13th Sunday after Pentecost 22 August 2021 Feast of the Immaculate
Heart
The average human heart will be a mixture of good and evil desires: good, as in thoughts of love, generosity, kindness to others; bad, as in carrying grudges, wishing harm on others, selfishness, and the like.
In the Heart of Mary we would find only the good desires, and they would be in much larger quantities than we could even imagine.
Mary is not just a little bit better than the rest of us, but far and away
above us. As St Alphonsus puts it: The fire of her love was most extreme. If Heaven and earth
were placed in it, they would be instantly consumed. And the ardours of the
seraphim, compared with it, are like cool breezes.
We associate Mary with gentleness and quietness, but the
external demeanour conceals a furnace of love and all related qualities.
Her fierce love for God enabled Him to work all His plans in her. She did not merely obey God, but wanted to serve Him with her whole heart and soul.
When her role as Mother and Queen of Heaven was established she was then able to turn her attention to loving the rest of us… Woman, this is your son. We are all her children, and she directs this blazing love towards each one of us.
It is tragic that so many people feel alone and unloved, when in fact they have a Mother who is close to their hearts, and would help them if only they could turn to her.
She can help us with everything the world will not give us.
The world lusts after power, impurity, wealth, immediate satisfaction etc. She is humble, pure, poor in spirit, able to trust God over ages of time.
The world ignores God, she seeks Him out.
The world blasphemes God; she glorifies the Lord
Many ignore her; many others (like us) do call out to her but we find we have much work to do in cleansing our hearts and re-directing them the right way.
It is because of our sins that we can be so dull of perception in these matters. Hearts which are weighed down by sin are not capable of perceiving the greatness of divine love, or of Mary’s unique human love.
Part of her loving work for us will be to release our hearts from the false attachments of sin, enabling us to see more clearly the activity of God in our midst.
Her heart was Immaculate, that is, without sin or stain of any kind. We could never love with the same intensity as she does, but we can at least move in that direction.
Our prayer, directed to Mary’s Immaculate Heart will give us the strength to persevere, and not to fall back into cynicism or despair. There is so much sorrow in the world at present; we could collapse under the weight of it all, but we will learn from Mary how to deal with that sorrow and turn it to joy.
The only way is to deepen our link with Almighty God, to find in Him the source of every good thing.
The more the earth fails to keep us happy the more we cling to God (at all stages assisted by Mary).
She can see the solution but she also understands the resistance people have developed. The people have to be eased out of their wrong way of thinking into the real solution.
This takes much prayer on her part, and our part too. We share her sorrow for all who are labouring, and increase our prayers and penances that they will see the way out.
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