Seventh Dolor - The Burial of Jesus

Greetings in Jesus and Mary...
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We are at the last dolor which is the Burial of Jesus. With calm heroism our dear Blessed Mother gave up the treasure which lay across her lap. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus carried the Precious Body, while John and Magdalene followed with Mary to the tomb. Now was the time to carry to His tomb the Body of the rejected King. Her Jesus was now going to be placed in a tomb away from Her and guarded by two Roman soldiers. The pain in Her Heart, how She would have wanted to be entombed with Him….just to be near Him but this was not God’s Will. She was left with the relics of three blood stained nails and a blood stained crown of thorns to embrace, reverence and honor. Her seven dolors are truly known to no one but Jesus and Herself….the intensity will never be known to man.

This tomb that Jesus’ Body was brought to had belonged to Joseph of Arimathea and had never been used. The tomb of this new Joseph was to be to Him what the arms of the other Joseph had often been before, His resting place for a while, when Mary had to part from Him.

Mary enters the tomb and arranges everything. How gently in Her presence had they cared for and placed Him in the tomb. All genuflected in love before departing from Him. Now, on their journey the Cross lies in their path across Calvary. Below lies the guilty city, indistinct in the murky air, with a few restless lights glancing here and there. There were no words of reproach upon Mary’s lips, no look of reproach in Her eyes. She took it all in, from the temple to the outer gateways of the city. Her nature had been shaken to its center but now she is on her way with St. John to his home.
If none can truly tell the sorrow that She bore, so none can tell the holiness that She reached. Her last separation is from that which She herself gave Him….. His Sacred Flesh.  Man’s sin and the ever-blessed cruelty of divine love have forced the Mother and the Son asunder, although throughout the life of Christ, there had never been a union such as the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart.

All holiness is of course simply a correspondence to grace; but with ordinary men, and even with the saints, there is a great deal of failure, of fluctuation, of falling and then rising again, and consequently of imperfect correspondence to grace. Our self-will, temper, disposition and even sin effects our holiness or lack thereof.  Our Lady was tainted with none of this….Her progression of grace was perfect.

A single grace from God is a marvelous thing. Theologians have said that one Holy Communion is enough to make a saint. The more one corresponds to grace….the more God will give. All our language of Mary is so unworthy of what She truly is and truly is worthy of. What is important for us and is demonstrated in the City of God by Mother Mary Agreda is this:  The view of Mary’s holiness is a purely divine work. It is simply God’s own grace realized, and realized to the utmost, by Her correspondence, and it gives us the true height of Her sanctity, but shows the awesomeness of God and what He is capable of giving us …if we correspond and seek it and remain faithful.  Of course, no creature has come close to imitating Mary’s sanctity but many have soared very high such as the Apostles, St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, St. Catharine of Siena, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Padre Pio and so many many more!  It is a sad thing to think that God wants us all saints and yet many die in spiritual infancy even if they die at 80. Some die young such as St. Therese and yet gain such great heights because of their desire and faithfulness.
 
Lessons learned from this dolor…Mary has been an amazing model to us in suffering. She has corresponded perfectly to God’s grace and we must imitate that to the best of our ability.  She is the strength example for the entire Church, the Queen of the Apostles and the Mother of all men. May we remain under Her mantle for protection, prayer and guidance. May we thank the Eternal Father for the great gifts of Jesus and Mary. May we remember the sorrow of the seventh dolor when the stone was rolled in front of Jesus’ tomb, after each Benediction when the priest places the Blessed Sacrament back into the tabernacle and locks the door. Let us ask Our Good Mother and Queen to show us the way to perfection and grace….so that we may be pleasing to the Heart of Jesus Who burns with love for us.

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