The Gospel for the Memorial of Mary's Immaculate Heart ("the Finding of Jesus in the Temple" Luke 2:41-51) teaches us to follow after the example of Mary's sinless heart; following Jesus, listening to Him, and treasuring what we hear in our hearts so that we might follow after Him.
By far the best reflection on today’s Gospel, the finding of Jesus in the Temple, I’ve ever heard was not from a priest or a professor of theology; but from a young woman, an undergraduate student, about 19 or 20 years’ old. She’s since entered a convent and become a Dominican Sister. She was speaking at a Rosary procession in London, reflecting on the Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary and how we list this finding of Jesus in the Temple as the last of the joyful mysteries. She recounted how, when she was a young child, her parents lost her younger brother for several hours, she recounted the anxiety and the worry of this incident, and although there was a certain relief at finding her brother unharmed one could hardly call it a joyful event. Imagine, then, she said, the dread of our blessed Mother, having lost her son for three days: how can we call this joyful?
This is where this young woman’s remarkable insight comes; the joyful mysteries are joyful, because in each of them, through the eyes and experience of Mary, we come to know Jesus better; we start to learn more about Him. In the Annunciation and the Visitation, we meet Him as the fulfilment of Jewish prophecy, as the promised Messiah, as Emmanuel (which means God with us). In his Nativity, we meet a God who humbled Himself to the lowest form, that of a helpless child, for the sake of his people. In the Presentation at the Temple, we meet Him as a saviour not just of the Jews but of all, as the light to enlighten the gentiles and to give glory to Israel. Finally, in the finding at the Temple, we see two things – we see Him lost for three days, preparing for the three days from Good Friday to Easter Sunday where He lay in the tomb, the three days when He was taken from us, we see Him restored to us, and then we find Him teaching, we find Him about His Father’s work. This mystery is joyful because it prefigures the greatest joy of all; the death of Jesus by which we are saved, the resurrection by which He proved His power over death, and finally his teaching – the road He left us to follow on behind Him. This is joyful because we find joy in growing to know Jesus more and more.
Mary stored up all these things in her heart.
Today is the memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the pure heart, a heart free from Sin, and today’s Gospel shows us what a heart free from Sin is free to do; it is a heart which seeks Jesus, which grows in knowledge of Him, and stores up that knowledge and love deep within itself. Mary stored up these things in her heart like a precious treasure, and carried them with her. She carried them with her as she followed Jesus in His ministry, as she incited His first miracle at Cana, as she followed Him up Calvary to the place where he would die, as she held her Son’s broken body in her arms and laid him in the tomb, as she went to anoint Him on Easter Sunday, and as she waited with the Apostles for the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Mary’s sinless heart, free from sin, was free to follow Christ to the end, perfectly united to Him, suffering with Him, and burning with the fire of the Holy Spirit.
This Feast of the Immaculate Heart follows immediately from the Feast of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, which we celebrated yesterday, because their two hearts are united. Because we can be drawn into the heart of Jesus through the heart of Mary; she points the way to Him by her example and her motherly love, teaching us to do as she does; to search for Jesus, to listen to his voice, and to treasure what we hear from Him in our Hearts.
We pray today; Immaculate heart of Mary, draw us into the love you had for Christ, set our hearts on fire with that same flame that burned in you, that freed from the stain of Sin we might follow after Christ, suffering with Him on the Cross, and rising with Him in the light of Easter. Amen.
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