Mary’s Lament

Laura Digan April 03, 2021 0 3

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Lamentations 3: 1-9, 19-24 (NRSVA)

1 I am one who has seen affliction
    under the rod of God’s wrath;
2 he has driven and brought me
    into darkness without any light;
3 against me alone he turns his hand,
    again and again, all day long.

4 He has made my flesh and my skin waste away,
    and broken my bones;
5 he has besieged and enveloped me
    with bitterness and tribulation;
6 he has made me sit in darkness
    like the dead of long ago.

7 He has walled me about so that I cannot escape;
    he has put heavy chains on me;
8 though I call and cry for help,
    he shuts out my prayer;
9 he has blocked my ways with hewn stones,
    he has made my paths crooked.

 

19 The thought of my affliction and my homelessness
    is wormwood and gall!
20 My soul continually thinks of it
    and is bowed down within me.
21 But this I call to mind,
    and therefore I have hope:

22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,
    his mercies never come to an end;
23 they are new every morning;
    great is your faithfulness.
24 ‘The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul,
    ‘therefore I will hope in him.’

- Please note: this following piece is about a parent losing a child -

This week Laura has reflected on the themes that are in our daily scripture readings and linked them to key events during Holy Week in a series of seven monologues that invite us to see how this week resonates throughout scripture and into our lives today. In this final piece we hear the lament of Mary, Jesus's mother.

“My boy is dead. 

My beautiful, loving boy is dead. 

I know he was God’s son and I know he had a mission that he had to fulfil. But he was MY baby too. He was always my baby. And I loved him with my whole being. He grew in me. He came from me. My soul knew his soul. 

And now he is gone, and I feel like I’ve been ripped open. No mother should have to watch her child die before her eyes. No mother should have to see that agony on her child’s face

What comfort was I? 

I wish I could have taken his place.

My boy is dead, and God has left me desolate

This was always the way it was meant to be. Old Simeon told me a sword would pierce my heart. It hasn’t just pierced it, it has gauged it out and cut it into pieces. 

If this is how it was meant to be, then I have to keep believing what the angel told me that Jesus would ‘reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.’ 

This is not the end. It can’t be the end.”

PRAYER:

We pray for the broken hearted. 
For the parents who have lost a child
For those who have lost a loved one
For those who are dying and those who are watching them die. 
May the Living Christ comfort them and hold them in his loving arms.
Amen.