Memorial of the Immmaculate Heart of Mary

Scripture: Isaiah 61:9-11. I Sam.2. Luke 2:41-51. Lectionary # 573: Fittingly, the Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, the mother of Jesus, follows upon the Solemnity of the Feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. These two human hearts have kept beating together from the very first moment of Jesus' conception in the body of the Immaculate Mary and his heart stopped while this same woman of courage stood at the foot of the Cross as Jesus heart was pierced with a lance and blood and water flowed down from it. We read of an incident in the youthful years of Jesus--the only one that tells us something about him in his teens. Mary and Joseph, after three days, find him in the Temple in Jerusalem with the elders who pray and teach. He listened and when his parents found him, he told them that he was about his Father's business there--and hereafter. They were dumbfounded and pondered over the meaning of his words. In a sense this too was a sorrowful moment for Mary as was the loss of her son for three days. Simeon had foretold that her heart would be pierced! How could it be otherwise with a Son who was also the one who would redeem us all by his own sufferings and death. The readings are excellent ones which help us to understand the traditions about this holy pair of Jesus and Mary whose hearts continued in love for one another throughout his short earthly years. Isaiah speaks of a special relationship--which the Church interprets as mystical; then the selection from II Samuel 2 is similar to Psalm 113 and to Mary's own Psalm called the Magnificat. We can enter into the spirit of this Memorial by praying the Psalm response and saying the Magnificat: "My heart rejoices in the Lord, my Savior. Amen.