Our Lady of Sorrows: A Biblical Devotion

To understand the identity of Mary and, therefore, the truth of the Mater Dolorosa, we must analyze each fact of Scripture and bring it back to the center, to Christ. This is the approach that the Church has always adopted. As we read the Gospels, we find the Mother of God intimately associated with the destiny of passion and resurrection of Jesus from the beginning of his historical existence in Nazareth.

When reflecting on various moments of her life, we recognize that the Virgin is marked by sufferings and difficulties inherent to the human condition. She lives for a time in Nazareth. Travels to Bethlehem, where she gives birth to the awaited Messiah, experiencing the pain of having to place Him in a manger (cf. Lk 2:7). Flees to Egypt with Joseph to save her Son from the infanticidal fury of Herod (cf. Mt 2:13-14). Returns to Nazareth to work with Jesus and Joseph in daily family life (cf. Mt 2:23; Lk 2:51). Moreover, the Gospels highlight three episodes that explicitly show the pain experienced by Mary:

1. A profecia de Simeão (Lc 2,33-35).

2. A perda de Jesus em Jerusalém (Lc 2,41-50).

3. Sua presença no Calvário junto à Cruz (Jo 19,25-27).

Constant Reference in These Passages

These passages continually refer to the passion-resurrection of Christ, an event both bitter and glorious, marked by death and birth, defeat and victory, darkness and light, hatred and love. Mary is entwined in the painful yet glorious life of her Son, remaining faithful to him from the initial fiat of the Servant of the Lord to the fiat of our Mother on the Cross. Her path is one of humble faith, characterized by freely offered love from God, which she faithfully corresponds to.

Lukean and Johannine Passages on Mary’s Sorrows:

• Luke 2:33-35 (Simeon’s Prophecy): Two passages are present in Luke’s Gospel from the infancy narrative, and one in John’s Gospel from the Passion narrative.

“And a sword shall pierce through your own soul” (Lk 2:35)

This evangelical expression refers to the episode of Jesus presented at the Temple by Mary and Joseph for dedication to God. In the Temple, Simeon prophesies about the painful mission that would involve the Child and His Mother (cf. Lk 2:34-35). He utters two solemn statements about Jesus (cf. Lk 2:29-32, Lk 2:34-35). The first is a blessing that reveals Him as salvation and light for the nations (cf. Is 49:6), glory to Israel (cf. Ex 19:21, Ps 67:22-23). The second is a severe oracle about the future of Jesus, who will see ruin and resurrection for many in Israel and be a sign of contradiction. This second oracle by Simeon predicts the effects that the presence-mission of Messiah Jesus will have on Israel: ruin or resurrection for many. Christ as Savior and Redeemer will not find full acceptance and recognition. Instead, He will be a sign of contradiction, surrounded by hostility and misunderstandings until His climax at the Cross. The no to Christ from many in Israel will manifest the hidden thought in their hearts, unbelief.

Mary will also be involved in the drama of her Son who is contested, rejected, and contradicted. Simeon directs a shocking oracle to Mary: “A sword shall pierce through your soul” (Lk 2:35). The fate of Jesus will affect her soul, upon which the pain will fall like a sword. This second announcement, in contrast to the first filled with joy (cf. Lk 1:28), proclaims “the concrete historical dimension in which the Son will fulfill His mission, that is, in misunderstanding and suffering”. Simeon’s words allude to and associates Mary with Christ’s tears for His beloved Jerusalem that rejects Him (cf. Lk 13:34-35, Lk 19:41-44), prefiguring her opposition at the Cross, where she will be present with the beloved disciple (Jo 19:25-27). Her communion of life with the Son will result not in a destiny of splendor and glory but rather in communion with His kenosis and suffering. From this moment on, Mary’s existence unfolds against a backdrop of presaged adversity.

“We sought You”

This statement by Mary to her Son, found in the Temple among the Law’s scholars, encapsulates the three days of anxious search by Jesus’ parents after realizing His absence. The encounter of Jesus in Jerusalem marks the final episode of the Infancy Gospel. It is a prefigurative anticipation of the Holy Week’s triad of sorrow and joy. Just as Joseph and Mary, distressed (Lk 2:48), set out to find their Son, so too, in the days of His passion, the disciples will grieve and weep over having lost their Master (Lk 24:17), seek Him (Lk 24:5), and find Him three days later after His death (Lk 24:21), on the third day (Lk 24:7.46). Both accounts employ the same terms: “Passover,” “three days,” “fulfilling the will of the Father,” “debt”…

Therefore, Mary experiences a profound pain shared with Joseph: they are “afflicted,” a biblical term signifying both suffering and torture. In Luke, it describes the physical and spiritual agonies of the rich man who plunges into the flames of hell (Lk 16:24-25). The sorrow of Paul’s disciples as they bid him farewell, convinced they would never see him again (Act 20:38). Or Paul’s pain for the Jewish people (Rom 9:2). Mary and Joseph, deeply united to their Son, are immersed in this suffering-torment. Through faith reflection (cf. Lk 2:51b), Mary illuminates the meaning and scope of the misunderstanding into which both parents have been drawn.

“And at the cross of Jesus was his mother” (Jn 19:25)

The scene of Mary’s presence at the Cross is one of the most evocative passages in John’s Gospel and has elicited various interpretations. Today, exegetes agree that John’s interest in the Virgin Mary does not stem from psychological or news-based reasons focused on her figure, but rather aims to convey its historical-salvific significance, opening up an understanding of her sorrow. According to John, from the height of the Cross, Jesus identifies who His Mother truly is. Initially, He calls her “woman”: “Woman, behold your son,” then, turning to his beloved disciple, He proclaims her as Mother: “Behold your mother.”

The fact that the Son calls his Mother a “woman” evokes the prophecy of the “woman who gives birth,” who generates the people of God (cf. Is 66:7-8), to which Jesus refers when describing the disciples’ participation in his passion as a painful childbirth (cf. Jn 16:21-22). The woman who gives birth is the Messianic community, Sion personified in the “woman” who stands at the cross of Jesus. Mary abandons herself to God without reserve and participates by faith in the shocking mystery of this stripping. She does not receive a “done faith,” easy and bathed in light. Mary had to seek in the dark, had to walk to follow her Son, where he sometimes, even denying legitimate maternal expectations, would be found. Mary was truly the first to believe.

Mary, the Mother of Jesus, through her mystical abandonment to God the Father, transforms her pain into participation in Christ’s sacrifice of love and thus into a salvific place for herself and all humanity.

The Church understands Mary as the “Woman of Sorrows” (Mater dolorosa) not only in the Gospel episodes but also in the Old Testament typologies that emphasize suffering and struggle necessary for the realization of the salvific project. For example, ancient Eve gives way to the new Mother of the Living (Mater viventium), associated with the new Adam in the struggle against the old serpent (cf. Gn 3:15). Also, the Daughter of Zion, a figure of Israel faithful to God despite fears and angustias (cf. Lm 1:5), announces the Virgin Daughter of Zion who trusts only in the Lord. Above all, Eastern and Western liturgical traditions like to see in some great women of ancient Israel, marked by a destiny of pain and grace, many figures of Mary, the Mother of Jesus.

Consider Judith, saddened by the “murder of her brothers and the enslavement of her homeland” (Jd 8:22), trusting in God, the “savior of the desperate” (Jdt 9:11), gives her life for the salvation of her people (Jd 13:20). Another Woman of Sorrows is Esther, who, “overwhelmed by mortal anguish, seeks refuge in the Lord” (Est 4:17) and also exposes her life for the liberation of Israel (cf. Est 4:11). Finally, we find the mother of the Macabeus, “admirable and worthy of glorious memory,” who, immersed in excruciating pain, sees her “seven sons die on one day” and endures “all serenely through hopes placed in the Lord” (2 Mac 7:20).

To deepen reflection on devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows and its biblical foundation, consult the Apostolic Exhortation Marialis Cultus by Paul VI, which frames this devotion within the authentic Marian piety of the Church.

Deepen your studies: explore Mariology, Marian Theology, Marian Apparitions, and the Master’s in Mariology.