STABAT: Mary Stood at the Foot of the Cross

"The mother was standing"

Popsie sent me an email this morning, that I had to write a piece on STABAT, our class motto. I realized immediately that this would be no easy task, and I could not whip out this piece quickly. On the other hand, this is a perfect example of “karma”, as STABAT has come back to haunt me, yet again.

You see, some 26 years ago, I campaigned heavily, that our class choose as its motto, “STABAT”. I cannot tell you what the other choices were, I don’t remember. I cannot tell you exactly why I wanted this, other than it was more profound, and it seemed to me then, more applicable to us, and it was something that we could aspire to in life. All I remember is we had a few choices (don't know who came up with the choices), 3 or 4 mottos, and we vice presidents were tasked to take them back to the classrooms and put it to a vote, and so we did. Section 7 voted for STABAT, and it turns out, so did most of you.

Through the years, when my life would take a turn for difficult, to say the least, I would look upon this choice, made long ago in my youth. A few times, I regretted it, in the midst of my own agony of the moment, thinking that my life had just imitated motto. Why couldn’t I have chosen something easier, less profound, maybe I would not have to be standing up to my own sorrows? I even dreaded reminding anyone that I was somewhat instrumental in this motto choice all those years ago, lest you blame me for making you live up to something so demanding.

Yet many times, the motto has served as inspiration: If Mary did it, watching her son die on the cross, then my cross to bear is so much less, so stand up myself, I must.

Where else to turn, to “research” STABAT, but the internet, something not available to us, 25 long years ago. All I can say is that I have not had a yahoo search turn up to be so deep, and so moving.

Did you know that:

• STABAT MATER is the title of a 13th century hymn, originally in Latin, consisting of 20 couplets which describe the sorrow of the Blessed Mother as she stood at the foot of the cross.
• There are more than 60 English translations alone, not to speak of the translations in Spanish, German, French, Italian, and even Kapampangan, among others.
• The text has inspired hundreds of musical compositions, dating from medieval to the present time. Some of the music was traditionally sung or performed on Good Friday.
• At some point in history, the STABAT was banned by the Council of Trent (1545-1563), among others, because the singing of the sequens (a sequens is where every melody was sung only twice, so that every pair of stanzas got a new melody) was putting great burden upon the liturgy itself. Subsequently, STABAT was reintroduced into liturgy as initiated by Pope Benedict XIII in 1727. It was the 5^th sequens in the missal, sung on September 15, the feast of the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady.

Here are some of the more interesting websites I found. I invite you to surf, and be astounded yourself:

http://www.stabatmater.dds.nl/index.html

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14239b.htm

http://www.catholicculture.org/docs/doc_view.cfm?recnum=3290

And when you are ready for more, read on...

I was not at all prepared to be floored, by doing research on my love-hate motto. For 25 years, all STABAT meant to me was “Mary Stood at the Foot of the Cross.” I likened it to one of the things my Lola Ninang always said to me: When you are suffering, offer it up. As I took a big bite of life, and it of me, STABAT in plain English simply meant “endure the agony.” It gets even more blunt in Tagalog, “Tiisin mo.”

I never connected STABAT MATER to MATER DOLOROSA, that is, until now. I think that if I did in my youth, I would not have chosen it. My great grandmother had a life-size statue of Mater Dolorosa, and this was her traditional contribution to the Holy Week procession in her home town of Naga. When I was ten years old, curious and disobedient, I explored every room in my grand uncle Guito’s home in Naga, after being told not to. Did I get the scare of my life when I had the misfortune of opening the room where the religious icons were stored. I shall not forget the weeping face of the black hooded statue, towering over me as I opened the forbidden door.

Yet now, I see that Mary, as she stood at the foot of the cross, was the Sorrowful Mother. Of course. How I never saw that before, I do not know.

Growing up, I never liked doing the Stations of the Cross. If I was made to accompany my mom and aunts to do it during Holy Week, I saw it as infringing upon my vacation time. It was an hour or so to endure, before I could go out and have fun again. I did not learn to appreciate it, until I was an adult attending mass at my parish, St. Francis Xavier in New York. This past Holy Week, I gained an even greater appreciation as our Family Faith group (Sunday school for the entire family, not just the kids) reflected on the Stations, in a manner that would be easy for children to understand.

We also traditionally think of the Stations from the perspective of Jesus, as in “Jesus receives the cross, Jesus falls, Jesus is stripped of his garments.” We do not really think of the Stations of the Cross from the perspective of Mary, his mother, who is witnessing all this.

Yet, that entire journey of Jesus, was also her journey. As he fell, as he was stripped, as he was in agony, so was she. It is called the Via Crucis, or Way of the Cross. But it is also called the Via Dolorosa, or the Way of Sorrow, Mary’s sorrow.

Here’s my 1st profound revelation for the day:

This entire journey of Mary, culminates in STABAT...She stood at the foot of the cross.

So in order to go through that same journey ourselves, and to finally come to a greater understanding of STABAT, one must do Stations. Here we go…

I found this most inspiring website, with the beautiful bronzes of the Blessed Mother during her journey: http://www.materdolorosa.co.nz/

Juxtaposing the sculptures here, with the Stations, we see that Mary went through the following:

1 SORROW (Jesus is condemned to death)
2 PAIN (Jesus received the cross)
3 GRIEF (Jesus falls for the first time)
4 SUFFERING (Jesus meets his mother)
5 GRATITUDE (Simon helps Jesus carry the cross)
6 COMPASSION (Veronica wipes the face of Jesus)
7 DISBELIEF (Jesus falls a second time)
8 ANGUISH (Jesus meets the women of Jerusalem)
9 TORMENT (Jesus falls the third time)
10 MERCY (Jesus is stripped of his garments)
11 SURRENDER (Jesus is nailed to the cross)
12 ACCEPTANCE (Jesus Dies on the cross)
13 GRACE (Jesus is taken down from the cross)
14 RENEWAL (Jesus is laid in the tomb)

Upon reflection of the above, one shall see, that to be able to stand at the foot of the cross, one must go though all of that: Sorrow, Pain, Grief, Suffering, Gratitude, Compassion, Disbelief, Anguish, Torment, Mercy, until one comes to a space where Surrender and Acceptance are possible, at which point one allows Grace to come in, and finally, Renewal.

To stand up implies some kind of strength, some kind of courage, so the knees don’t buckle, allowing one not to fall, quite literally. So to finally stand up, one must move from the place of pain and sorrow and agony, to a place of surrender and acceptance. Only then can one stand up in strength and courage, and receive the grace of renewal.

STABAT MATER, therefore, is not simply that Mary stood at the foot of the cross. Instead, STABAT MATER is the spiritual journey one takes, in order to be able to stand at the foot of the cross, and move on beyond it. It does not mean we do not or cannot fall, for we do, and we will keep falling. It means that after we fall, we pick ourselves up again, we stand up, and we keep walking, and continue with our quest. It means acceptance, it means surrendering to a higher power. This here is the deeper meaning of Lola Ninang’s “Offer it up.”

My problem all these years, I now realize, is that I fixated on a picture, that of Mary at the foot of the cross, a moment standing still, static in time through the ages.

And the problem with a one word motto such as STABAT is that it froze me in that one moment, keeping me stuck in the mud of sorrow and agony, not looking back before it, as to how one came to stand at the foot of the cross, or beyond the crucifixion itself.

So here is the part I was missing all these years:

STABAT is not simply standing at the foot of the cross, not just that one moment in time.
STABAT is a journey one must take in order to be able to stand up again.
And standing up again is exactly the RESURRECTION.

Lest you think the insight ends here, in my research, I discovered that there are two parts to STABAT: STABAT MATER DOLOROSA, which is Mary’s sorrows at the crucifixion of her son, the part we have been accustomed to, and the part we adopted as our motto 25 years ago, and there is also STABAT MATER SPECIOSA, one of the most tender Latin hymns of all time, based upon the Gospel accounts of the birth of Jesus Christ. SPECIOSA is about the rapture and exultation of Mary at the birth of her son, the Son of God.

Click here to see entire text of SPECIOSA: http://www.stabatmater.dds.nl/speciosa.html

Could it be, that we have spent the last 25 years thinking of our motto as STABAT MATER DOLOROSA, and we were not seeing the other side of it? Did we actually miss the other boat, the carnival cruise ship, and instead only bought tickets for the funeral barge? But now that we have come half-circle in life, is it now time to think of our motto in terms of both STABAT MATER DOLOROSA and STABAT MATER SPECIOSA?

I can’t help but point out that almost 300 years ago, under a Pope named Benedict (XIII), STABAT MATER found new life in the liturgy. Today, under yet another Pope Benedict (XVI), might WE now find new life in all aspects of STABAT MATER, our motto?

Wow. Thank you Popsie, for ambushing me into writing about STABAT. Even you did not know until now that I originally had a hand in it.

Maybe I am the only one who was blind and not seeing, and did not quite make all the connections these past 25 years. I do hope this post brings you all anyway, to a greater understanding of the motto we chose, and brings you even further in your life’s journey. Maybe then I won’t feel guilty anymore.

So now I propose, that instead of thinking of STABAT as the six letter word found inside our class ring, think of STABAT as a six letter phrase:

STABAT = JOURNEY FROM AGONY TO RESURRECTION

So did we make the right choice all those many years ago? From where I stand now, I think so.

Love and peace, everyone.