Sr. Maria Veritas Marks, OP“Queen of the Holy Rosary, refuge of the human race, to Your Immaculate Heart in this tragic hour of human history we consecrate the whole world. Look with compassion to the suffering and fears of fathers and mothers, of husbands and wives, of brothers and sisters and innocent children. Oh, Mother of Mercy, obtain peace for us from God!”
These words spilled from the anguished heart of Pope Pius XII as, on Oct. 13, 1942, he consecrated the world to Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart. They are equally applicable today to the tragic news pouring in daily from Gaza, Iraq, Nigeria, Syria, Ukraine. The suffering is immense: how can we respond? To ignore it entirely would be inhuman, but some level of disregard can seem the only way to proceed with our lives and shield ourselves from the painful awareness of our powerlessness to help.
Our Lady’s Immaculate Heart, traditionally venerated especially during this month of August, provides another answer. Like us, Our Lady not only experienced personal suffering but also witnessed that of others. How must she have received the news of the mothers robbed of their infant sons by Herod’s maniacal jealousy? They would never see their little boys run and play as she would, would never watch them grow to manhood, would never dance at their weddings or dandle their children. Herod’s rule was one symptom of a larger problem: Roman occupation. Mary’s people were despised and brutalized by their Roman masters. Shortly after Herod’s death, a Roman general quashed a Jewish uprising by lining an important roadway with two thousand crucified Jews; the sight and sound of their agony must have been unbearable.
Our Lady’s Heart, unclouded by any sin, experienced these torments more profoundly than ours ever could. She did not ignore them; instead, she strove with every fiber of her being to love her Lord in the midst of her daily duties, recognizing this as her particular way to alleviate others’ suffering. The charity with which she performed mundane tasks — caring for Elizabeth and Zechariah, changing Jesus’ diapers, chatting with neighbors in the market — was how she would help her people. Because of her generous “yes” at the Annunciation and each day, each moment, of her life, not only Israel but the whole world was granted a greater gift than any would have dared ask: God Incarnate!
Some are called to headline-making heroism, like Msgr. O’Flaherty, the indomitable Irish priest who, with Pius XII’s warm encouragement, rescued hundreds of ex-P.O.W.s and Jews from the Nazis. Most of us, however, are called to the equally effective, though largely unsung, heroism of daily life, completing our work carefully and punctually, stifling a complaint and mustering a smile instead. These sacrifices will bring us close to Him and draw down His graces for our suffering brothers and sisters. Each of us has a real part to play in their drama, a role uniquely our own, and the stage is our workplace, our home.
Sr. Maria Veritas Marks is a member of the Ann Arbor-based Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharst.
