The Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Luke 2, 41-51

Each year Jesus' parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, and when he was twelve years old, they went up according to festival custom.

After they had completed its days, as they were returning, the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it.  Thinking that he was in the caravan, they journeyed for a day and looked for him among their relatives and acquaintances, but not finding him, they returned to Jerusalem to look for him. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions, and all who heard him were astounded at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him, they were astonished, and his Mother said to him, “Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety.”  And he said to them, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father's house?”  But they did not understand what he said to them. He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his Mother kept all these things in her heart.

Devotion to the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary, that is, her passionate love of God and of us, unhindered by any stain of sin, spread throughout the Christian world during the Middle Ages.  Feast days dedicated to her heart began to be celebrated in the 17th century and this became authorized for the Church Universal in 1855.  In 1944, Pope Prius XII moved the feast to August 22, on the octave day of Our Lady’s Assumption into heaven.  Pope Paul VI moved the feast to the Saturday after the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of our Lord Jesus Christ.  At the same time, the Feast of the Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary was moved to August 22.

In thinking of the Blessed Mother’s Immaculate Heart it is profitable to consider verses from the Song of Songs, among the Wisdom Books in the Holy Scriptures.  During the Middle Ages this book was heavily commented upon, and a very common manner of interpreting it was as a love song between Almighty God and his loving Handmaid.  For instance, the Song opens with the words, “O that you would kiss me with the kisses of your mouth! For your love is better than wine!”  This verse was to be sung by a bride regarding her groom.  As Christians we can understand it on a deeper level — a fulfilled level — as the yearning of the Virgin for her God, the love of her life.  

A few verses later, the bride sings to her groom, “Tell me, you whom my soul loves, where you pasture your flock, where you make it lie down at noon; for why should I be like one who wanders beside the flocks of your companions” (Song of Songs 1, 7).  We can see this verse in the light of the Gospel Reading for today’s feast: The Blessed Virgin asks her Lord where his flock is pastured for she knows that where they are, he will be.  She does not want to wander through the flocks of anyone else looking for him, but wants to come to him directly.  And she finds him teaching his “flock” in the Temple in Jerusalem.  Her love is returned in great, overflowing abundance, for, as the groom, the Lord, sings to her afterwards: “Behold, you are beautiful, my love; behold, you are beautiful; your eyes are doves. Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, truly lovely. Our couch is green; the beams of our house are cedar, our rafters are pine.”  Her beauty comes from the purity of her love.  It is radiant as the light of the sun shining off the white feathers of a dove.  The Lord declares that their couch — the Holy Church — is verdant and fruitful because of her love and her intercession for its members.  The “beams” of the Church, the saints, are cedar — that is, strong, rich, and fragrant with holiness.  Its “rafters” are said to be “pine”, which is a white wood, signifying those who imitate Blessed Mary’s virginity.

“His Mother kept all these things in her heart.”  Behold, in these last words of today’s Gospel Reading, the heart of the Mother of God!  It is the heart of a most dedicated and loving Handmaid who submits to the will of her Master, not arguing, not complaining, but only pondering how to serve.