Bonded Heart, The Glory of Mary

06-16-2024Weekly ReflectionFr. Tony Okolo C.S.Sp., V.F.

Beloved Parishioners,

We just celebrated both the Solemnity of The Most Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Having shared reflection with you on the Sacred Heart of Jesus, today I share with you on the Immaculate Heart of Mary which took place last Saturday.

It was Saint John Eudes who said, “You must never separate what God has so perfectly united. So closely are Jesus and Mary bound up with each other that whoever beholds Jesus sees Mary; whoever loves Jesus, loves Mary; whoever has devotion to Jesus, has devotion to Mary.” It is, therefore, not surprising that after celebrating the solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus on Friday, comes the Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary on Saturday. Lúcia de Jesus Rosa dos Santos, one of the Fátima visionaries, said, “The work of our redemption began at the moment when the Word descended from Heaven in order to assume a human body in the womb of Mary. From that moment, and for the next nine months, the Blood of Christ was the Blood of Mary, taken from Her Immaculate Heart; the Heart of Christ was beating in unison with the Heart of Mary.”

There is a very strong bond uniting the two hearts together. The glory of Mary is inherent in this eternal bond between the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. In our conventional context, the glory of a mother is the son. If the son is a great and famous person, the mother will always be recognized. This was evident when Jesus was speaking to the crowd, consummated in the wisdom coming out from His mouth, a woman raised her voice and proclaimed, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and blessed are the breasts that nursed you!” before the crowd, the glory of Mary even shone more brightly. We are therefore challenged to reflect on the unity of our family. There can be no peace in the world if families are not united in peace. No matter how terrible a member of the family is, he or she can be transformed. What is required is a change of heart and renewal of the mind. A devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Immaculate Heart of Mary can bring forth such a miracle in any disordered family.

Submissive Humility and Spiritual Offering, Mary’s Experience
From the moment of the annunciation, she kept meditating in her heart, the graciousness of God. By so doing, she offered herself in submissive humility to the will of God, and such became her daily life experience. One of the things we need to do before leaving this world, is to be sure we have found out the will of God in our lives. In most cases, many graves weep because of missions unaccomplished. We can always ask ourselves the question, am I doing the will of God in submissive humility? Every spiritual offering needs total humility. This fact gives the reason some offerings could be rejected. As soon as the will of God was related to the Blessed Virgin Mary, she accepted it and offered herself submissively to accomplish the task of God. We can imitate her.

The Purity of Heart and Observance of Law
The Immaculate Heart of Mary signifies the great purity and love of the heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary for God. We can see this purity in her ‘Yes’ to the Father when the message of Incarnation was revealed to her. To cooperate with God for the salvation of the world, she obeyed and remained docile to the Holy Spirit. This helped her to remain free of the stain of personal sin throughout her life. Mary’s Immaculate Heart undoubtedly challenges our lifestyles. Purity of life and observance of Divine laws are eluding our generation. It is only a pure heart that can effectively obey the precepts of God. As we celebrate the Memorial of the Immaculate Heart, may God grant us a pure and docile heart, Amen.