Word to the Wise
Saturday, June 25, 2022 -
[Lamentations 2:2, 10-14, 18-19 and Luke 2:41-51]"Son, why have you done this to us? Your father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety." [Luke]
SATURDAY [following feast of Sacred Heart of Jesus] IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY
This feast, with its emphasis on "immaculate," seems to me to make Mary less than human. Indeed, the scripture passages are taken from Lamentations and from the anxious account of the "missing Jesus" in the Gospel According to Luke. Both passages speak to crisis and loss! (There is another feast that emphasizes Mary's suffering - the Sorrowful Mother - on September 16, following the feast of the Holy Cross on Sept. 15.)
Marian devotion in Catholic tradition can be rather sentimental and ignore the everyday challenges and vulnerability that were part and parcel of Jewish life in first century Palestine under Roman occupation. Reading books like Jodi Magness' STONE AND DUNG, OIL AND SPIT - JEWISH DAILY LIFE IN THE TIME OF JESUS can help us appreciate that the "immaculate" heart was an everyday mother's heart. Having only one child - a male - would make her vulnerable in many ways. The scene at the foot of the cross in the Gospel According to John [19:26-27] highlights the situation in which Jesus makes sure his mother is protected after his death!
The feast of the Sacred Heart emphasizes God's love for us. Today's feast is a way of letting Mary say she loves us too. AMEN