Yesterday the Church showed us the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Today she gives us the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
The two feasts belong together.
Because no human heart has ever been more united to the Heart of Christ than the heart of His Mother.
Everything in Mary points to Jesus.
Everything.
She never keeps attention for herself.
She always leads us to her Son.
Today’s Gospel gives us a beautiful glimpse into Mary’s heart.
Jesus is twelve years old.
The Holy Family travels to Jerusalem.
Then suddenly Jesus is missing.
For three days Mary and Joseph search for Him.
Imagine the anxiety.
Imagine the fear.
Imagine the questions.
Any parent can understand it.
And then they find Him in the Temple.
And Mary asks: “Son, why have you treated us so?”
Not anger.
Not accusation.
The words of a mother whose heart loves deeply.
And Jesus replies: “Did you not know that I must be about my Father’s business?”
Then comes one of the most important lines in the Gospel:
“His mother kept all these things in her heart.”
That sentence tells us what the Immaculate Heart really is.
Mary is the woman who receives God’s mysteries,
pondering them,
treasuring them,
allowing them to shape her life.
She does not always understand everything immediately.
But she trusts.
That trust began long before Nazareth.
At the Annunciation.
An angel appears and tells a young woman that she will become the Mother of God.
And Mary says yes.
Not knowing everything.
Not seeing the whole future.
Trusting God completely.
And that trust would be tested again and again.
The flight into Egypt.
The hidden years in Nazareth.
The misunderstanding of others.
The loss of Jesus in Jerusalem.
And finally Calvary.
Standing beneath the Cross.
Watching her Son die.
This is why Scripture says today:
“I exult for joy in the Lord, my soul rejoices in my God.”
Mary’s joy was never based upon easy circumstances.
Her joy was rooted in God.
And that is why it survived suffering.
The Immaculate Heart teaches us something very important.
A holy heart is not a heart that never suffers.
It is a heart that never stops trusting.
Mary knew sorrow.
She knew uncertainty.
She knew grief.
But she never stopped believing that God was faithful.
That is perhaps the great lesson for our own lives.
Many people imagine holiness means having all the answers.
Mary shows us something different.
Holiness means remaining faithful when we do not have all the answers.
Trusting when we cannot see.
Persevering when we do not understand.
Holding onto God when everything else feels uncertain.
And perhaps that is why the Church loves the Immaculate Heart so much.
Because we see in Mary what grace can do.
This is what a human heart looks like when it belongs entirely to God.
A heart free from sin.
A heart full of faith.
A heart completely open to God’s will.
A heart that loves Jesus perfectly.
And that is why devotion to Mary’s Immaculate Heart is never separate from Christ.
The heart of Mary always leads us to the Heart of Jesus.
She does not say: “Look at me.”
She says: “Look at Him.”
Trust Him.
Follow Him.
Love Him.
Remain with Him.
And perhaps today we should ask Our Lady for one simple grace.
The grace to have a heart more like hers.
A heart that listens.
A heart that trusts.
A heart that perseveres.
A heart that treasures the things of God.
A heart that remains faithful in both joy and sorrow.
Because the closer we draw to the Immaculate Heart of Mary,
the closer she always brings us to the Sacred Heart of her Son.
St. Mary's, St. John Bosco and St. Edward's 