Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Lectionary: 370/573

As the earth brings forth its plants,
and a garden makes its growth spring up,
So will the Lord GOD make justice and praise
spring up before all the nations.


Today's memorial represents the last echo of the Easter Season; it follows the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which always falls on the second Friday after Pentecost. The New Testament tells us Mary survived her son, disappearing from its pages after her final appearances on Good Friday and Pentecost. There are traditions about her life from that time, most especially her Assumption into, and her Coronation in, heaven. But, if the particular person of Mary fades away, her Spirit remains on every page and in every chapter of the Bible. She is the true model and first disciple of Jesus. 

I see her quietly opening her heart and home to the Church as it ventured out from Jerusalem to the whole world. She remained as a garden of repose for Jesus's disciples as they faced unexpected, unprecedented challenges. Her Holy Spirit was an infallible guide for a faithful, sinful people.

In recent years Mary's cult has been politicised and polarized. We should not be surprised by that. Religion lends itself to strong opinions and hardened attitudes. Conservative Catholics celebrate her as an anti-Communist crusader; liberal Catholics remember the bold young woman who travelled to Jerusalem from Nazareth "with or without" a male escort. She is also hailed as champion and queen of the poor; and especially in America, of Indiginous and Latin Americans. The delightful young Lady of Guadalupe still challenges us to trust her guidance, "Am I not your mother?" The online Catholic Encyclopedia has an excellent article about devotion to the Immaculate Heart of Mary and its long history.

Saint Maximillian Kolbe, the "Martyr of Love" who died at the hand of Nazis, described Mary's particular blessing as "Immaculation." It was more than a state of purity; it was a growing from grace to grace. A human being, she could no more imagine the destiny of her child than any woman. She must have expected and hoped that he would outlive her; the death of a child is one of nature's cruelest disappointments. Even pet owners see that when puppies or kittens die and their pets grieve the loss. Mary could only suffer the stories of hostility that surrounded her son as he left Nazareth and advanced upon Jerusalem. Nor could she keep herself away as that fatal day approached. 

But all the while she found the courage to wait and trust in God. What his passion and death meant, no one could imagine. The greatest minds in history have stood appalled and silent before that mystery. 

The Prophet Simeon had given her some notice, 

Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted, and you yourself a sword will pierce so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.”

His words offered little comfort and less explanation on that Good Friday, and during the long, empty hours of Holy Saturday. In the years that followed his Resurrection she and the Church would begin to understand. 

During this long Covid-19 summer of 2020, as we await the decision of the American people in November, as we ponder America's Original Sin of racism -- a tradition received from Christian Europe -- we pray that our hearts will be rendered pure like the Immaculate Heart of Mary. This process is like hers, immaculation, as we become worthy to bear the Son of God.