My parish church growing up was named after the Immaculate Heart
of Mary, the feast the church celebrates today. Though I don’t
recall a single sermon based on our parish name, I did receive the
welcome and wisdom of a mother’s love from this suburban Milwaukee
parish that welcomed my immigrant family. Through youth retreats
and daily Mass reflections on the readings in small summer gatherings,
adult education evenings on the early roots of the sacraments, hunger
awareness and advocacy workshops, the love of Christ for me and
for the world became real through this Immaculate Heart of Mary.
“The love of Christ impels us,” Paul tells the Corinthians
in today’s first reading, and calls us all to the ministry
of reconciliation. It is quite the mission Paul describes, “God
appealing through us” to communicate the invitation to others
and to the world to be reconciled to God.
Where and how do I sense the love of Christ impelling me today?
The need for deep peace-making, reconciliation and healing are all
around me. I take this invitation on this feast today to enter into
prayer surrounded by the mantilla of stars of our Mother. I bring
to her all the need for healing I most acutely feel – in my
own life, my own family and those needs in the world I am most aware
of near and far.
The gospel today paints such a human picture of Mary and Joseph’s
concern as parents suffering three long days of worry for their
missing son. As parents, we can taste the nauseating anxiety. This
is our mother too – who knows our boundless love for our own
children and our confusion and sense of powerlessness at times to
help them discern important choices and to help them trust the in-dwelling
Holy Spirit, Christ’s love impelling them in directions we
don’t always understand. (A book I have found to be a great
aid is The Power of Discernment, Helping your Teens Hear God’s
Voice Within by Maggie Pike, 2003.) It is a wonderful ministry
of reconciliation God has given us as parents and as people involved
with the growth and development of others. Let us draw near to implore
our Mother today to renew us in healing love to be faithful ambassadors
for Christ in our homes and in our world.