The Immaculate Heart of Mary

In early June, when we celebrated the feast day of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, my heart started reflecting about it. As my reflection started to evolve, I came to realize that what is special about this feast is that it honours the pure heart of Mary as well as her role within the life and mission of her Son Jesus.

The first point which clearly emerges from this feast day is that the devotion to Mary’s Immaculate Heart is based in the belief of Her Immaculate Conception, meaning that she was conceived without original sin. It comes naturally into my mind and heart the Dogmatic Bull Ineffabilis Deus, published on December 8, 1854, wherein Blessed Pius IX defined the following infallible teaching of the Church: We declare, pronounce, and define that the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin, is a doctrine revealed by God and therefore to be believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful.

But what does the immaculate conception of Mary convey to our hearts and minds? The Fathers of the Church helped me get a very interesting answer.

First, the fact itself of Mary who was immaculately conceived. Origen, in Homily 1 (244) tells us: This Virgin Mother of the Only-begotten of God, is called Mary, worthy of God, immaculate of the immaculate, one of the one. 

Second, in Mary’s immaculate conception we see God’s holiness. Ephrem in Nisibene Hymns 27:8 {A.D. 370), states: Thou alone and thy Mother are in all things fair, there is no flaw in thee and no stain in thy Mother.

Third, Mary’s immaculate conception draws our attention to the fact that in front of God, after Her Son Jesus, she is the greatest because she is the dwelling place of God the Word, the Covenant, the Ark and the true manna in which there lives the Son of God in the flesh. Athanasius in Homily of the Papyrus of Turin 71:216 (before 373) says: O noble Virgin, truly you are greater than any other greatness. For who is your equal in greatness, O dwelling place of God the Word? To whom among all creatures shall I compare you, O Virgin? You are greater than them all O Covenant, clothed with purity instead of gold! You are the Ark in which is found the golden vessel containing the true manna, that is, the flesh in which divinity resides.” 

Fourth, Mary’s immaculate conception also informs us that she is pure from every stain of sin. Here Ambrose’s Sermon 22, 30 (AD 388) is a powerful reminder of that: Mary, a Virgin not only undefiled but a Virgin whom grace has made inviolate, free of every stain of sin.

Fifth, the immaculate conception of Mary clearly shows God’s showering abundance of grace over her to overcome sin. Augustine, in Nature and Grace 4, 36 (415), wrote: We must except the Holy Virgin Mary, concerning whom I wish to raise no question when it touches the subject of sins, out of honour to the Lord; for from Him we know what abundance of grace for overcoming sin in every particular was conferred upon her who had the merit to conceive and bear Him who undoubtedly had no sin. Mary let this abundance of grace lavished upon her by the Lord to help her say her YES. In the encyclical on the Blessed Virgin Mary in the life of the Pilgrim Church, Redemptoris Mater, St Pope John Paul II gave us the concrete implications of Mary’s decisive Yes.

Yes, truly “blessed is she who believed”! These words, spoken by Elizabeth after the Annunciation, here at the foot of the Cross seem to re-echo with supreme eloquence, and the power contained within them becomes something penetrating. From the Cross, that is to say from the very heart of the mystery of Redemption, there radiates and spreads out the prospect of that blessing of faith It goes right back to “the beginning.” and as a sharing in the sacrifice of Christ-the new Adam-it becomes in a certain sense the counterpoise to the disobedience and disbelief embodied in the sin of our first parents. Thus teach the Fathers of the Church and especially St. Irenaeus, quoted by the Constitution Lumen Gentium: “The knot of Eve’s disobedience was untied by Mary’s obedience; what the virgin Eve bound through her unbelief, the Virgin Mary loosened by her faith.”⁴¹ In the light of this comparison with Eve, the Fathers of the Church-as the Council also says-call Mary the “mother of the living” and often speak of “death through Eve, life through Mary.”

In the expression “Blessed is she who believed,” we can therefore rightly find a kind of “key” which unlocks for us the innermost reality of Mary, whom the angel hailed as “full of grace.” If as “full of grace” she has been eternally present in the mystery of Christ, through faith she became a sharer in that mystery in every extension of her earthly journey. She “advanced in her pilgrimage of faith” and at the same time, in a discreet yet direct and effective way, she made present to humanity the mystery of Christ. And she still continues to do so. Through the mystery of Christ, she too is present within mankind. Thus through the mystery of the Son the mystery of the Mother is also made clear (no.19).

Imagine then how these holy qualities are wonderfully found within the heart of Mary! Her immaculate heart is perfect in purity in her will and action to carry out God’s will at the minutest of detail in her life. Her YES perfectly mirrors the YES of her Son, Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross (Phil 2:5-8).

During his apostolic journey to the United States of America on Saturday 6 October 1979, in a homily at the Cathedral of St Matthew in Washington, Pope St John Paul II explained how the Immaculate Heart of Mary shows us strong faith and obedience to God which can effectively aid us through trials and temptations: 

This woman of faith, Mary of Nazareth, the Mother of God, has been given to us as a model in our pilgrimage of faith. From Mary we learn to surrender to God’s will in all things. From Mary, we learn to trust even when all hope seems gone. From Mary, we learn to love Christ, her Son and the Son of God. For Mary is not only the Mother of God, she is Mother of the Church as well.

Father, You prepared the heart of the Virgin Mary to be a fitting home for Your Holy Spirit. By her prayers, may we become more worthy of Your glory. Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.