Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows
As I read the lectionary selections for today, I was stunned by the juxtaposition of the excerpt from Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians and the Gospel reading from John. And what popped into my head was one of my favorite hymns, an African-American spiritual that (I learned today) probably predates the Civil War.
Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble. Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Were you there when they nailed him to the tree? Were you there when they nailed him to the tree? Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble. Were you there when they nailed him to the tree?
Were you there when they laid him in the tomb? Were you there when they laid him in the tomb? Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble. Were you there when they laid him in the tomb?
Were you there when God raised him from the tomb? Were you there when God raised him from the tomb? Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble. Were you there when God raised him from the tomb?
For me, this hymn poses just the right question in response to our reading from Paul’s first letter: Were you there? And if you weren’t (I obviously wasn’t) who was?
If you were to depend on Paul’s telling in this letter, it’s obvious that while we may not know the names of those who were there, we do know their gender. Definitely men.
Oh, but then there is our Gospel reading from John. It turns out it wasn’t all men. In fact, as John tells it, the men were outnumbered by the women. Two Mary’s and one disciple (I’m assuming here that the disciple is a man, though I don’t know that for certain).
Why does Paul write women out of the story? I don’t know.
There are many, many things I love about Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception. Father Satish’s homily last Sunday—was there a dry eye in the house?—is just one. But one that really stands out to me, as a Catholic who happens to be a woman, is that at IC a woman is always central to the salvation story. To the paschal mystery.
And she is a challenge to all of us.
If an angel showed up in my bedroom when I was a teenager and asked me if I was cool with God impregnating me with, what would my answer be? And if at the time I was engaged to a normal human guy?
“Sure! Sounds like a plan!”
I wish I could say with confidence that I would say yes, as she did. But, instead, her story and the story of all the women who were there causes me to tremble. Tremble. Tremble.
-Sue Trollinger