Fr. Christopher Etheridge, IVE
Stabat Mater Series: First Week of Lent

I preface this short reflection by saying, that I have decided to focus my Wednesday homilies for the rest of Lent on the Marian hymn, Stabat Mater. I will not be able to get through all the verses, but focusing on a new one each week I hope to use Our Blessed Mother's example to help us enter the mystery of her Immaculate Heart and it's intimate union with Christ.

The first verse of the hymn reads, 
Stabat Mater dolorosa
iuxta Crucem lacrimosa,
dum pendebat Filius.
 
At, the Cross her station keeping,
stood the mournful Mother weeping,
close to Jesus to the last.

​“They begged Jesus that they might touch only the tassel on His cloak” (Mk 6:56). If we meditate on the request of the citizens of Gennesaret, there are two truths that emerge. First, notice that, out of all the things the citizens of Gennesaret could’ve asked Jesus for, they asked only to touch His cloak, and not even the whole cloak, but just the tassel, the smallest part. They could’ve asked for spiritual healing, or salvation, or to love Him more, but they didn’t. Now, it’s not evil to ask to touch His cloak, and clearly they had enough faith in Jesus for Him to be able to work miracles for them, but Mark gives us the impression that they’ve missed the point: it’s as though they’ve forgotten which was greater: the tassel, or the One wearing the clock. 

Today we are celebrating the feast day of a saint whose name we’ve heard on a daily basis in the Mass for several months: St. Luke. Almost every day the Gospel reading regarding Our Lord’s life is taken from the account which this evangelist wrote. As an author of one of the four Gospels, St. Luke is one of the most popular saints in religious art. Many Churches, such as this Basilica, depict the four evangelists on the four main columns holding up the dome of the Church to represent how the Church is founded in the Word of God. Here we can note that Luke is represented with an ox for two reasons:

​Today’s Gospel should be one of great relief for us. In it we heard Jesus lay down the conditions of being in his family:1) hearing the word of God and 2) acting on it.

​This was a great change from the belief of the Jewish people up to that point. In order to belong to God’s Chosen People in the fullest sense of the word, one had to be born into that nation. The divide was so great between Jew and Gentile that even individuals born into non-Jewish families who converted to Judaism were always considered a sort of second class citizen. But that chasm which separated the two peoples was bridged by the cross of Christ so that one’s relationship with God was no longer based on racial background.