SPEAKER_00: Today, the church celebrates a memorial of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
SPEAKER_00: Yesterday we celebrated the sacred heart of Jesus, and today we celebrate Mary's heart, her immaculate heart.
SPEAKER_00: And this is not by accident.
SPEAKER_00: The church places these two feast days side by side because the two hearts belong together.
SPEAKER_00: The heart of Jesus reveals God's love for humanity.
SPEAKER_00: The heart of Mary reveals what happens when a human being completely receives God's love.
SPEAKER_00: The sacred heart is the source.
SPEAKER_00: The immaculate heart is the response.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to know what God's love looks like, look at Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: If you want to know what a disciple's love should look like, look at Mary.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel today gives us one of the most beautiful descriptions of our lady in all of Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: After the anxiety of searching for Jesus for three days and after finding him in the temple and hearing words she does not fully understand, Saint Luke says his mother kept all these things in her heart.
SPEAKER_00: That little sentence is the key to understanding the Immaculate Heart.
SPEAKER_00: Mary is not simply a woman of words.
SPEAKER_00: She is a woman of contemplation.
SPEAKER_00: She ponders, she reflects, she listens, she allows God to work in the silence of her heart.
SPEAKER_00: Think about everything Mary carries in that heart denunciation, the visitation, the birth of Christ, the shepherds, the magi, the flight into Egypt, the loss of Jesus in the temple, the years in Nazareth, Calvary, the resurrection, Pentecost.
SPEAKER_00: And again and again, Scripture tells us that Mary treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart.
SPEAKER_00: In a world filled with so much noise, Mary teaches us the importance of interior silence.
SPEAKER_00: Many people today know how to speak to God.
SPEAKER_00: Very few know how to listen to him.
SPEAKER_00: Many people know how to fill every moment with music, podcast, television, social media, and constant activity.
SPEAKER_00: Mary teaches us that some of the most important work we will do is when we spend time with God in silence.
SPEAKER_00: The saints understood this.
SPEAKER_00: God often whispers before he shouts.
SPEAKER_00: He often forms us in hidden ways before he sends us into mission.
SPEAKER_00: The Immaculate Heart reminds us that holiness begins with the interior life.
SPEAKER_00: But there's another lesson here.
SPEAKER_00: Notice that Mary does not understand everything.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, Did you not know that I must be in my father's house?
SPEAKER_00: And Luke immediately tells us they did not understand what he said to them.
SPEAKER_00: Even Mary had moments when she did not fully understand God's plan.
SPEAKER_00: That should be comforting for us.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes people think faith means having all the answers.
SPEAKER_00: Well, it doesn't.
SPEAKER_00: Faith means trusting God even when you don't have all the answers.
SPEAKER_00: Mary's greatness was not that she understood everything.
SPEAKER_00: Her greatness was that she trusted God through everything.
SPEAKER_00: She trusted at Bethlehem.
SPEAKER_00: She trusted in Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: She trusted all those years in Nazareth.
SPEAKER_00: She trusted there beneath the cross.
SPEAKER_00: And because she trusted, God was able to do extraordinary things through her.
SPEAKER_00: And perhaps that's why the devotion of the Immaculate Heart is so important today.
SPEAKER_00: Many people carry anxiety.
SPEAKER_00: They carry uncertainty.
SPEAKER_00: Many are worried about their families, their future, their health, their finances, even the direction of this world, our country.
SPEAKER_00: Mary teaches us what to do with those worries.
SPEAKER_00: Bring them to God, ponder them in prayer, trust him even when the path is not clear.
SPEAKER_00: The Immaculate Heart is not simply a heart free from sin.
SPEAKER_00: It is a heart completely surrendered to God.
SPEAKER_00: And that is ultimately what holiness is.
SPEAKER_00: Not having every answer, not having a perfect life, not understanding every twist and turn, but trusting God enough to say as Mary did, let it be done to me according to your word.
SPEAKER_00: Yesterday we looked at the heart of Jesus burning with love for the world.
SPEAKER_00: Today we look at the heart of Mary perfectly open to receive that love.
SPEAKER_00: And perhaps that's the question for us.
SPEAKER_00: How much room is there in my heart for God?
SPEAKER_00: Because the more our hearts resemble Mary's, the more they will resemble Christ.
SPEAKER_00: That's the goal of every Christian life.
SPEAKER_00: To have a heart fully on fire for Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.