Flowers… so bright… so light… so immaculate… amidst the mud and dirt of this world.
I am reminded of the Immaculate Conception who appeared to Saint Bernadette in the cave of the pigs filled with pig-s#|[ as an analogy. Her solution to the filth? Get the priests to lead processions, the Rosary, the Most Blessed Sacrament. When I was a “permanent chaplain” in Lourdes the rector at that time gave a conference to all the “workers” telling them at least a half dozen times about the “Little s#|[“, which was the nickname given by the townspeople of Lourdes to little Bernadette, you know, because she was the poor daughter of the little “s#|[ family.” Yep. That’s the one the Immaculate Conception appeared to. :-)
I am reminded again of a scene I saw daily in Calcutta decades ago on my way back and forth to the “Home for the Dying” of the Missionaries of Charity, something like this, with women making “firewood” out of cow dung, smacking the patties to against, usually, a wall alongside train tracks:
I was always amazed that women could keep their saris totally immaculate while being amidst the filth and the s#|[.
Analogy again: Imagine the Immaculate Conception in this world, where all the rest of us who, by way of original sin, or, also for so many of us who grow up and have adequate faculties of mind and will, also allowed ourselves to be so filthy that we thought it to be a good idea to crucify her Divine Son with our sin. She remained with clarity of vision, purity of heart, agility of soul, immaculate, and being a good mom to us, interceding for us, seeing our need up close. With her Son, she can intercede that good be brought even from such as us, all in Jesus’ Holy Name.
ARISE! LET US BE GOING! 