Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Today’s gospel reminded me of our prayer life. So, I want to take a little pilgrimage through the Gospel and our hearts to take a look at our prayer lives.
Often we can mislead ourselves into believing that prayer is a primarily human endeavor. It isn’t though, prayer is the action of both God and humanity. “Whether we realize it or not, prayer is the encounter of God’s thirst with ours. God thirsts that we may thirst for him” (CCC 2560). In forgetting this we can erroneously “view prayer as a simple psychological activity … an effort of concentration to reach a mental void … [or] reduce prayer to ritual words and postures” (CCC 2726). When we have these false perceptions of prayer we can leave God behind in the disillusion that we are in charge. We can leave Jesus behind in Jerusalem despite His desire to stay there with us. God invites us to pray in accord with His will, but we can lose that through our distractions.
Our remedy for distractions is offered in the actions of Mary and Joseph. After, they realized they lost Him, they turned back to the heart of Israel, Jerusalem. They didn’t fruitlessly hunt down what caused them to overlook His absence, but instead hunted Him down. Prayer is similar. “To set about hunting down distractions would be to fall into their trap, when all that is necessary is to turn back to our heart: for a distraction reveals to us what we are attached to, and this humble awareness before the Lord should awaken our preferential love for Him and lead us resolutely to offer Him our heart to be purified” (CCC 2729).
This purification is done by Christ, and by His penetrating questions. Luke gives us a glimpse of Christ’s sanctifying questions even as a boy. Mary and Joseph find Jesus asking the scholars remarkable questions for a twelve year old. Then Mary asks Him, “Son, why have you done this to us?” He responds with two piercing questions, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” These questions aren’t mocking or disrespectful, but Christ asks questions to draw us into a deeper understanding of ourselves and Him.
And Mary teaches us what to do in the face of these piercing questions, she kept all these things in her heart. She allowed them to draw her into an even deeper union with the Lord. On the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I think there is an important point to raise. As Catholics we can (because of our belief in Mary’s Immaculate Conception) overlook that she too grew in her relationship with Christ. Granted, her growth was not hindered by sin, but she still grew and needed to grow. So if Christ’s penetrating questions can and should cultivate growth in His immaculate Mother’s heart, we also need to be open to them.
We could ask ourslelves a series of questions about our prayer life and conversion, but instead, let us challenge ourselves to be open to the Gospels and begin to allow Christ to address some of his life changing questions.
"Lord, make us open to your promptings in prayer and keep our ears and our hearts open to your piercing questions. Mary, pray that our hearts might also grow closer and closer to your Son’s Sacred Heart. Amen."
- Spencer Hargadon