I WILL PUT A NEW HEART WITHIN YOU


OUR LADY, MOTHER AND QUEEN

Ezek. 36:23-28; Ps 51:12-15,18-19; Mt 22:1-14

The Gift of a new Heart

We celebrate the memorial of our Lady, Mother and Queen as we reflect on the fact that she is the mother of the regenerated human race. By the grace and privilege of being the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Blessed Virgin Mary is the mother of all Christians. The prophet Ezekiel prophesied the regeneration of grace when God would remove the hearts of stone from his people and replace them with hearts of flesh that would obey his word and do his will in all things. God will gather his people from all over the nations where they are scattered. We have understood this gathering in a spiritual sense that is not limited to physical. God is beyond physical limitations. It is a gathering by the Spirit of God, by our participation in the Spirit of God. “Then I am going to take you from among the nations and gather you together from all the foreign countries, and bring you home to your own land. I shall pour clean water over you and you will be cleansed; I shall cleanse you of all your defilement and all your idols.” For us to share in the Holy Spirit of God, there must be a cleansing from our sins and defilements. God will also change our will or love from creatures to the creator.

This change in orientation implies a new birth since a new birth shows forth in a principle of living. The participation promised in this prophecy means that the new people of God will live by the Spirit of God and not by their natural principles. The prophecy expressed this new principle. “I shall give you a new heart, and put a new spirit in you; I shall remove the heart of stone from your bodies and give you a heart of flesh instead. I shall put my spirit in you, and make you keep my laws and sincerely respect my observances.” The heart here refers to the faculty of love and desire. Since a single heart or spirit animates our natural life, a change of heart will imply a change of spirit and desire. The Psalmist desired this new heart and called it a pure heart. “A pure heart create for me, O God, put a steadfast spirit within me.” The presence of this desire is a necessary condition for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in each of us. This contrite heart and desire for holiness and purity are the characteristic features of those gathered together as the new children of God from all nations. God creates this desire in each of us to match his will to pour clean water of baptism over us. The Christian life is a turning away from everything that is not God to the living God who reveals himself for our supernatural life.

Our Lord uses the parable of the wedding guests to express this truth. The new people of God would be joined to the Eternal Word of God as a woman is joined to a husband. This parable confirms the communion in the Holy Spirit attained by the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It also confirms that the new people are not Israelites alone but all people who desire to do the will of God. Hence, the gathering is not physical but spiritual. “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a feast for his son’s wedding. He sent his servants to call those who had been invited, but they would not come.” By this, we understand that the unwilling souls will not be there. Those found in the wedding hall are willing to be joined by the king’s son in marriage. “The wedding is ready; but as those who were invited proved to be unworthy, go to the crossroads in the town and invite everyone you can find to the wedding.” The Blessed Virgin Mary is the first God joined to his Eternal Word as his mother. Since we constitute one mystical body with him by our willingness to do the will of the Father, she is also our mother in the spiritual sense. Therefore, grace flows mystically from her to us, who are her children. She is also our Queen as the mother of the King of the new Jerusalem. We ask for her intercession that we may daily desire to do the will of Father.

Let us pray: O God, who made the Mother of your Son to be our Mother and our Queen, graciously grant that, sustained by her intercession, we may attain in the heavenly Kingdom the glory promised to your children. 

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