My dear parishioners,
Peace! On the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, 7 October, 2019, Pope Francis established the feast of Our Lady of Loreto, to be observed each year on the 10th of December. At the same time Pope Francis proclaimed a Lauretan Jubilee Holy Year to run from 8 December, 2019 through 10 December, 2020. There are fifty-one invocations in the Litany of Loreto. The following is a reflection on the thirty-eighth invocation: Comfort of the afflicted, pray for us.
What does it mean to say that Saint Mary, the Blessed Virgin Mother of God is the “Comfort of the afflicted”? In Sacred Scripture there are nearly seventy uses of the word “comfort.” The Hebrew term nacham is sometimes translated as “comfort” but properly means to sigh, that is, breathe strongly. George Friedrich Handel (+1759) famously cites Isaiah 40:1 in his Messiah: “Comfort ye, comfort ye My people, says your God…” Saint Paul reminds us that the Scriptures are a source of comfort for us no less (cf. Romans 15:4). “Affliction” is used more that eighty times throughout Sacred Scripture. The Hebrew terms ra and raah are sometimes translated as “affliction” and as adversity, distress and evil (cf. Jeremiah 17:17). The Greek term pathema is often translated “affliction” (cf. 1 Peter 5:9). Slavery in Egypt was an affliction from which God delivered His people (cf. Exodus 3:17). God beheld the affliction of His people and heard their cry (cf. Deuteronomy 26:7).
The Blessed Virgin Mary is the Mother of the Messiah and it is through her that we receive Him who is our comfort. As she comforted Him in His infancy she can comfort us. Our Lady, like our Lord, knew affliction in this life, notably exile into Egypt and Calvary (cf. Matthew 2:13; John 19:25).
What afflictions do we face? Afflictions at home, at work, abroad, in the streets, bodily and spiritual health??? Let us turn to Our Lady for comfort. While the old spiritual song Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen has references to the Lord, to Jesus, Our Lady too knows our troubles as she knew the troubles at the wedding in Cana (cf. John 2:1-11). Saint Mary, Comfort of the afflicted, who interceded with her Son for the young couple who ran out of wine, can intercede for us no less, leading us to deeper belief in Him. The Stabat Mater (At the Cross her station keeping) gives us insight into the depths of the afflictions Our Lady underwent with her Son. How many countless saints have turned to Our Lady in their sorrows and afflictions seeking and finding comfort?/! To “comfort the afflicted” is one of the spiritual works of mercy (cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church §2447). Our Lady does not “talk away”, downplay or deny our afflictions. Rather Saint Mary, Our Lady of Sorrows (15 September) who stood at the foot of the Cross on Good Friday, consoles and comforts us with her great compassion.
Father John Arthur Orr