A Sword of Sorrow: Mary’s Immaculate Heart and Christ’s Passion

Today in the Catholic Church is the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Jesus’s Mother (Latin Mass calendar), and Mary’s Queenship (Novus Ordo calendar). Catholics have long had special devotions to the hearts of Jesus and Mary. The devotion to the Immaculate Heart means honoring Mary’s ardent love for Jesus, her Son and her God, and also Mary’s suffering. During Jesus’s Presentation in the Temple as a baby, Simeon said to Mary (Luke 2:34-35), “Behold this child is set for the fall, and for the resurrection of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be contradicted; And thy own soul a sword shall pierce, that, out of many hearts, thoughts may be revealed.” That prophecy was fulfilled during Jesus’s Passion, when her Son’s suffering and death drove a sword of sorrow through Mary’s Immaculate Heart.

The sword pierced the heart of the Mother as had been prophesied as she stood below Christ’s cross. Just as all of us should do, however, Mary joined her terrible suffering and grief to Jesus’s and thus the suffering merited good.

As our Queen and Mother, with a Heart that truly understands our deepest sorrows and troubles, Mary is our model and helper in being united with Jesus both in this life and the next.