Yesterday, we followed up a day dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus with a day honoring the Immaculate Heart of Mary.  The gospel reading was taken from Luke (2:41-51), the (losing and) finding of Jesus in the temple when He was twelve years old.  Jesus, Mary, and Joseph are in Jerusalem for Passover when Jesus gets separated from His parents.  Not only do they travel a day before they realize He is missing, they must take a day’s journey back, and then cannot find Him for another three days.  They finally locate Him in the temple in discussion with the teachers, greatly impressing them.  Mary asks Jesus why He left them and tells Him how worried they were.  Jesus responds that they should have known that He had to be in His Father’s house.  They do not understand, but He returns with them.  The passage, and what we know of Jesus’ childhood, closes with the line at top.  No one ever was, or ever will be, closer to Jesus than His mother.  She had a lifetime of experiences with God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit upon which she pondered continuously.  Not only is she an example for us because of her total conformity to God’s will in her life and the life of her Son (witness her standing resolutely at the Cross [Jn 19:25]), but Jesus has given her to us (“Behold your mother!” [Jn 19:27]) so that we can come to know Him better by allowing us a glimpse into all her heart contains.  This Woman, chosen from all eternity to be mother of the Son, is a refuge and comfort for us as it was for Jesus for all of His life.  Let us go to her often, asking her intercession as was done in Cana, and we will certainly receive her help as long as we take her final recorded words to heart: “Do whatever he tells you” (Jn 2:5).