06/28/2022 – St. Peter and Paul and St. Mary Salome

Today is the feast of three saints of the infant Church. Ss Peter and Paul and St Mary Salome.

St Mary Salome was the mother of apostles John and James.There are two decades of the rosary that we can associate with her. The Third Luminous mystery, The Proclamation of the Kingdom, and the Fifth Sorrowful mystery, The Crucifixion.

Mary Salome must have been present when Jesus announced the coming of His Kingdom because she, ambitious for her sons, went to Jesus to secure her sons’ places on the right and left side of Jesus’ throne.Jesus tells her that their places are not His to give but the Father’s. This little exchange cautions us. It is easy like Mary Salome to have a faulty concept of the Kingdom, a concept more in line with the wealth and power of earthly Kings.

We forget Jesus likened it to a tiny mustard seed which planted in the earth becomes a great bush providing shelter to the birds who nestle in its leaves. St Mary Salome is also present at the Crucifixion. When we pray this decade, we can picture her as she stands beneath the Cross with the Blessed Virgin and with her son John.

And when Jesus from the Cross says to His Blessed Mother “ Women behold your son” and to St John, “Son behold your mother,” Mary Salome relinquishes her son to Mary. As the Gospel says, from that day John took Mary into his home. St Mary Salome is a model for every Mother and Father who give up their son to the priesthood or their son or daughter to the religious life. Mary Salome is also a model for parents who give away their children in marriage.