Hearts Like Mom’s

JMJ
✙

The Readings for the Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

• Lamentations 2:2, 10-14, 18-19
• Luke 2:41-51

Blessed is the Virgin Mary who kept the word of God and pondered it in her heart.

Alleluia Verse

MARY’S TITLES ARE Innumerable. In the Byzantine Rites, in the Akathist (a hymn) to her she is called over and over by the titles:

Rejoice, through whom joy shall shine forth;
Rejoice, through whom the curse shall vanish.
Rejoice, fallen Adam’s restoration;
Rejoice, redemption of Eve’s tears.
Rejoice, height that is too difficult for human thought to ascend;
Rejoice, depth that is too strenuous for Angels’ eyes to perceive
Rejoice, for you are the throne of the King;
Rejoice, for you hold him Who sustains everything.
Rejoice, star that shows forth the Sun;
Rejoice, womb in which God became incarnate.
Rejoice, through whom creation is renewed;
Rejoice, through whom the Creator becomes an infant.
Rejoice, O Bride unwedded.

Source

Today’s memorial of the Immaculate Heart of our Blessed Mother celebrates her purity, and her love for her son and – through him – for us as well. But we can get so wrapped up in her superlativisity that we may forget she is a human person. What is in her is by God’s Grace, not her own merit. And we are called to that sanctity too.

By God’s Grace, at the moment of her conception, the Immaculate Virgin was protected from the stain of Original Sin. This means that she was not pulled away from God as we all are. Her will was free to make choices entirely on her own, unwounded by the common would we all share. Her will was still free to choose. She chooses God over and over. As we are called to do.

In Luke 1:28 she is called “Full of Grace”. The Greek is κεχαριτωμένη kexaritomene (Strong’s 5487). This word, indicating the bestowal of grace, is used twice in the New Testament: once to describe Mary as she is when Gabriel meets her and then in Ephesians 1:6 to describe us as God makes us in Jesus, his beloved Son. What Mary has by God’s grace from her conception is given to us in Jesus through Baptism and the other sacraments.

Now, yes, we are all sinners who have that wound of Original Sin. We walk towards God with a limp, like Jacob. We cannot make this choice on our own, but God’s grace can move us in his will. And so we are called not to be like Mary but to become like Mary. (I think the internetniks would say “begome” here.)

Mary loves us as the brothers and sisters of her Divine Son and we are called to grow up to be like our Mother – and our Oldest Brother, Jesus. We are called to this sanctity no matter who we are or where we are in life: single, married, celibate, lay, clergy, or monastic.

This was driven home by today’s second reading in the Daily Office, from a sermon by Saint Laurence Justinian, bishop:

Imitate her, O faithful soul. Enter into the deep recesses of your heart so that you may be purified spiritually and cleansed from your sins. God places more value on good will in all we do than on the works themselves.

Therefore, whether we give ourselves to God in the work of contemplation or whether we serve the needs of our neighbor by good works, we accomplish these things because the love of Christ urges us on. The acceptable offering of the spiritual purification is accomplished not in a man-made temple but in the recesses of the heart where the Lord Jesus freely enters.

Let us ask Mary’s prayers that God may make us more faithful sons and daughters of such a loving and immaculate mother.