Holy Week is characterized by a singular mixture of sadness and joy: we suffer through the Passion and Death of Our Lord Jesus Christ, but we soon rejoice in His Resurrection.  

Gaudium Press English Edition

Newsdesk (12/04/2022 6:45 PM, Gaudium Press) In the most tragic hour that there was and will be in human history, we have the august example of someone who remained faithful, did not give up, did not weaken, did not betray, did not retreat, and stood like a torch of prayer and hope – Our Lady.

From the Gospel accounts we know that, in a moment, the sun clouded over in broad daylight, the earth shook, the graves of some righteous people who had died in the Old Law were opened, and their corpses rose up. They probably began to walk through the Holy City amidst the darkness, with the shuddering of the wavering ground, under the silence of terrified animal nature and the groaning of weeping people. It was, in Bossuet’s words, the Eternal Father performing the funeral rites for his Divine Son.

Meanwhile, on Calvary’s heights, horror and abandonment were setting in beside the Redeemer’s Cross. In a flood of pain, Jesus had exclaimed His Consummatum est!’ All was consummated. The Lamb was already slain, bloodless. There was nothing more to offer of His sacrifice. He was dead.

Before men there remained only – to use Bossuet’s expression again – a broken, broken, annihilated God.

At this hour the Good Thief was preparing to leave the Earth. The Centurion who had wounded Our Lord’s side was beating himself in the chest. Some people gathered in a corner of Golgotha were weeping.

But joy had not deserted one soul! The soul that was most upset by all that horrible spectacle of pain, the soul that rejected so much injustice, that hated evil the most, the soul that loved the dead Savior the most, the soul that hoped the most, the soul that possessed the most certainty: the certainty of all certainties!

Imbued with a faith greater than any faith that would exist in the world until the end of time. It was the heavenly soul of Our Lady: Stabat Mater dolorosa, juxta crucem lacrimosa. “By the Cross, dolorosa, stabat! – which in Latin did not just mean ‘to stand there’, but meant to stand. She stood upright, in all the strength of her body and soul, her eyes flooded with tears, but her heart flooded with light.

At that moment, Our Lady was sure that after the great tragedy, after the general abandonment, the dawn of the Resurrection would arise. The dawn of the Holy Roman Catholic Church would appear, brimming with glory from Pentecost onwards.

And from crosses to lights, from lights to crosses, the world would reach the blessed moment that she foretold in Fatima: In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph!

Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira

From a conference given on July 16, 1971

Compiled by Roberta MacEwan