Mary herself dared to say: "Why have you done this to us?"

Father Guillaume de Menthière, a priest of the Diocese of Paris, gave the following homily at the funeral Mass for Father Cyril Gordien on March 20, 2023, in the Parisian church of Saint-Pierre-de-Montrouge in Paris (excerpt):

"A parishioner of the Church of the Assumption in Paris challenged me yesterday by exclaiming: ‘Father, the death of this priest, who was so good, so loved, and so young, makes no sense!’ From a human perspective, it is certainly absurd and shocking. For almost a week now, the only words I could pray, I will admit, have been those that the Immaculate addressed to her divine Son: ‘Why have you done this to us?’ (Lk 2:48). How close she is to us, our good Mother of Heaven! How she understands our puzzlements, our disappointments, even our revolts!

Blessed be the Blessed Virgin who canonizes for us the words of incomprehension: ‘Why have you done this to us?’ Blessed be the Virgin Mary and St. Joseph who sanctify our dazedness: ‘They did not understand what he was saying to them…’ (Lk 2:50)

But if we side with Mary when she asks questions, let us also imitate her when she ‘faithfully keeps all these things in her heart to meditate on them.’ (Lk 2:19; 51) 

On this feast of Saint Joseph, let us contemplate the Old Testament patriarch Joseph, son of Jacob, who, when he was recognized in Egypt by his brothers who had sold him into slavery, pronounced these memorable words: ‘The evil that you intended to do to me, God turned it into good’ (Gen 50:20).

Oh, how certain we must be that God can turn every evil into good! Priests know this well. In the confessional, they witness a prodigious alchemy: by the power of God's mercy, the mire of sin becomes a clear source of grace. When the sinner humbly confesses his fault, then even the greatest evil, which is sin, becomes a blessing! Yes, ‘all things work together for the good of those who love God’ (Rom 8:28), etiam peccata, even sins!

Source : www.famillechretienne.fr