From Grief to Hope

A Reflection on the Psalm for Sunday, June 9th, 2024:
Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

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Psalm 130

R. With the Lord there is steadfast love, and great power to redeem.

Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications!

R. With the Lord there is steadfast love, and great power to redeem.

If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered.

R. With the Lord there is steadfast love, and great power to redeem.

I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word · hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning.

R. With the Lord there is steadfast love, and great power to redeem.

For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is great power to redeem. It is he who will redeem Israel from all its iniquities.

​R. With the Lord there is steadfast love, and great power to redeem.

Pause. Pray. Reflect.

In the month of May this year (the month of Mary, our virgin mother) I unintentionally began, through the collision of a few random events, to develop a deeply intimate relationship with Our Lady. 

This journey began with a trip to Paris and a visit to the Louvre museum. I had but a brief flirtation with the art in this grand archive. Still, what I did see, was magnificent. There were many people about that day, and I found myself distracted by the bustle of the patrons, the wealth of physical art, and the limit on our time there. For most of the pieces, I paused for a moment, perhaps read the description and snapped a quick shot, then moved on. Three quarters of the way through my time there though, in the middle of a grand hall of paintings and surrounded by large crowds of people, my gaze fell on a Caravaggio so intentionally lit and steeped in grief that I could not avert my eyes. Remarkably, the world fell away and I was in the painting, grieving alongside the others. We were grieving our mother, Mary, in Death of the Virgin (1606). 

The very next week, again I found myself in an unexpected, emotionally rending experience – this time, in Lourdes. Shuffling in a line alongside the largest, most impressive church structure I have ever seen, I noticed the abbé in front of me running his hand along the stone leading into the Grotto, so I followed suit. As I did, tears welled up in my eyes and my heart began to pound. I have been to many places before where I have sensed the presence of God, but never had I sensed the presence of His mother. This day, I did. I was in the place where she appeared to Saint Bernadette 18 times. My heart was filled with wonder and astonishment, with love and trembling. My heart was filled with hope.

What is it that can lead us so swiftly from the grief of the Caravaggio to the hope of the Grotto?

Redemption.

Our Mother’s death has been redeemed by her Assumption, through the providence of God, and she draws near to those who believe and take refuge in her prayers for them. God granted her redemption at the moment of her Immaculate Conception, and Christ continues to redeem through the life of His mother. He redeems souls such as wee Bernadette, a 14-year-old girl with a chronic illness and a family living in extreme poverty. She struggled when revealing the words Our Lady spoke during her private apparitions, as many disbelieved and opposed Bernadette. But the Lord’s redemption would be made complete. Bernadette joined the Sisters of Charity. The instructions she received from the apparitions were not only proclaimed to be true, but each one was acted upon for generations to come. As a result, she and countless others were healed by their faith and prayer in this place where blessed waters run freely.

God can redeem to the extremes of death itself. And today, I fall on my knees in thanks for all He has done to redeem even the likes of me.


​Lori MacDonald​

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