Why do we say: "our life our sweetness and our hope"? --REVISITED

[Josh128]

“mother of mercy,** our life, our sweetness, and our hope**”

Does “life, sweetness, and hope” refer to Mary or Jesus. I have been brought up under the impression that it refers to Mary, but if that is the case I have a real problem with that. Case in point, Jesus is our life, our sweetness and our hope-- not Mary. Reading the prayer it seems that it can be correctly interpreted as Jesus, but what is the official Church teaching on this?

If the answer is indeed Mary, how can this possibly be justified and/or reconciled with the teaching of Jesus in the Gospels?

Thanks,

Josh

 

[Fr.Vincent_Serpa]

Hi,

This is what I wrote on Thursday:

We are dealing here with hyperbole. Hyperbole is a rhetorical device in which statements are exaggerated. It may be used to evoke strong feelings or to create a strong impression, but is not meant to be taken literally. We use it all the time, for example: “I’m so hungry I could eat a horse.” Or “It took forever for me to get here,” Or “Your name is music to my ears,” Or “Hail holy Queen, our life, our sweetness and our hope.” The latter just means that she is so special to us because God has made her so. That’s all.

But today, Friday, a person wrote in who, I think, really clarified the sentence. I’ve always thought that we begin by addressing Mary as mother of mercy. Then we call her " our life, our sweetness and our hope" as if these pertain to her. But actually, we shouldn’t separate “our mercy” from the rest. She is the mother of mercy, the mother of our sweetness and the mother of our hope. All of these are Jesus. We are calling Jesus all these things and she is His mother: the mother of our mercy, our sweetness and our hope.

Fr. Vincent Serpa, O.P.
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