June
13
Saturday after Corpus Christi
Immaculate Heart of Mary
In the seventeenth century, St. John Eudes promoted devotion to the hearts
of Jesus and Mary. He even composed an Office and Mass in honor of the Heart
of Mary. It became a feast of the universal Church only in the twentieth
century and is celebrated on the day after the feast of the Sacred Heart of
Jesus.
The New Testament mentions Mary's heart only twice. Luke 2:19 says, "Mary
kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart." Luke 2:51 has a
similar text.
Both in Scripture and in later reflections on Mary's heart, it is obvious
that the usage is symbolic. The physical heart stands for the inner reaches
of the human personality. It includes or connotes the mind, the soul, the
will, the spirit, the core of one's being. It is the place where a person
thinks, remembers, feels, desires, makes decisions.
Medieval saints such as Mechtild, Gertrude (November 16) and Bridget (July
23) promoted devotion to the heart of Mary. Franciscan and Jesuit
theologians made their contributions. St. Francis de Sales (January 24)
dedicated his Treatise on the Love of God to Mary's heart. But it was St.
John Eudes (August 19) who wrote extensively about this theme. He says that
the divine Word printed on Mary's heart a perfect likeness of the divine
attributes and a share in the properties of each person of the Trinity.
Perhaps this devotion came into its own in the twentieth century. It is a
special theme of Fatima. In 1942, Pius XII consecrated the world to the
Immaculate Heart of Mary and established this feast for the universal
Church.
Comment:
To honor Mary's heart is to honor her total dedication to God. As she
pondered in her heart the mysteries of Jesus' infancy and childhood (Luke
2:19,51), she must have done the same for all the mysteries of his life,
death, and resurrection. This feast suggests that Mary is the greatest of
the mystics—totally wrapped up in God and committed to God's will. Her
spirituality is a model for all the members of the Church.
Quote:
"We can say that the mystery of the redemption took shape beneath the heart
of the Virgin of Nazareth when she pronounced her 'fiat.' From then on,
under the special influence of the Holy Spirit, this heart, the heart of
both a virgin and a mother, has always followed the work of her Son and has
gone out to all those whom Christ has embraced and continues to embrace with
inexhaustible love. For that reason her heart must have the inexhaustibility
of a mother" (St. John Paul II, Redeemer of Man, 22).