Mother’s Tears Are Never Lost

By Jacqueline Kelly –

The tears of Mother Mary are God’s grace and mercy for our families. In our relationship with God where do we stand? Mother Mary did not grow up within the walls of her home. She grew up where her faith was her daily bread, a light that illuminated everything.

Pope Francis in his address stated that there are always problems in life, such as gossip, war or illness but in the end “The grain grows and in the end evil is eliminated, even if there are weeds in the middle, evil will be eliminated. The future does not belong to us but Jesus waits for us at the end and accompanies us and consoles us on the journey to our Eternal Father.”

When we are faced with problems, sickness and financial difficulties in our life, we ask ourselves “Why me” ? We become weak and tired in front of these problems. We stand still because we do not know the answer, but we forget the truth that our Lord is always with us who has answers to our problems, who understands us, who wipes our tears, who heals our sickness and who comforts us.

Satan conceals the fact and causes more anxiety and worry in our lives. A woman with young children found refuge in a church when her husband abandoned her for another woman. When she cried out in her distress, the words of Jesus wiped her tears, comforted her, gave her strength and hope. The door of mercy is the door to the kingdom of heaven. We have to pray with tears for the salvation of lost souls.

The example of Saint Rita of Cascia who is universally called the “Saint of the Impossible” because her intercession to God in desperate and hopeless cases was found to be very effective. After eighteen years of married life, her husband, Paolo Mancini who was a short-tempered man was murdered a short distance from her home. Grief filled her heart but she put her trust in God and pardoned the men who had murdered her husband.

Later, she realized with a heavy heart that her teenaged sons, Giovanni Antonio and Paulo Maria were plotting vengeance against those who had murdered their father. Inspite of, all her advice the sorrowful mother could not touch her children’s revengeful hearts. In her grief, she turned to God and prayed to change her children’s hearts or to take them from this world before they could accomplish the revenge they were plotting. Saint Rita’s prayers were answered and within a year both her sons died and though she was grief-stricken, she thanked God for taking her sons away from the dangers of sin and the risk of eternal damnation.

A Christian has to face many issues and temptations in which he has to go against the stream of life in order to avoid going to hell. Our behaviour must be guided by a conscience fearful of God and the resignation that the road to evil leads to hell and that means no turning back.

Faith is a gift from God and with this gift we have the courage to hold on in any situation that we are in and thank and praise God through our fervent prayers. It is rightly stated that Deeds of Mercy are above justice and righteousness.

The heart-wrenching story of Saint Augustine is an example of repentance and mercy. He was on his knees crying for mercy since the weight of his past unholy life was very heavy and thus he was unable to bear it. The pitiful face of his mother was haunting him whenever he was in prayer on his knees. The picture of his mother was before him who was pouring out her heart begging pardon and mercy from the Heavenly Father on behalf of her son. Saint Augustine prayed for mercy with a humble contrite heart. He prayed, “Lord, how long will you be angry, forever? Do not remember my past unholy life. When? When Lord will you help me to put a stop to my sinful life ? Why can’t you help me now itself, at this moment itself ?

Saint Augustine sighed and cried a lot just like a child when he understood the value of a chaste life. God heard the prayers of his mother and considered the sacrifices she did and the tears she shed for her son’s conversion and saw his thirst for holiness, had mercy upon him, forgave him and made him His own and raised him to the state of a great saint.

Let all the mother’s on earth like Saint Monica intercede to our Heavenly Mother to be merciful to their children and save them from the unholy path leading to unchaste life.

Many times through the tears of the crucifixion of Jesus and through the eyes of the statues of Mother Mary that we are reminded of the sorrow of God but very few understand the meaning of this grief.

Pope Francis mentioned that the heart must be free of negative influences and in order to receive the Gift of Grace we must safeguard our hearts in order to let God pass freely through it. When the Lord passes through our hearts then there is an outpouring of gifts. We need to be attentive to the gifts of God. We need to safeguard our heart from the external factors that tend to block the passage of the Lord’s path like gossip, unforgiveness, scandalous speech and other unbecoming thoughts and deeds.

Our Lady comes to warn us and the reason for her tears is that too many souls are going to Hell and we are still unable to change our lives. We have to believe that our Lady’s tears do have a reason and her tears call for conversion.

There is a story of a man who was tired of being burdened by his old father because he had to keep him in his house and care for him. He decided to get rid of him by dropping him off at a garbage dump. While carrying him, his father, who understood what was happening, whispered in his son’s ear , “Drop me here, this is where I left my father, your grand-father .” Then, the son stopped and reflected on his father’s words. He turned around and took his father back home.

We are like foreign pilgrims on our way in this world. Our home does not belong on this planet earth. Our whole life is a constant preparation towards the ultimate step. We have got to learn how to die well. The Lord never forsakes us not even at death’s door. Our choices in this life will have serious consequences for our happiness or unhappiness forever, because they are crucial choices.

An article published by Fr. Elmo Romagosa entitled, “The tears of Our Lady wet my fingers” regarding the shedding of tears of Our Lady of Fatima in New Orleans in July, 1972. Our Lady urged the young shepherds to tell the world that She was deeply upset with the corruption and wickedness of Her flock of sheep. If men did not heed to Our Lady’s prophetic sadness and shedding of tears and did not take our Lady’s warning seriously no mercy will be shown to mankind and they will have to live through their days of tragic bitterness and misery.

Our Lady weeps because after 2000 years, since Her Son came and died for us we have not converted ourselves. We continue to live a sinful lifestyle. When death arrives and we run the risk of ending up in hell, Our Lady is unable to help us anymore in order that we be saved.

Oh! Virgin Mary, Mother of God and Our Mother, continue your tireless work of mediation between Heaven and Earth. May Your tears , the Madonna’s tears, take us back to Prayer and Penance, so that love and not hatred may triumph on our planet Earth and Let us entrust ourselves to the Mother of Jesus and we shall see Her Immaculate Heart triumph.