IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY

Saturday, June 16, 2007

Reading: Luke 2/41-51

We can imagine, parents especially, how Joseph and Mary must have felt when they discovered Jesus was missing. He was not in the group they were travelling with as they had supposed, so they rushed back to Jerusalem where, after three days of looking, they found him in the temple. When someone is missing like that, especially a child of ours, we realize more than ever how much we love them.

Today our feast is called “The Immaculate Heart of Mary.” When Jesus was missing we can be sure that heart was in the greatest state of anxiety it had ever before experienced. Do you suppose we ever cause Mary anxiety? If Jesus could do it, we can very well be sure we also can. We are her children too.

Joseph and Mary found Jesus in the temple; that is where they can find us right now. But sometimes we are very far from any temple or church or state of prayer, not just in body, but in spirit. We sometimes wander off into situations we know we shouldn’t be. Where no mother would ever want to find her child.

When we sin we cause God grief. Our illicit fun is God’s heartbreak. Mary’s too. We are not only children of God, we have been given over to Mary by Jesus to be her sons and daughters. And she loves us with a love that is surpassed only by her love for God and Jesus. Why did Jesus disappear without telling his parents where he was going? None of us can answer that question. But I am pretty sure we can answer why we run off. Let us resolve to do our best not to cause God or Mary any more anxiety. And, like Jesus, let us return to Nazareth and be obedient to them.