Today the Church celebrates the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Yesterday was the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It is appropriate that we celebrate the heart of His mother the following day.
Our Gospel reading today is from Luke 2, the story of the finding of the child Jesus in the temple. After the family realized that Jesus was not with them traveling back home, they went in search of him, only to find him in the temple. The last sentence in today’s Gospel is very telling. “He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart.”
When I think of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I always think of a mother’s heart. That special bond that a mother has with her children is one that I, as a man, could never fully understand. But I see it every day in the hearts of all mothers. And Mary, as the Mother of the Church, the Mother of all Christians, has that very special bond with all believers. (Whether they realize it or not may be another matter.) But the Immaculate Heart of Mary beats not only for her child, Jesus. It beats for you and me, too. A heart filled with love and compassion. The heart of our Mother.
Father, we thank you for giving us a mother to watch over us, love us and pray for us. May our heart imitate the Immaculate Heart of Mary and beat with love for all. Amen.
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