Masterpiece Sunday: The Pieta

Pietà, William-Adolphe Bouguereau, 1876. Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, Texas.

A beautiful tradition that my parish does is the traveling chalice. Families at the parish sign up to have a chalice in their home for one week at a time during the summer to offer up their prayers and fasting for holy vocations to come to the parish. This week, starting on this solemnity, my family has the chalice. As a mother of two young children, praying for vocations can be a bit emotional to think about. At one point or another, every parent has experienced the realization that their child will not stay young forever and that the Lord indeed has a plan for their life. It is the role of a parent to raise their children to be open and able to hear, receive, and accept that plan and call that the Lord has for their life. Raising children is a constant letting go over control and giving them to God through our prayers, thoughts, and actions. God gives us the gift of life just to ask for it back. 

Many parents of priests and religious say it was harder to accept and offer their children up to that vocation than it would be for married life. I think this reveals the truth that we feel more involved and in control of the things of this world. Marriage will not exist in heaven, it only exists here upon earth. When we move into the sense of what is beyond and higher than us, namely the vocation of the priesthood and religious life, there is a greater sense of having no control and inability to understand fully. Every vocation takes grace and a calling, but the priesthood and religious life can only come supernaturally. Children will be able to tell if their parents are closed off to the idea and possibility of them having a religious vocation. Parents should continually go to God to ask for the openness, peace, and acceptance of what the Lord has planned for the lives of their children. 

Mary provides the perfect example of openness, acceptance and trust of the Lord’s plan in the Pietà. Jesus accepted the will of the Father that He would die on the cross for our sins, but Mary had to accept that too. Our Most Blessed Mother had to trust God and accept that His will was what was best for Jesus and for all of humanity. The Pietà shows her holding her dead son, but still giving Him over to the whole world. The angels surround her in sorrow but also to support what God has ordained. 

On this beautiful solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ, may we be able to reflect upon the gift that Mary freely gave to the world - her son Jesus Christ. If you are a parent, take this opportunity to open your heart a bit more to seeing and accepting what the Lord may be calling your child too. Mary’s agreement for Jesus to be used by God may not have been explicitly stated, but it was lived out. Your openness to God’s will may be what your child needs to take the leap of faith into the glorious call that God has put on their heart. Receive the gift which Jesus offers, knowing that this gift began with His parents first.