The Immaculate Heart of Mary

 Today we celebrate the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.    Again we focus on human love, just as on the Feast of the Sacred Heart.   Catholics often say that Christ gave Mary to us from the Cross, "Woman behold your Son, Son behold your Mother", but in the Divine plan it was much more than just a symbolic gesture.   The Fathers of the Church did not see her as just a woman chosen by God to be the Mother of Jesus, perhaps she would do,  or perhaps someone else.   The Angel Gabriel greeted her "Hail, full of Grace....."  What he was saying was that she already had all the gifts that God deemed necessary for one who was to be the Mother of the Saviour he would send.    It is quite astonishing to me that there are those who believe any woman would do, as though it was just an ordinary task bringing up the Son of God!   But certainly the Early Church, and Mary was part of the Early Church, knew better. 

The Son of God could not inherit a human nature that was prone to sin, so one of the great things that God did to Mary was that He intervened and freed her from all stain of sin by making her a New Eve, in other words she was created Immaculate like the Old Eve, but as the Old Eve did,  she never stained her soul by falling into temptation, so there were no imperfections inherited in the nature of Christ, and she remained a mother, holy and perfect, throughout the life of her son. 

But the Fathers also in calling her the New Eve were responding to what St Paul saw Christ as, the New Adam.   Now the flesh of Christ was inherited entirely from Mary, His flesh was her flesh.   So we can see that Mary as our Mother is present in the Flesh of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.   We become children of the New Adam and the New Eve every time we receive Holy Communion.    So the term Mary as Mother is not just symbolic, but we become her children, a new creation, a chosen race, true inheritors of the Kingdom.    Is that not absolutely wonderful.   We are a family and Mary is our Mother.   In scripture in the final chapter in Revelations 12, we can read of how the dragon having failed to kill Jesus, decided to attack all the other children of the Woman clothed with the Sun with the Moon at her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.

So brothers and sisters of the family of Jesus and Mary, you can see that Mary was not just a woman, as though any woman could do, no, she was a woman with many gifts for her role in our salvation, for only through her Immaculate Heart was our Salvation assured.

Immaculate Heart of Mary, so full of love for your children, pray for us.


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