Standing Alongside Mary in Sickness and in Health

Recently, in his message for the 29th commemoration of World Day of the Sick, Pope Francis entrusted not only those who suffer sickness, but also healthcare workers and caregivers, to Mary, calling her “Mother of Mercy and Health of the Infirm”. 

“From the Grotto of Lourdes and her many other shrines throughout the world, may she sustain our faith and hope, and help us care for one another with fraternal love.” 

For me, the daughter of a mother battling end-stage Parkinson’s in a hospice in Chicago and a father recently diagnosed with chronic health care issues, our Holy Father’s words were a balm to an aching soul. Our family is far from unique in being challenged by physical infirmity and its accompanying worry and financial burdens. But often, when life feels so very hard, it’s easy to lose sight of God’s abiding goodness and to trust that our suffering has meaning. 

After many years of public ministry, I am at this point in my life being asked to pick up my cross daily and to put into action those words I’ve poured into the hearts of others through my writing and retreat work. How easy it is to share the Good News of the Gospel when life is “normal”! But how hard to trust for ourselves that God’s plan for our lives is perfect when it deviates from the comfortable and into darkness and despair. 

If the past year and all of its suffering have taught me anything, it is the solid reminder that this is a journey that I do not travel alone. The privilege of serving my parents after all they have lovingly done for me for so many years is a gift. In the hardest moments, when their pain feels too burdensome and the pressure is insurmountable, I draw incredible consolation from the love of Mary.  

Outside my bedroom in our garden, my husband placed a beautiful statue of Our Lady of Fatima. At night, Mary’s depiction stands vigil out there, illuminated by a solar powered light that burns brightly enough for me to see her from my bed when insomnia hits. 

Mary has become my companion in those hours when weariness and worry weigh so heavily. The sight of her statue reminds me to join her at the foot of the cross, where her Son Jesus so willingly gave His life for me. She beckons me, she who pondered so many hardships of her own in the quiet of her heart. She points me to her Son, reminding me to “Do whatever He tells you,” even when it’s most challenging. She holds my hand when my own mother’s hand remains locked away in a facility shuttered to visitors by the pandemic. 

Perhaps the challenges of your own life are hitting you as we journey into another Lenten period of penance, preparation, and conversion of heart. Perhaps, like me, you’ve asked, “Why, Lord?” While profound theological exegesis escapes me, I do want to issue an invitation to you, the same one offered to me by she who was in every sense the “first disciple”. 

Come. 

Do whatever He tells you. 

Come stand with Mary and with those who gathered under that cross to support one another and Christ in the moment of most profound suffering imaginable. Trust that as Jesus gave Mary as Mother to His Beloved Disciples, He gives you and me into her care.  

Together this Lenten season, let us seek to understand that suffering born out of love and care for others is its own path to more fully living the Gospel. Let us strive to remember in those moments when standing at the foot of any cross feels too great a burden that we do not walk this path alone. Let us grasp for the hope born of knowing that through the Cross, Christ ultimately triumphs and that God’s love will always prevail. 

Let us love. 

HOW WILL YOU COME CLOSER TO GOD THIS LENT? 

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