June 9, 2020 Reflection – Incandescent Heat in the Heart of the Trinity

The Shrine of Divine Mercy

Stockbridge, Massachusetts
The Marians of the Immaculate Conception

Our Lady as the “Incandescence of the Trinity”.

We’ve just celebrated Trinity Sunday. I was praying the rosary with Mary TV just after attending “virtual” Mass at the Shrine of Divine Mercy, Stockbridge. I was listening to Denis and Cathy speak about the Sister Immaculata’s observation that Our Lady is like the “incandescence” at the heart of the Trinity.  This discussion reminded me of the sacred art above the shrine’s altar. It’s such a great visual representation of how the power of all three Persons of the Trinity are drawn down through Mary’s crown to light up her majestic figure. She is a strong and mighty figure, glorious and white as Christ might have been at the Transfiguration, and she is standing just above Divine Mercy, as the herald she surely is for these last days of God’s unfathomable desire to forgive and forget our sins.

This idea of “incandescence” also makes me think of Mary’s Magnificat. Scripture tells us that Mary ‘magnifies the Lord”. This line always makes me think of a magnifying glass picking up the rays of the sun and setting alight the dry ground. This must have been what her presence – her heart – was like during the nine days awaiting Pentecost. She must have been so focused on prayer, a creature so empty of self-interest, and so pure in love, that she can serve as a vessel to enflame the whole environment of apostles around her. Perhaps that’s why Mary calls us her “Apostles of Light”! Perhaps she wants to do the same for us! This is why Medjugorje, and Medjugorje’s pilgrims, are so aflame with the faith, because the little Mother is always with us, praying.

Now I look again to the altarpiece at Stockbridge, and I see how Mary’s crown is itself like a magnifying glass. The hole in its centre is empty, and small, as empty and small as the ego of Mary. The Persons of the Trinity are all looking lovingly down on the splendour of that crown’s humility. They see the victory of love in its tiny, unseen centre, and so do we who see the Mother in Medjugorje! The crowning of Mary is a herald for us all. It stands over Divine Mercy for us all. It announces that we who are small too can also be God’s royal children! That is the incandescence of the Trinity: its burning scandal of love, to bend down among us who are nothing but dust and raise us up to the throne!

 How blessed we are to stand beneath the figures of Mary and Jesus in this bright-lit time. (Reuben Purchase)