“The Blessed Mother’s Healing Love” – Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God - 1.1.23

“The Blessed Mother’s Healing Love”

By: Fr. David Schmidt

 Regina Coeli Parish- St. John Neumann Church- Franklin Park, PA

Mass Readings- https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/010123.cfm

Do you believe that God can do miraculous things in your life? I think many of us fall into the trap of hearing stories about God doing miraculous things to others, whether it’s stories we hear in the Bible or with the saints, and we think that God only did those miraculous things in the past and He doesn’t work that way today.

My hope is that after today you may leave with the belief or at least a greater openness to the fact that God is doing these miraculous things today through the power of the Holy Spirit.

A recent experience that I had was I attended a conference this week up in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It was a Catholic Charismatic Conference, run by Encounter Ministries, and their whole ministry is about encountering the Holy Spirit, God’s love, and being equipped with the gifts of the HS, so that we can bring God’s love and the fruits of the Kingdom to the whole world. And at this conference the Holy Spirit was active in a powerful way. There were probably about a few thousand people at the Conference. And during one of the sessions they had this speaker come in who had these miraculous gifts of healing, and during this session over 100 people were cured of physical healings. From people no longer needing hearing aids, to no longer needing to have a breathing tube, to someone who recently had ACL surgery no longer needing crutches to walk. There were so many other healings that occurred throughout the conference whether they were spiritual, emotional, and psychological healings. Many healings of the heart. There were many deep encounters with God’s love that was transformative for so many people, myself included.

The reason I bring this up is again to increase our faith that God is still working miracles in our heart, mind, soul, and body. Specifically, miracles of healing.

We all desire healing. We all have bodily afflictions, spiritual wounds, wounds of the heart, broken relationships that we desire to be restored.

We of course desire healing, but do we believe that God desires to heal us? Do we believe that God desires to heal us of those wounds in our heart? Those broken relationships in our lives? Our physical injuries? Our mental illnesses?

Do we believe that God is a good Father who desires what is best for us? That desires our restoration and the healing of His children?

In the 2nd reading, we hear about how we are adopted sons and daughters of God. How God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!”

Our hearts are made to cry out to God “Abba, Father!”

We have a Father who desires to bless us as we heard in the first reading as Moses is instructed by the Lord to tell Aaron and his sons to bless the Israelites in the following way: “The LORD bless you and keep you! The LORD let his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you! The LORD look upon you kindly and give you peace!”

God the Father desires to pour out His blessings upon His children. He desires to give us the desires of our heart. He desires to bring us healing. 

One of the ways He brings this blessing upon us and brings healing to us is through our Blessed Mother.

Today, we celebrate the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. We celebrate the great gift of Mary’s Motherhood to the Church. God gave Mary to us as our Mother because He knew the importance of His children to have both a heavenly Father and a Mother. During the 1st Sunday of Advent, I talked about the importance of Mary’s Motherhood on our Advent journey to Christmas, so it’s fitting that we close the Christmas octave by celebrating her Motherhood once again.

Our Blessed Mother plays such a powerful and unique role in getting us to heaven. She plays a powerful and unique role in bringing God’s Holy Spirit to us, so that we may be transformed in His Love. She plays a powerful and unique role in bringing God’s healing to us as our Mother.

Mary, is a witness herself to the transformative power of the Holy Spirit working in her life. First, we believe that by the grace of God she was Immaculately Conceived meaning she was born without Original Sin. Also, it was through the power of the Holy Spirit that transformed her from this simple, young woman into the Mother of God at a moment’s notice. She was also present at Pentecost, as the Holy Spirit was poured down upon the Holy Spirit in a powerful way through tongues of fire. 

The title we give to Mary, Theotokos, which means Mother of God, is the most sublime title that we can give to Mary. There’s nothing more remarkable than Mary carrying the baby Jesus in her womb for 9 months and giving birth to the Savior of the World. We give the most honor to her by calling her the Mother of God.

Mary’s motherhood is a miracle as she became the Mother of God even though she was a virgin. It’s a miracle that God has given us this incredible woman to be our Mother as well.

Mary, as our Mother, desires to bring us to God the Father. She desires to bring us to her Son Jesus.

Mary, as our Mother, desires the very best for us. She desires to lead us to a profound encounter with God’s love in the Holy Spirit. Mary desires for God to work miracles in our lives as He worked miracles in her life. She desires that the Holy Spirit may transform us into the saints of God that we are called to be as she was transformed into the greatest of all the saints to ever walk this earth through God’s transformative Spirit.

We are called to follow Mary’s witness of giving our ‘yes’ to the Lord, of giving our own Fiat to Him by saying as Mary did, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.”

Our Fiat to the Lord reflects a disposition of trust in the Father that He is a Good Father that desires to give the best gifts to His children. It is an understanding of our sonship as sons and daughters of a Good Heavenly Father that enables the Holy Spirit to come upon us, as it came upon Mary, and transforms us in His Love.

We are to see ourselves as children before God the Father and Mary our Mother. Mary as our Mother desires to bring God’s healing love to us as her children. Only by seeing ourselves as little children can we receive the great healing graces that she desires to bring to us in our Lord.

The love of our Blessed Mother is a healing love. There is a particular healing that comes when we are loved well by our parents, and we unfortunately can know this in part due to the pain that can come when we are not loved well by our imperfect earthly fathers and mothers.

Our Blessed Mother is there to comfort, nurture, and protect us. She in a sense carries us in her womb until we are born into eternal life. She is there to embrace us in her arms. Hold us on her lap. She celebrates our joys with us. She comforts us in our sorrows. She is a shelter of love for us.

Mary, as a good Mother does, kisses our wounds when we are hurt in this life. She holds our heart so gently in her hands and shows us the beauty of our hearts. She sees what we are destined to be in God’s eyes. She believes in us when we don’t believe in ourselves. She is there to bring God’s restoration to our brokenness. She is there to bring God’s healing to our relationships. She is there to bring God’s light into the dark places of our heart, so that we may experience His healing and His love in miraculous ways.

Our Blessed Mother desires to give us the greatest gift that she can lead us too, which is an encounter with God’s Love, the Holy Spirit, so that He may transform our life and bring us the healing that we so greatly desire.

When we experience this healing through the intercession of our Blessed Mother, we are then called to be like the shepherds in the Gospel who after seeing Joseph, Mary, and the baby Jesus, “returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just as it had been told to them.”

We are called to be witnesses of our Mother’s healing love in our lives, so that all the world may come to know the healing love of God, through the intercession of our Blessed Mother.

To end, I want to take a moment of prayer calling on the Holy Spirit, through the intercession of our Blessed Mother, allowing her Motherly love to bring any healing to our heart, mind, body, and souls that we need. I ask that whether or not we feel anything in this prayer, that we trust that the Blessed Mother and the Holy Spirit are working in our life to bring about the graces of healing that each one of us needs, even in ways that we are unaware of…so let us pray.

Come Holy Spirit, may you send down the fires of your Love upon each and every one of us. Mother Mary we ask for your intercession in a powerful way this evening as we honor you on this Solemnity. May you be a Mother to us this evening. May you hold our hearts in your hand, and gently heal the wounds of our hearts. May we see ourselves as little children on your lap. The gentleness of your love, your peace, your Motherly embrace. May we experience your Motherly love in a way we never have before. May you bring God’s healing love to us in all those areas of our lives that we greatly desire it. May we entrust ourselves to you and our Heavenly Father all the days of our life. Trusting in the goodness of your love, and the power that comes through the Holy Spirit. As we pray… Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

*Image of Mary - “Our Lady of Guadalupe” by Leanne Bowen - https://www.leannebowen.com/products/our-lady-of-guadalupe