6th Sorrow

THE SCHOOL AND SCIENCE OF SORROW AND SUFFERING

The School of Saints
“My most holy Son and myself are trying to find, among those who have arrived at the Way of the Cross, some soul, whom We can instruct systematically in this Divine Science; and whom We can withdraw from the worldly and diabolical wisdom, in which the sons of Adam, with blind stubbornness, are rejecting the salutary discipline of sufferings. If thou wishest to be our disciple, enter into this school, in which alone is taught the Doctrine of the Cross and the manner of reaching true peace and veritable delights. With this wisdom, the earthly love of sensible pleasures and riches is not compatible; nor the vain ostentation and pomp, which fascinates the bleary-eyed worldlings, who are so covetous of passing honors, and so full of ignorant admiration for costly grandeur” (Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda).

The Science of Saints
“My daughter, in all that thou art made to understand and write concerning these mysteries, thou drawest upon thyself, and upon mortals, a severe judgment, if thou dost not overcome thy pusillanimity, ingratitude and baseness, by meditating day and night on the Passion and Death of Jesus crucified. This is the great Science of the Saints, so little heeded by the worldly, it is the Bread of Life and the Spiritual Food of the little ones, which gives Wisdom to them and the lack of which starves the lovers of this proud world . In this science I wish thee to be studious and wise, for with it thou canst buy thyself all good things. My Son and Lord taught us this Science when He said: ‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life: no one cometh to My Father except through Me’ (John 14:6). ” (Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda).

THE SIXTH SORROW OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY
Mary receives the dead Body of Jesus in her arms

There are many varieties of human sorrow. It is difficult to compare them one with another: because each has its peculiarity, and each peculiarity has an eminence of suffering belonging to it, in which no other sorrow shares. Thus it may easily happen that a sorrow, which in itself looks less than another may in reality be greater, because of the time at which it comes, or the circumstances under which it occurs, or the position which it occupies in a series of other griefs.

This is the case with the sixth dolor, the Taking down from the Cross. It is the grief of an accomplished sorrow, and in this respect differs at once from the strain of a distressing anticipation, or the active struggle of a present misery actually accomplishing itself. This difference cannot be unknown to us in our own experience. When we are in the act of suffering we are not fully conscious of the efforts we are making. Our whole nature rises to meet what we have to endure. Capabilities of pain, of which we had hitherto no suspicion, disclose themselves. Perhaps also we have a greater amount of supernatural assistance than afterwards. But when the pressure is lightened, when the strife is over, then we become conscious of the drain which grief has made upon our strength. The weariness of sorrow, like bodily fatigue, comes when all is over. We stiffen, as it were, and our heart begins to ache more sensibly, in the seeming tranquility which follows the misfortune. The reaction makes itself felt in a peculiar depression, which is almost more hard to bear than actual suffering, not so much because it is intrinsically greater than actual suffering, but because it comes after it, and, being itself the exhaustion of our powers of endurance, it has nothing under it to support it.

It happens also for the most part that, by a merciful cruelty of Providence, our ordinary duties, or even, sometimes new duties to which our sorrow has given birth, present themselves before us, and require our energy and attention. But, while this often hinders the reaction of sorrow from going too far, it is also in itself hard to bear. We are seldom in greater want of grace than in this moment of resuming the duties of our station after an interruption of more than common sorrow. It is like beginning life again at a disadvantage. We have perhaps more to do, when we are less able to do it. We have used up our power of bearing grief, and just when the rawness of our misery is passing off, new duties come which, either by contrast or by association, open the old wounds afresh, and how are we to endure it?

Moreover excessive grief, even, when it lasts but for a short time, seems to have a peculiar power to destroy habits. Things, even hard things, are easy to us, because we are accustomed to them. But after violent sorrow, everything appears new and strange. We have lost our old facility. Things have changed places in our minds. Easy things are now hard, because of this very novelty. Yet life is inexorable. It must go on, and under the old laws, like a ruthless machine which cannot feel, and therefore cannot make allowances. Now perhaps is a greater trial of our worth than when we were enduring the blows which misfortune was dealing upon us. This is the account of the sixth dolor; this is the place it occupies in the sorrows of our dearest Mother. Think of the Crucifixion, and all that it involved, and is not the reaction after that likely to be something which it is quite beyond our power adequately to conceive? Immense as is the holiness of her Immaculate Heart, sorrow can still find work to do, and can build the edifice higher, as well as embellish what is built already.

Below you will find an account of the Crucifixion and Death of Our Lord, together with some comments of Our Lady, as related by Our Lady to the Venerable Mary of Agreda, taken from the book, The Mystical City of God.

THE MYSTICAL CITY OF GOD : Volume 3 : The Transfixion
Book 2: "Jesus is Taken Down from the Cross and placed in the Arms of Mary"

The Evangelist, St. John, tells us that near the Cross stood Mary, the most holy Mother of Jesus, with Mary Cleophas and Mary Magdalen. Although this is said of the time before Jesus expired, it must be understood, that the unconquerable Queen remained also afterwards, always standing beneath the Cross and adoring her dead Jesus and His divinity inseparably united to His sacred body. Amid the impetuous floods of sorrow, that penetrated to the inmost recesses of her chastest heart, the great Lady remained immovably constant in the exercise of ineffable virtues, while contemplating within her the mysteries of man’s Redemption and the order in which divine Wisdom disposed of all these sacraments. The greatest affliction of the Mother of mercy was the traitorous ingratitude, which men, to their own great loss, would show toward this extraordinary blessing, so worthy of eternal thanksgiving. But now she was especially solicitous for the burial of the sacred body of her divine Son and how to procure some one to take it down from the Cross. Full of this sorrowful anxiety, keeping her heavenly eyes riveted upon it, she turned to her holy angels around her and spoke to them: “Ministers of the Most High, my friends in tribulation, you know that there is no sorrow like unto my sorrow; tell me then, how shall I take down from the Cross, whom my soul loves; how and where shall I give Him honorable burial, since this duty pertains to me as his Mother? Tell me what to do, and assist me on this occasion by your diligence.”

The holy angels answered: “Our Queen and Mistress, let thy afflicted heart be dilated, for what is still to be borne. The omnipotent Lord has concealed His glory and power from mortals in order to subject Himself to the cruelty of man’s impious malice, and has always permitted the laws established for the course of human events to be fulfilled. One of them is, that the condemned shall not leave the cross without the consent of the judge. We are ready and able to obey thee and to defend our true God and Creator, but His will restrains us, because He wishes to justify His cause to the end and to shed the rest of the blood still in Him for the benefit of mankind, and in order that He may bind them still more firmly to make a return for His copious and redeeming love (Psalm 79:7). If they do not avail themselves of this blessing as they ought, their punishment shall be deplorable and its severity shall make amends for the long-suffering of God in delaying His vengeance.” This answer of the angels increased the sorrow of the afflicted Mother; for it had not been as yet revealed to her, that her divine Son should be wounded by the lance, and the fear of what should happen to the sacred body renewed her tribulation and anxiety.

She soon saw an armed band approaching Calvary; and in her dread of some new outrage against the deceased Savior, she spoke to St. John and the pious women : “Alas, now shall my affliction reach its utmost and transfix my heart! Is it possible, that the executioners and the Jews are not yet satisfied with having put to death my Son and Lord? Shall they now heap more injury upon His dead body?” It was the evening of the great Sabbath of the Jews, and in order to celebrate it with unburdened minds, they had asked Pilate for permission to shatter the limbs of the three men sentenced, so that, their death being hastened, they might be taken from the crosses and not left on them for the following day. With this intent the company of soldiers, which Mary now saw, had come to mount Calvary. As they perceived the two thieves still alive, they broke their limbs and so hastened their end (John 19:31). But when they examined Jesus they found Him already dead, and therefore did not break His bones, thus fulfilling the mysterious prophecy in Exodus (Exodus 12:46), commanding that no bones be broken in the figurative lamb to be eaten for the Pasch. But a soldier, by the name of Longinus, approaching the Cross of Christ, thrust his lance through the side of the Savior. Immediately water and blood flowed from the wound, as St. John, who saw it and who gives testimony of the truth, assures us (John 19:34).

This wounding of the lance, which could not be felt by the sacred and dead body of the Lord, was felt by the most Blessed Mother in His stead, and in the same manner as if her chaste bosom had been pierced. But even this pain was exceeded by the affliction of her most holy soul, in witnessing the cruel laceration of the breast of her dead Son. At the same time, moved by compassion and love and in forgetfulness of her own sorrow, she said to Longinus: “The Almighty look upon thee with eyes of mercy for the pain thou hast caused to my soul!” So far and no farther went her indignation (or more properly, her most merciful meekness), for the instruction of all of us who are ever injured. For to the mind of this sincerest Dove, this injury to the dead Christ weighed most heavily; and the retribution, sought by her for the delinquent, was one of the greatest blessings, namely that God should look upon him with eyes of mercy and return blessings and gifts of grace for the offense. Thus it also happened; for the Savior, moved by the prayer of His blessed Mother, ordained that some of the blood and water from His sacred side should drop upon the face of Longinus and restore to him his eyesight, which he had almost lost. At the same time sight was given to his soul, so that he recognized in the Crucified his Savior, whom he had so inhumanly mutilated. Through this enlightenment Longinus was converted; weeping over his sins and having washed them in the blood and water of the side of Christ, he openly acknowledged and confessed Him as the true God and Savior of the world. He proclaimed Him as such in the presence of the Jews, confounding by his testimony their perfidy and hardness of heart.

The most prudent Queen then perceived the mystery of this lance thrust, namely, that in this last pouring forth of the blood and water issued forth the new Church, cleansed and washed by the Passion and Death of Jesus, and that from His sacred side, as from the roots, should now spread out through the whole world the fruits of life eternal. She conferred within herself also upon the mystery of that rock struck by the rod of divine justice (Exodus 17:6), in order that the living waters might issue forth, quenching the thirst of all the human race and recreating and refreshing all who betook themselves to drink there from. She considered the coincidence of the five fountains from the wounds of his hands, feet and sides, which opened up the new paradise of the most holy humanity of our Savior, and which were more copious and powerful to fertilize the earth, than those of the terrestrial paradise divided into four streams over the surface of the globe (Genesis 2:10). These and other mysteries the great Lady rehearsed in a canticle of praise, which she composed in honor of her divine Son after His being wounded by the lance. Together with this canticle, she poured forth a most fervent prayer, that all these mysteries of the Redemption be verified in the blessings spread over the whole human race.

The evening of that day of the Parasceve was already approaching, and the loving Mother had as yet no solution of the difficulty of the burial of her dead Son, which she desired so much; but the Lord ordained, that the tribulations of His tenderest Mother should be relieved by Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, whom he had inspired with the thought of caring for the burial of their Master. They were both just men and disciples of the Lord, although not of the seventy-two; for they had not as yet openly confessed themselves as disciples for fear of the Jews, who suspected and hated as enemies all those that followed Christ and acknowledged Him as Teacher. The dispositions of divine Providence concerning the burial of her Son had not been made known to the most prudent Virgin and thus her painful anxiety increased to such an extent, that she saw no way out of the difficulty. In her affliction she raised her eyes to Heaven and said: “Eternal Father and my Lord, by the condescension of Thy goodness and infinite wisdom I was raised to the exalted dignity of being the Mother of Thy Son; and by that same bounty of an immense God Thou hast permitted me to nurse Him at my breast, nourish Him and accompany Him to His death. Now it behooves me as His Mother to give honorable burial to His sacred body, though I can go no farther than to desire it and deeply grieve, because I am unable to fulfill my wishes. I beseech Thy divine Majesty to provide some way for accomplishing my desires.”

This prayer the loving Mother offered up after the sacred body of the Lord was perforated by the lance. Soon after she saw another group of men coming toward Calvary with ladders and other apparatus, seemingly for the purpose of taking from the Cross her priceless Treasure; but as she did not know their intentions, she was tortured by new fears of the cruelty of the Jews, and turning to St. John, she said: “My Son, what may be the object of these people in coming with all these instruments?” The apostle answered: “Do not fear them that are coming, my Lady; for they are Joseph and Nicodemus, with some of their servants, all of them friends and servants of thy divine Son and my Lord.” Joseph was just in the eyes of the Most High (John 19:38), a noble decurion in the employment of the government, a member of the council, who as is given us to understand in the Gospel, had not consented to the resolves and the proceedings of the murderers of Christ and who had recognized Jesus as the true Messias. Although Joseph had been a secret disciple of the Lord, yet at His death, in consequence of the efficacious influence of the Redemption, he openly confessed his adherence. Setting aside all fear of the envy of the Jews and caring nothing for the power of the Romans, he went boldly to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus (Mark 15:43), in order to take Him down from the Cross and give Him honorable burial. He openly maintained that He was innocent and the true Son of God, as witnessed by the miracles of His life and death.

Pilate dared not refuse the request of Joseph, but gave him full permission to dispose of the dead body of Jesus as he thought fit. With this permission Joseph left the house of the judge and called upon Nicodemus. He too was a just man, learned in divine and human letters and in the Holy Scriptures, as is evident in what St. John related of him, when he visited Christ at night, in order to hear the doctrine of Jesus Christ (John 3:2). Joseph provided the winding sheets and burial cloths for the body of Jesus, while Nicodemus bought about one hundred pounds of the spices, which the Jews were accustomed to use in the burial of distinguished men (Matthew 27:59). Provided with these and with other necessaries, they took their way to Calvary. They were accompanied by their servants and some other pious and devout persons, in whom, likewise, the blood shed for all by the crucified God had produced its salutary effects.

They approached most Holy Mary, who, in the company of St. John and the holy women, stood in inconceivable sorrow at the foot of the Cross. Instead of a salute, their sorrow at the sight of so painful a spectacle as that of the divine Crucified, was roused to such vehemence and bitterness, that Joseph and Nicodemus remained for a time prostrate at the feet of the Queen and all of them at the foot of the Cross without speaking a word. All of them wept and sighed most bitterly until the invincible Queen raised them from the ground and animated and consoled them; whereupon they saluted her in humble compassion. The most observant Mother thanked them kindly, especially for the service they were about to render to their God and Savior, and promised them the reward in the name of Him whose body they were to lay in the tomb. Joseph of Arimathea answered: “Even now, our Lady, do we feel in the secret of our hearts the sweet delight of the divine Spirit, who has moved us to such love, that we never could merit it or succeed in explaining it.” Then they divested themselves of their mantles and, with their own hands, Joseph and Nicodemus placed the ladders to the holy Cross. On these they ascended in order to detach the sacred body, while the glorious Mother stood closely by leaning on the arms of St. John and Mary Magdalen. It seemed to Joseph, that the sorrow of the heavenly Lady would be renewed, when the sacred body should be lowered and she should touch it, and therefore he advised the Apostle to take her aside in order to draw away her attention. But St. John, who knew better the invincible heart of the Queen, answered that from the beginning she had stood by to witness the torments of the Lord and that she would not leave Him whom she venerated as her God and loved as the Son of her Womb.

Nevertheless they continued to urge the expediency of her retiring for a short time, until they should lower their Master from the Cross. But the great Lady responded: “My dearest masters, since I was present, when my sweetest Son was nailed to the Cross, fear not to allow me to be present at His taking down; for this act of piety, though it shall affect my heart with new sorrow, will, in its very performance, afford a great relief.” Thereupon they began to arrange for the taking down of the body. First they detached the crown from the head, laying bare the lacerations and deep wounds it had caused. They handed it down with great reverence and amid abundant tears, placing it in the hands of the sweetest Mother. She received it prostrate on her knees, in deepest adoration bathed it with her tears, permitting the sharp thorns to wound her virginal countenance in pressing it to her face. She asked the eternal Father to inspire due veneration toward the sacred thorns in those Christians, who should obtain possession of them in future times.

In imitation of the Mother, St. John with the pious women and the other faithful there present, also adored it; and this they also did with the nails, handing them first to most holy Mary for veneration and afterward showing their own reverence. Then the great Lady placed herself on her knees and held the unfolded cloth in her outstretched arms ready to receive the dead body of her Son. In order to assist Joseph and Nicodemus, St. John supported the head, and Mary Magdalen the feet, of Christ and thus they tearfully and reverently placed Him into the arms of his sweetest Mother. This was to her an event of mixed sorrow and consolation; for in seeing Him thus wounded and all His beauty disfigured beyond all children of men (Psalm 44:3), the sorrows of her most chaste heart were again renewed; and in holding Him in her arms and at her breast, her incomparable sorrow was rejoiced and her love satiated by the possession of her Treasure. She looked upon Him with supreme worship and reverence, shedding tears of blood. In union with her, as He rested in her arms, all the multitude of her attendant angels worshipped Him, although unseen by all others except Mary. Then St. John first, and, after him, all those present in their turn, adored the sacred Body. The most prudent Mother, seated on the ground, in the meanwhile held Him in her arms in order that they might satisfy their devotion.

In all these proceedings our great Queen acted with such heavenly wisdom and prudence, that she excited the admiration of the angels and men; for all her words were full of the deepest significance, the most winning affection and compassion for her deceased Son, full of tenderness in her lamenting, and full of mystery in sentiment and meaning. Her sorrow exceeded all that could ever be felt by mortals. She moved the hearts to compassion and tears. She enlightened all in the understanding of the sacrament now transpiring under their hands. Above all, without failing in the least of her duties, she preserved her humble dignity and serenity of countenance, in the midst of her heartrending affliction. With uniform adaptation to the circumstances, she spoke to her beloved Son, to the eternal Father, to the angels, to the bystanders, and to the whole human race, for whose Redemption the Lord had undergone His Passion and Death.

INSTRUCTION WHICH THE MOST HOLY QUEEN GAVE ME

My daughter, the lance thrust which my blessed Son received in His side, was cruel and very painful only to me; but its effects and mysteries are most sweet to those souls who know how to taste its sweetness. It was a great affliction to me; but whoever meets with this mysterious favor, will find it a great relief and consolation in his sorrows. In order that thou mayest understand this and participate in it, thou must know, that my Son and Lord, on account of His most ardent love for men, in addition to the wounds of the feet and hands, wished to open the wound of His heart, the seat of love, in order that, through this port, the souls might enter and there receive refuge and relief. This is the only retreat which I wish thee to seek during the time of thy banishment, and which thou must consider as thy habitation upon earth. There thou wilt find the conditions and laws of love for imitating me and learn how, for injuries, thou must return blessings to all who commit them against thee and thine, just as thou hast seen me do, when I was grieved by the wounding of the side of my dead Son. I assure thee, my dearest, that thou canst not do anything more adapted to the obtaining of the efficacious graces from the Almighty. The prayer, which thou offerest in a forgiving spirit, is powerful not only for thy own good, but for the good of the one that offends thee; for the kind heart of my Son is easily moved, when He sees that creatures imitate Him in pardoning offenders and in praying for them; for they thereby participate in His most ardent charity manifested on the Cross. Write this doctrine in thy heart and in imitation of me practice this virtue, of which I thought so highly. Through this wound look upon the heart of Christ thy Spouse and upon me, sweetly and ardently loving in it thy enemies and all creatures.