Mary and Sarah

Homily for the Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

The Scriptures are full of wonderful stories. Both the first reading for today’s liturgy as well as the Gospel text illustrate what I mean. However, is there any way to join these two readings together on a common theme? Well, the most basic element in these two readings is the fact that they tell us the story of two women, and how these two women react to God’s plan for them.

The first story ends with Sarah’s denial of an accusation that God makes about her. There are many commentaries on how we should not laugh when God promises something grand for our lives. Nothing is too “marvelous for the Lord.” However, I have yet to run into a commentary that focuses on Sarah’s outright denial of her laughter about the promise that God has made to Abraham.

Our human nature automatically tries to justify or cover up our mistakes. They are, after all, quite embarrassing. We would rather not talk about them. It is far easier to simply deny that we ever made said mistake. So, why tell a story about Sarah’s denial? Well, the story isn’t about Sarah. The story is about God’s plan for our salvation, a plan that nothing was going to thwart. In fact, there are many such stories in the Scriptures – stories that speak about human weakness and the fact that God can work marvels despite our inability to cooperate with God’s plan.

Then we have a story about our Blessed Mother, a story in which she questions why Jesus has caused Joseph and her such great anxiety when they thought that they had lost him. Any mother would have been anxious so we can understand her anxiety. However, let us remember that finding Jesus in the temple is considered one of the joyful mysteries of the rosary. In other words, Mary’s, like Sarah’s, question about God’s plan obviously has a joyful ending. The story is really about Jesus’ realization that he had to be in his Father’s house.  God’s plan was not stopped because of a parent’s anxiety. However, rather than laughing at Jesus’ answer (or crying - which I suspect would have been my mother’s response), the Gospel text tells us that his mother kept all these things in her heart, her Immaculate Heart.

As we remember Mary’s immaculate heart today, let us come away from the stories we have heard today with a realization that nothing could stop God’s plan