A Reflection for the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary
(Sirach 24:23–31; John 19:25–27)
On this feast of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Church places before us two passages of profound resonance: Sirach 24:23–31 and John 19:25–27. In these we behold both the eternal mystery of Wisdom who “takes root among the faithful” and the sorrowful glory of Mary, standing steadfast beneath the Cross of her Son.
Mary in the Mirror of Divine Wisdom
Sirach 24 presents Wisdom not as an abstraction but as a living presence who dwells in Israel and offers herself as nourishment:
“They that explain me shall have life everlasting” (Sir 24:31).
From the earliest centuries, the Fathers discerned in this personification of Wisdom a type of the Virgin Mother of God, in whom the eternal Word found a dwelling-place. St. Ambrose saw in Mary “the temple of Wisdom itself, for in her the Logos took flesh and pitched His tent among men” (De Virginibus II.2).
The Church in her liturgy does not hesitate to apply the voice of Wisdom to Our Lady. She is the one who, in her Immaculate Heart, treasured and pondered all that God had wrought (cf. Lk 2:19). Thus she becomes the living commentary of divine Wisdom, the one in whom the faithful may truly “read and not err, eat and not hunger, drink and not thirst” (Sir 24:29).
The New Eve at the Cross
St. John gives us the scene most charged with sorrow and triumph:
“Now there stood by the Cross of Jesus His Mother… When Jesus therefore saw His Mother, and the disciple standing whom He loved, He saith to His Mother: Woman, behold thy son. After that, He saith to the disciple: Behold thy mother” (Jn 19:25–27).
Here the Heart of Mary, already immaculate from conception, is pierced with that sword foretold by Simeon. Yet this piercing is not sterile grief, but fruitful participation. As St. Augustine says, “She who believed by faith gave birth by her faithfulness to the members of Christ, as she had given birth to the Head in the flesh” (De Sancta Virginitate 6).
In giving Mary to John, Christ gives her to all who stand at the foot of the Cross. As St. Bernard of Clairvaux tenderly insists:
“He gave her to us, that she might be our Mother. Do not doubt, then, that she who was Mother of the Head is also Mother of the members” (Homilia super Missus Est II.17).
The Heart That Loves Until the End
The liturgy today calls us not only to contemplate, but to imitate. The Immaculate Heart is the school of charity: “Mother of fair love, and of fear, and of knowledge, and of holy hope” (Sir 24:24). Within her Heart, the love of God and the love of souls are one flame.
The martyrs commemorated today—Ss. Timothy, Hippolytus, and Symphorian—drank from this same fire. Their blood witness was but the echo of Mary’s own “fiat,” sealed beneath the Cross. As St. Leo the Great reminds us: “Where the Head has gone in glory, the members must follow in humility” (Sermon 74). Mary shows the way, the martyrs confirm it, and we are summoned to walk in their footsteps.
Conclusion: A Marian Call
To read Sirach in light of Calvary is to see Mary as both the seat of Wisdom and the Mother of Sorrows. Her Immaculate Heart, pierced yet burning, is offered to us as refuge and guide. As St. Ephrem the Syrian prayed:
“Blessed art thou, O pure and stainless Mother, who carried the One who carries all. The heavens cannot contain Him, yet He was enclosed within thy womb; the whole world is in His sway, yet He willed to be borne in thine arms” (Hymni de Nativitate 11).
May this feast enkindle in us a tender devotion to that Heart which is both immaculate and maternal, that we may, like St. John, take her into our own home and into our own lives.
Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.
Holy Martyrs Timothy, Hippolytus, and Symphorian, intercede for us.