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"Jesus wept." - John 11:35
A Mother
Who Weeps Is a Mother Who Cares
In 1494, Italy was gripped by fear. The French king Charles VIII was marching his army
southward through the peninsula, threatening upheaval and invasion across the
land. The people of Spoleto, that ancient Umbrian city clinging to its hillside
in central Italy, watched the news and feared what was coming.
And then, according to the tradition of this city, an image of Our Lady began
to weep.
In the Catholic tradition, a weeping Madonna is never simply a curiosity. It is
understood as a sign of maternal compassion, a mother's tears shed for the
suffering of her children, a call to repentance and prayer before greater
tragedy arrives. Mary does not weep from weakness. She weeps from love. Her
tears are not despair. They are the most intense form of intercession.
A shrine was established in Spoleto around the weeping image, and the faithful
gathered there in the years that followed, finding in the memory of those tears
both a warning and a consolation. She cares enough to weep. She loves us enough
to warn us. And the same love that produces the tears also produces the
protection, if we are willing to respond.
Today is also the Ascension of the Lord. On the day when Jesus rose to heaven, and the disciples watched and wondered what came next, they returned to the
Upper Room, and Mary was with them. Even on the day of greatest departure, she
stayed. She wept with them. She prayed with them. She was there.
Today's Gospel - Ascension of the Lord - Matthew
28:16–20
The
Ascension Gospel gives us Jesus sending His disciples to all nations: "Go
therefore and make disciples of all nations... I am with you always, until the
end of the age."
He ascended. He sent them. And He promised He would not leave them alone.
Our Lady of Tears stands in that space between departure and promise, in the
place of waiting, weeping, and trusting that He meant what He said. She models
the posture of the Church in every hard season: stay, pray, weep when weeping
is honest, and trust the promise.
He is with us until the end of the age. She is weeping because she knows how
much we need to believe that.
A Prayer
Our
Lady of Tears, you who wept for a frightened city in a frightened time, weep
for our world today.
There
is much to weep for. And there is much to hope for, because every tear you shed
is a prayer, and your prayers are never unanswered. You do not weep without
purpose. You weep because you see what we miss, and you love us enough to call
us back before the consequences arrive.
Hear our response to your tears: we are listening. We are turning. We are
choosing prayer over fear and trust over despair.
Our Lady of Tears, pray for us. Amen.
Reflection
Our Lady wept because she loves, and because she sees.
Her tears are not a sign of weakness; they are love in its most concentrated,
most honest form.
Perhaps
there is something still alive in you that could bring you to tears. Something
you said or did to someone you deeply care for or admire, something you now
carry as a quiet regret. Or perhaps it is something you have never quite been
able to forgive yourself for, a chapter of your life you have closed, moved
beyond, and yet it still finds you in the most unguarded moments, and still
surfaces when the noise dies down.
Many
of us carry secrets like that. We have walked away from who we were, and yet
that past self still whispers. Self-forgiveness is never easy. An honest,
open-hearted confession is a hard step forward. They both require us to stop
managing what we feel and actually feel
it.
When
did you last allow yourself to genuinely grieve something before God? Not just suppress
it or rehearse it quietly and then try to bury it again. But truly bring it
before the Lord, in tears, open and honest, without pretense?
What
would it mean to weep honestly
today, in the company of a Mother who already knows, who has already seen, and
who has never once looked away?
Spend
some time in adoration this week.
Rosary Man Jim 🌹
Freely given. Freely shared.
