Reflection: Grace and Mercy...Roses and Thorns

Every week, I have the blessing of going to Eucharistic Adoration and seeing Jesus through the eyes of a little child.  She knows she is with Him.  She climbs up to stand on the kneeler before the altar.  She looks at Jesus and talks to him.  Recently, a small gold cross was placed on the altar.  She reached out and held the little cross in her hands and kissed Jesus.  She looked at it and asked what was on His head.  I told her it was a crown of thorns.  She had a pained look and asked, "Why?"  She knows about thorns because she loves roses, but not the thorns.  I told her some people did not love Jesus and wanted to hurt Him.  She could not comprehend why.

This sacred moment gave me a glimpse of how little children teach us so much.  A rose is a beautiful flower and the thorns are part of it.  I have been reflecting on this beautiful encounter with an innocent child.  Thorns and trials are a part of our lives.  It is through them that Jesus makes something as beautiful as a rose.  It is through the trials and suffering in my life that the Lord made beauty.  How does Jesus do that?  When we turn to Him, He draws us close to His Sacred Heart.  We hear Him in the silence of Eucharistic Adoration and in quiet, contemplative prayer.

Saint Therese of Lisieux, described herself as a little flower for Jesus.  She said,

"Take heart, Jesus hears even the last echo of our pain."

"I do not have any other means to prove my love to you, but to throw flowers, that is to let no little sacrifice, no look, no word pass, to take advantage of all the littlest of things and to do them out of love... Hence, I pluck every flower I find on my way, for Jesus. And then as I strew my flowers before Him I desire to sing, although I have had to pluck them among thorns. And the sharper and longer the thorns, the sweeter is my song."  She had much suffering.  "My joy is to love suffering. I smile shedding tears.  I accept with gratitude the thorns mixed with the flowers."

Our Blessed Mother Mary knew suffering and unbearable pain.  She appeared to the shepherd children in Fatima and showed her heart encircled with thorns. 

On December 10, 1925, Lucia saw an apparition of the Blessed Virgin, accompanied by the Child Jesus on a little cloud.  Lucia recounted that Mary rested her hand on her shoulder, while showing her a heart encircled by thorns in her other hand.

The Child Jesus spoke first: "Have pity on the Heart of your Most Holy Mother. It is covered with the thorns with which ungrateful men pierce it at every moment, and there is no one to remove them with an act of reparation."

Then Mary said:  "My daughter, look at My Heart surrounded with thorns with which ungrateful men pierce it at every moment by their blasphemies and ingratitude. You, at least, try to console me, and say that I promise to assist at the hour of death, with all the graces necessary for salvation, all those who, on the first Saturday of five consecutive months go to confession and receive Holy Communion, recite five decades of the Rosary and keep me company for a quarter of an hour while meditating on the mysteries of the Rosary, with the intention of making reparation to me."

On June 13, 1929, Lucia saw another important apparition involving Mary as she was making a Holy Hour in the convent chapel at Tuy in Spain, as was her custom on Thursday nights from eleven to twelve. She was alone, praying the prayers of the Angel in the dim light of the sanctuary lamp when,

"Suddenly the whole chapel was illumined by a supernatural light, and above the altar appeared a Cross of light, reaching to the ceiling. In a brighter light on the upper part of the Cross, could be seen the face of a man and his body as far as the waist; upon his breast was a dove of light; nailed to the Cross was the body of another man. A little below the waist, I could see a chalice and a large Host suspended in the air, onto which drops of blood were falling from the Face of Jesus Crucified and from the wound in His side.  These drops ran down onto the Host and fell into the chalice. Beneath the right arm of the Cross was Our Lady and in her hand was her Immaculate Heart.  It was Our Lady of Fatima, with her Immaculate Heart in her left hand, without sword or roses, but with a crown of thorns and flames. Under the left arm of the Cross, large letters, as if of crystal clear water which ran down upon the altar, formed these words: 'Grace and Mercy.' "  Lucia explained that she understood the apparition was a representation of the Holy Trinity.

Let us ponder the crown of thorns on the Sacred Head of Jesus and the crown of thorns that encircled and pierced the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  Two hearts united.  Let us ask them for the grace to be like a little child.

O Sacred Heart of Jesus, Immaculate Heart of Mary, we unite our sufferings to you and ask you to make something beautiful.