Homily for Devotional Mass - BVM, Mother of Consolation

 

Rev 21:1-5a

Ps 84:3-5, 10-11

Lk 1:26-38

Christ the King Catholic Church, Iowa Park, TX

 Isaiah prophesied about the all-powerful and merciful God coming to the aid of His people in exile and oppression by sending His consolation to them. (Is 61:1-3) This prophecy referred to Jesus Christ, who is the supreme consolation of God, sent by the Father into the world “when the fullness of time had come, to heal the broken hearted.” In our first reading, St. Paul references this prophecy by reminding the Corinthians that God is the Father of compassion and God of all encouragement. Sidenote: only the NABRE uses the word ‘encouragement.’ Better translations use the word ‘comfort’ – consolation.

The Blessed Mother is herself rightly named and venerated as the ‘Mother of Consolation’ because through her, God sent Jesus Christ to be the consolation of his people through His suffering on the Cross. Because she stood beside Christ suffering on the Cross and endured the bitter agony of watching her beloved Son die, she gained in the highest degree the blessedness we just heard promised in the Gospel to those who mourn (Mt 5:5). Because she cradled the body of her Son in her arms, she knows the depths of our anguish and pains in life. Because God consoled her by the Resurrection of Jesus, Mary is in her turn, able to console all her children – us - in our afflictions.

Even now, after her glorious Assumption into Heaven, she continues to intercede for us with a mother’s love for those who are in distress. In the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium of the Second Vatican Council we read: “The Mother of Jesus shines forth as a sign of sure hope and consolation for the pilgrim people of God (LG, 68). In life, we are promised that if we follow the path of discipleship to which Christ calls us, we will endure suffering. The only way to heaven is through the cross. 

When we join our sufferings to those of Jesus on the Cross, when we ‘offer it up’, our suffering becomes salvific and easier to endure. Let us follow the example of our Blessed Mother and place ourselves at the foot of the Cross in our suffering, never leaving the presence of our Lord. Let us ask her to help us find the consolation of God in her Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.

Most Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Consolation, Pray for Us!