MARY KEPT THE WORD IN HER HEART


IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY, MEMORIAL 

Gen 18:1-15; Lk 1:46-50,53-55; Lk 2:41-51

Mary Stored All in Her Heart

We have celebrated the Solemn feast in honour of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ, our Lord. It is fitting to associate the Immaculate Heart of Mary with the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ, for the two are bound together in an everlasting love between the Mother and the Son. We consider the Sacred Heart to be the font of divine love because it is the human expression of the unfathomable love of the Eternal Word dwelling in our nature. While the love of the Immaculate Heart of Mary is not divine in the sense of expressing the love of a divine person, we understand it to be the first and most capacious receptacle of the outpouring of divine love from the Sacred Heart. First, in the sense that the Immaculate Heart of Mary was the foundry in which God poured the flame of divine love to produce/mould the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ. The Immaculate Heart of Mary is most capacious because it is immaculate, implying that no part of the heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary was occupied by anything that is not divine. It is also the most capacious because of the intensity of love found within it, which we understand from what came forth from her, the Son of God and Man, Jesus Christ our Lord. The Holy Spirit affirmed this understanding through Elizabeth. “Blessed are thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus Christ.”

We can also deduce this truth from the words of the Angel Gabriel when he saluted the Blessed Virgin Mary. “Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you.” If she is full of grace, as the angel asserted, then she is full of God, who is love. She cannot be full of grace without being immaculate. Hence, her immaculateness points to the contents of her heart. The Gospel gives us a hint of what fills her heart and mind. “His mother stored up all these things in her heart.” What did the Blessed Virgin Mary store in her heart? She stored the whole perplexing experience of losing her Son for three days, the activities of Jesus Christ in the Temple those three long days, and his words when they finally found him in the Temple among the doctors of the Law. The thought and love of her Son, whom she conceived and nurtured in love, filled the immaculate heart of Mary. We can only imagine the gift of faith she received and nurtured in her heart to such a height as to be able to conceive the Eternal Word of God in her womb, in addition to her conception of him in her immaculate heart. It was a conception by faith, which surmounted physical obstacles or constraints. She was betrothed to Joseph but had no intention of knowing him carnally because of her consecration to God. Again, her immaculateness and her full of grace lend support to our conviction. A young girl, when engaged, entertains thoughts of the coming union with her fiancé, which attaches her heart to him. Mary’s full of grace excludes this and affirms our conviction. Therefore, her faith had obstacles similar to Sarah’s faith.     

Mary received a gift of faith like Sarah but nurtured it on the word of God beyond that of Abraham and Sarah, or any human person. It is incomparable to the little faith of blessed Sarah. Mary's faith stands in continuity with Abaraham’s faith, which he expressed uniquely when he entertained the visitors as angels of God without knowing they were truly angels. “‘My lord,’ he said ‘I beg you, if I find favour with you, kindly do not pass your servant by. A little water shall be brought; you shall wash your feet and lie down under the tree. Let me fetch a little bread and you shall refresh yourselves before going further. That is why you have come in your servant’s direction.’” They refreshed themselves, as it seemed, and gave a specific time to Abraham for the fulfilment of God’s promise. Abraham believed, but Sarah had doubts and employed other means to get a son. She laughed when the angels reiterated the promise of God with a date. Her little faith could not surmount the physical obstacles. “Now Abraham and Sarah were old, well on in years, and Sarah had ceased to have her monthly periods. So Sarah laughed to herself, thinking, ‘Now that I am past the age of child-bearing, and my husband is an old man, is pleasure to come my way again!’” Thanks to God, Abraham’s faith was able to support hers. Mary’s great faith in the word of God helped her to overcome obstacles on her way to God. Her faith made her heart immaculate and open to love God. Her prayers will continue to aid us in offering ourselves in love to God, who is love.

Let us pray: O God, who prepared a fit dwelling place for the Holy Spirit in the Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary, graciously grant that through her intercession we may be a worthy temple of your glory. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.   

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