The Immaculate Heart of Mary

Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator

Today we celebrate the memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, a devotion that follows hard on the heels of the Feast of the Sacred Heart. It carries the rank of a privileged memorial in our liturgical calendar which means that it would supersede the celebration of any other memorial that might fall on the same day and also that either the first reading or the Gospel text for this memorial is proper to the day. In this case, it is the Gospel that is proper.

Because the two celebrations are so close to one another in the calendar, it is possible that we might miss the subtle differences in the two celebrations. In the Feast or Solemnity of the Sacred Heart, we celebrate the love of God for all of us, the human family. In the Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, we celebrate the love of Mary for Jesus and the Father. In our consideration of the Sacred Heart, we are moved to sentiments of love responding to the love of God for us. In our consideration of the Immaculate Heart, we consider or study the love of Mary for God as a motive toward imitation.

These subtle differences are actually highlighted in the Gospel reading for today, the familiar story of Mary and Joseph finding the child Jesus in the midst of the teachers of Israel in Jerusalem. It concludes the section of the Gospel of St. Luke which we have come to know as the Infancy Narrative. This section of the Gospel begins and ends in the Temple as it started with the angel visiting Zechariah as he offered incense and ends with the child reminding his parents that he must be about his Father's business. The evangelist tells us that Mary pondered all of these things "in her heart."

As such, this phrase directs us to an introspective stance. Just as Mary studied and pondered the mystery of the incarnation, we are also urged to spend time with this unfolding and developing mystery. As we do so, we are filled with wonder and awe at the incomprehensible and unfailing love of God. As we read in the Gospel of St. John just a few weeks ago, "God so loved the world. . ."

May our devotion to the Blessed Mother constantly draw us closer to our loving God.