From Destruction to Transformation: Finding Joy in Suffering
I often wondered why the Fourth Mystery of the Rosary, the Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple, was a Joyful Mystery. I understood, of course, that this was a momentous occasion for the Spirit-filled Simeon and the holy prophetess, Anna, who now had met in person their Lord and Messiah. He was the One whom their ancestors, the Israelite people, had waited, prayed, and hoped for centuries, and for whom they personally had waited their entire lives. But I couldn’t help feeling for Our Lady, Mother Mary. How could this be a joyful occasion for her when Simeon’s ominous warning must have rung in her ears, “This Child will be the rise and fall of many… and you yourself a sword shall pierce, so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed” (Lk 2:35-37)?
But then I remembered Mary’s yes, the fiat that she first expressed at the Annunciation. We know that it wasn’t a one-time occasion, but a word with which she expressed her continual, habitual self-surrender to the Lord and to His will. This yes, by which she was fulfilling the Old Covenant Law in regards to her forty-day–old Son, she would repeat, not just on the momentous occasions that are recorded in the Scriptures, but every day of her (mostly hidden) life. Even now, as she and Saint Joseph were offering the Child Jesus to the Father, she was anticipating her offering of that same Son on Calvary thirty-three years later, when Jesus would “give His life as a ransom for many” (cf. Isaiah 53). Standing by the Cross (Jn 19:25), she would join her suffering to His in her unique role as Co-Redemptrix, offering herself with Jesus for the salvation of the world.
And maybe this is a deeper reason why this Fourth Mystery is a Joyful Mystery. As Bishop Barron once said, “in a world gone wrong [with sin], there is no communion without sacrifice.” We cannot avoid the presence of suffering, the result of sin, in this fallen world. But if we, like Mary and in union with her pierced Heart, offer our sufferings with Jesus’ all-powerful sacrifice, our suffering becomes redemptive. What was destructive becomes transforming. We get to share in the redemption of the world as the merits of Jesus’ Sacrifice are applied to souls, now—in the present moment! And this is where we find our joy: union with Jesus through Mary in loving surrender to the all-loving Father, who only permits suffering to bring about a greater good. This communion with Jesus is the joy Mother Mary found in her suffering; she can show us how to find that same joy in ours.
~ Written by Sister Mary Augustine