NEVER WAS IT KNOWN

A SERMON FOR THE IMMACULATE HEART OF MARY

The terrible earthquake that struck Haiti last Saturday, in which about 2000 people have so far been reported dead, reminds me of a story I heard about another earthquake. 

This one happened in Japan several years ago.  As rescuers were frantically searching for survivors in the ruins of the city, they reached the shattered home of a young woman.  Through the cracks in the ruptured walls, they could see her dead body inside, a sad but increasingly familiar sight to the rescuers.  But there was something different about this body.  The women was in a kneeling position, leaning forward as though in an act of worship.  The house had collapsed around her, and had crushed her back and her head.  Although she was obviously dead, the leader of the rescue team managed to put his hand through a narrow gap in the wall to reach the woman’s body. He was hoping against hope for some sign of life, but the cold and stiff body confirmed that there was nothing more that could be done for her.

He and the rest of his team couldn’t afford to waste any more time there.  The recovery of the dead was of secondary importance during this crucial time when their search and rescue mission could still find survivors amidst the rubble.  So they left this poor woman’s house and continued to the next collapsed building.  But for some reason, the team leader felt driven by a compelling force to go back to the ruined house of the dead woman.  Again, he knelt down and pushed his hand through the narrow cracks to search the little space under the dead body.  That’s when he let out a scream of excitement, “A child! There’s a child here! “

The whole team rushed back and worked together, carefully removing the piles of rubble and fallen masonry around the dead woman.  Under her body they recovered a 3-month old little boy wrapped in a flowery blanket.  This woman had made the ultimate sacrifice to save her son, using her own body as a cover to protect him from the house falling on top of them.  The little boy was still sleeping peacefully when the team leader picked him up.

They immediately sent for the medical doctor who quickly arrived to examine the little boy.  After he opened the blanket, he saw a cell phone next to the baby. There was a text message on the screen that the boy’s mother had managed to tap out as her worst fears began to be realized.  The doctor read the words and passed the phone without being able to speak.  The message was simple.  It said,” If you can survive, you must remember that I love you.” As they passed the phone from one hand to another, each of these hardened first responders in turn was reduced to silent tears.” If you can survive, you must remember that I love you.” Such is a mother’s love for her child!

Today is the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  Mary, the Mother of Jesus.  This was the Mother who presented her Baby to God in the Temple of Jerusalem, and whose Immaculate Heart the prophet Simeon warned would be pierced with the sword of sorrow.  As her beloved Son looked down on her from the Cross, we can never imagine how sharp that sword was.  With a mother’s love, she watched her Son endure the most terrible sufferings, and unlike the mother in Japan, she was completely powerless, with no means whatsoever to protect him.  Or perhaps she understood an even greater truth, that actually it was in her power to save him?  Perhaps she knew that all she had to do was beg God for the Crucifixion to stop, to beg him to send down the legion of Angels her Son had already declined to summon, and that by doing so, God would acquiesce to her prayer, and our Lord’s sufferings, as well as her own, would be brought to an abrupt and merciful end.  The terrible swift sword of justice would scatter his enemies, and no longer pierce her own heart.  God would refuse her nothing that she asked.  And yet, as she looked up at her beloved Son, she knew that even though it was within her power to prevent what was happening, it was not God’s will that she should prevent it.  Her heart was torn in half between what she could do and what she knew she should not do, between what she wanted and what she knew God wanted.  As always, she chose God.  “Be it done unto me according to thy Word.”

And then her Son spoke to her.  Not what we might imagine to be words of consolation, and yet they gave her the strength to deal with this intense suffering.  He looked down at his Mother, standing next to his beloved apostle St. John, and he said, “Mother, behold thy son.”  From that moment on, the Blessed Virgin Mary has been the Mother of us all—you, me, everyone who follows St. John in accepting our Lord’s next words, “Son, behold thy Mother!” 

This is no ordinary mother that we’ve been given.  Her love for us soars above the purely natural love of a mother for her child.  Her love is super-natural.  It is the divine love for her own biological Son, Son of Mary and Son of God, that fuels her love for us.  Her Immaculate Heart, so tormented by her inability to protect Jesus, now knows no bounds in its love for us.  She has been given this mission by her Son in his last moments on the Cross.  It is his dying wish that she should be our Mother, and thus she will make it her supreme task to protect us.  All we have to do is to simply place ourselves beneath the cloak of her protection.  Here we are safe from the world crumbling around us.  Here we are protected from our enemies, spiritual and temporal.  No matter how often we get ourselves in trouble or how deeply we fall into sin, no matter what ills we experience, what sorrows beset us, our blessed Mother, like our own mother, is ready to wipe away our tears, ready to forgive us, ready to protect our body from all harm and our soul from eternal death.  She protects us by praying “for us sinners, now and (especially) at the hour of our death.”  We should never forget her love for us, and pray the Memorare every day “that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thine intercession was left unaided.”  

Whatever happens in this world around us, the Immaculate Heart of Mary will love us and protect us as only a mother can.  But it’s up to us to remain under her cloak, like that little baby in the earthquake.  It’s up to us to remain in the state of grace by hiding beneath our Blessed Mother who is “full of grace.”  And then don’t ever forget the love of her Immaculate Heart.  “If you can survive, you must remember that I love you.”