must have been her sorrow and worry when Jesus disappeared from her. Never in all of human history has any one had such a dark night of the soul as Mary did in Jerusalem.
Throughout the season of Lent we often reflect on the time Christ spent fasting in the desert. Let us instead, for a moment, relate Lent to this sorrow of Mary. For we do not spend our lives in a desert or in isolation. Rather, most of us live in a “Jerusalem” that is bustling with noise and activity, and we are searching for the Joy that can only be found in Jesus. Often the city is much more desolate than the desert because it is rich with distractions and vices. Mary was separated from the Love of God only by distance while we are separated from Him by sin. Which is more disastrous?
But Mary persevered in her search, praying unceasingly for three days. If we recall where she found her Son, it may seem obvious to us that Jesus should be found in the Temple, in His Father’s house (Luke 2:49). So too should it also be obvious to us where we ought to find Jesus. Therefore, let Our Lady be a reminder to us to step outside of our deserts and, for a moment, go out of our way to kneel in the silence of a church or chapel. In the Church, the “New Jerusalem” (Revelation 3:12, 21:2), we will not be surprised to find Jesus in His majesty and splendor, in His mercy and love. Mother of Sorrows, patroness of Holy Cross, help us this Lenten season to earnestly seek Jesus as you did so perfectly in Jerusalem, and grant that we may never lose Him again through our sins.
- Karl Romkema
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