Behold Your Son

We have this week the twin feasts of The Exaltation of the Holy Cross (Sept. 14) and Our Lady of Sorrows (Sept. 15), put together in our liturgical calendar to show the connection between Our Lord and Our Lady in His Passion and Saving Death.
 
Unlike Good Friday, which is dedicated to the Crucifixion of Christ, this feast day celebrates His Holy Cross itself. While Protestants revere the Cross as the instrument of our salvation, Catholicism sees the Lord’s Body upon the Cross as that instrument, which is why we have the Crucifix in our churches and wear this symbol around our necks. However, on Good Friday and on this Feast Day, we venerate Our Lord’s Holy Cross, not simply as a piece of ancient history, but as a relic which connects us to the event of our salvation. 
 
According to longstanding tradition, Saint Helena, mother of the Emperor Constantine discovered the True Cross while on pilgrimage to Jerusalem in AD 326. It is said that although crosses were generally burned by the Romans following an execution, Our Lord was crucified the afternoon of the Sabbath which began the observance of Passover, so the Cross was buried quickly rather than burned. The location of these remains was kept in sacred memory by the early Church, so when the Emperor’s Mother appeared, local Christians showed her where to find them. She sent some pieces of the Cross to various locations, but brought much of it with her back to Rome where it can be seen today in the Basilica of Santa Croce, along with two thorns from the crown that had been placed upon His head and one of the nails that pierced His Holy Body.
 
The Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows is known in some places as Our Lady of Seven Dolors. Not to be confused with the Five Sorrowful Mysteries of the Rosary, Our Lady’s Seven Sorrows are: the Prophecy of Simeon… the Flight into Egypt… the Loss of the child Jesus in the Temple… Meeting Jesus on the Way of the Cross… the Lord’s Descent, or Deposition from the Cross… and the Burial of Jesus. Artwork depicts the Mater Dolorosa  looking heavenward, with tears in her eyes and seven swords protruding from her heart. All seems to be summed up in Michelangelo’s masterpiece, the Pietá which depicts the Blessed Mother cradling the lifeless body of her Son. Sculpted when he was just 26 yeas old, this figure rests just inside the main door of the Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican, where people gaze in contemplation before making their way into the main body of the church.
 
All does not end in sorrow and loss for the Blessed Mother, though. You will recall the Lord’s words to her from the Cross, as He points to the young Saint John and says, “Behold your son.” At this moment the Lord gives His Mother to His Beloved Disciple wherein she becomes Mother of the Church. Saint John will care for her until her death at his home in Ephesus, in modern-day Turkey. Both of these feasts, then, draw us into the beauty and mystery of the Lord’s Passion, not in a maudlin manner, but in contemplation of the Father’s merciful love, the Son’s divine and human love, as well as the Blessed Mother’s maternal care for us, her new sons and daughters. Stabat Mater dolorosa, junta cruce lacrimosa, dum pendent Filius.