The great Marian feast of summer is the Assumption, August 15. Normally, the Assumption is a holy day of obligation. But because it falls on a Saturday this year, the obligation is lifted. Perhaps we can treat this as reason to use the next several weeks to give extra consideration to the Blessed Mother’s role in our salvation and thereby grow in our devotion to her.
I recently read an article in Church Life Journal by Francesca Patti who took up this theme. She began by quoting from the Gospel of St. Luke (13:22-30), in which someone in the crowd asked Jesus, “Lord, will only a few be saved?” The question, Patti suggests, is self-seeking. The voice is asking for odds, wanting to glean from Christ’s response the probability of salvation, whether he or she is likely to make the cut. Such a mindset leads us to judge ourselves against our neighbor, determining the likelihood of our salvation based on how we perceive those around us, which can leave us presuming or despairing of heaven. Our Lord doesn’t take the bait. Instead, He says: “Strive for the narrow gate… For, behold, some are last that will be first, and some are first who will be last.”
Patti argues that the “narrow gate” is embodied in the person of Our Lady. In the Old Testament, God prepares the world through great figures – patriarchs, kings, prophets. “But it is not until he graces us with someone small enough to pass through the low door that He, at last, finds a heart ready for His humble entry into the world.” Mary is without worldly ambition. Instead, “she has given herself solely to the waiting, the longing for love. This longing for love is a fertile space within her, a womb. It appears to the world an empty void, but it is in fact the very capacity in her for Him.” Her supreme lowliness makes her an empty vessel, totally receptive to the will of God. And it is His will that she be the one to receive Him into the world. Most highly favored, she nonetheless suffers greatly. She follows Him during His public ministry, as He gives Himself to others. She lets go of her natural position of privilege to live as a disciple. But she is the perfect disciple, able to receive more than anyone else, because she accepts the low place out of her intense longing for Him. This leads her to take the position closest to Him at the foot of the cross, when He appears to the world as defeated and disgraced. As His heart is pierced with a lance, hers is pierced with sorrow. Yet, writes Patti, “[her] heart is not crushed by this experience. Instead, she continues surrendering herself to the seeking.” She seeks her Son in us, her children in grace. Her wounded heart “becomes an opening to love, [a] wound which bleeds the contents of heaven – sacrificial love – onto the wounded world.” And so, Patti concludes, “the pierced heart of Mary is the ‘Gate of Heaven,’” the narrow gate that leads to the Heart of Jesus. We must learn to seek refuge there.
For the next several weeks, I will take a break from writing articles in this space. I will start publishing them again in September.
posted 7/18/26
The Parish of St. Cecilia-St. Gabriel 