Salve, Regina, Mater Misericordiae.
Today in the extraordinary form we celebrate the feast of St. Margaret Mary,
whereas yesterday in the Novus Ordo we celebrated Margaret Mary.
Today is also in the Novus Ordo the feast of St. Ignatius of Antioch.
And so in the commemorations we're remembering St. Ignatius and also the Blessed Mother on this Saturday,
which is in a particular way dedicated to her.
But really all of these commemorations go together
because they all direct our attention towards the heart of Christ.
First of all, St. Margaret Mary, of course, because at Paré-le-Monial,
our Lord appeared to her and revealed his sacred heart to her
and encouraged her, commanded her, to encourage others to approach his sacred heart with confidence
and to do so with a sense of how much our Lord loves us.
He came to complain to some extent to her because love was not loved
and not only because he had many enemies in the world,
but because his friends were indifferent to him.
And so when our Lord appears to St. Margaret Mary,
his heart is on the outside of his body where it can be seen,
sort of wearing his heart on his sleeve.
And most of the images of our Lord have him with outstretched arms
or pointing to his sacred heart or like our,
image, sort of both.
He does both gestures, drawing people into his heart
and welcoming them with the other arm.
But the whole point of the devotion was to draw people to the source,
which is his sacred heart, which was opened on the cross
and from which poured out the blood and water,
which is the source of all of the grace,
the most sacred places that we receive in the sacraments.
The blood representing the Eucharist and the water representing baptism.
And so it was an urgent call to the world to repentance
and to find grace in his mercy and in the sacraments.
St. Ignatius of Antioch is famous for his letters
that he wrote
to being martyred in Rome and they are beautiful for the great testimony of the
charity with which his heart burned for for Christ our Lord welcomed him into
his heart and st. Ignatius accepted to the point that he was so transformed
that he begged the people along the way to his martyrdom that they would not try
to intervene to prevent it that they would not stop those who were going to
put him to death he said I am God's pure wheat may the beasts may I be ground by
the teeth of the beasts in order to become God's pure bread he understood
the Eucharist he understood the heart of Christ and while we look at him and his
life and find it extraordinary and for
something that we don't know what it is that we don't know what it is that we
don't know what it is that we don't know what it is that we don't know what it is
even incomprehensible that someone would welcome even coax the Lions to eat
him out of love for our Lord he wanted to die for Christ he wanted to give
witness to the truth of the faith he wanted to bear witness by his death to
the salvation that we all have in Christ because that's why he was being put to
death because he was a witness to Christ and he desired it with all his heart
because he was a man that was devoured in the world and that is why we are
wanted to express his love for Christ in return for the love he had received from him,
and because he did want to give witness to others that they might know the love of Christ and his salvation.
And of course, we also remember our Blessed Mother today, on this Saturday,
because our Blessed Mother, more than anyone else, understood the heart of Christ,
our Lord's sacred flesh, his sacred humanity, his flesh and blood came to us
from the flesh and blood of the Blessed Mother,
and that physical bond between the Mother and the Son is a sign of a deeper union
which came about because Our Lady was full of grace.
God saw her and loved her and poured his grace into her,
and she was so full of God's grace that that grace overflowed
into the presence of Christ.
She was full of God in her womb, and God loved her so much
that he allowed himself to become her child.
And all of us in our Blessed Mother are called to union with God.
We are called to repent of our sins with a sincere heart
and beg our Lord for the grace to draw closer to him all of our lives.
And so our Lord's appeal, yes, it is to sinners everywhere,
of which all of us are.
Our members, all of us are sinners.
But it's also a message to his friends who are striving each day
to follow him and sometimes are discouraged.
He desires us to persevere and to enter more fully
into the union that he calls us to.
And so let us ask for these graces
through the intercession of Saints Margaret Mary and Saint Ignatius of Antioch
and through the intercession of...
Of course, of our Blessed Mother as we approach the altar,
as we approach the foot of the cross,
where our Lord's heart is open for us
and where he feeds us with his very self.
Amen.
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Amen.