Homily: Saturday of the 2nd Week of Lent - Mary, Mother of Reconciliation

Throughout the year, Saturday is set aside as a day in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  The Saturdays of Lent offer us an opportunity to meditate on Our Lady’s burning desire for our conversion and reconciliation with God.

The Fathers of the Church in the early centuries, in discussing the mystery of the incarnation of the Word, speak frequently of the virginal womb of the mother of the Lord as the place where "peace" between God and the human race came to be.

In the Middle Ages ecclesiastical writers, deepening their understanding of the maternal role of the Blessed Virgin, gave her titles such as "mother of reconciliation" and “refuge of sinners”.  In the Hail, Holy Queen she is called, “Mother of Mercy.”

In a locution to Saint Brigid of Sweden, Mary herself said: “ I am the Queen of Heaven and the Mother of Mercy; I am the joy of the just, and the door through which sinners are brought to God."
She is able to be called Mother of Mercy because Jesus Christ is Mercy itself.

In a prayer to the Blessed Mother, St. Anselm of Canterbury says, "There is no reconciliation, except the reconciliation that you bore in purity."

She is the channel through which our compassionate God pours out upon us Mercy to help us overcome our miseries and meet our true needs.

In our own day the Blessed Virgin is honored in many places under the title of "reconciler of sinners." Though she was sinless, her heart burns with loving compassion for sinners.  I have known, even some non-Catholics that have come to know our Mother’s love as they struggled with sin.

Discovering her sweet maternal compassion, they turn to her with trust as they ask God’s forgiveness, and seeing her beauty of spirit they seek to turn away from the ugliness of sin; and taking to heart her words and example they learn to keep the Commandments of God.

Despite our unworthiness, she does not distance herself from us, but rather intercedes for us with constancy and love.

So we do well to turn to our mother’s intercession this Lent, that as the prodigal son was reconciled with His Father, we may experience the grace of conversion from all of our sins and selfishness for the glory of God and salvation of souls.