The first reflection about the painting of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Burmarrad

But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.

Luke 2: 19

As we celebrate more Marian solemnities in the coming weeks, we will be contemplating the titular painting of the Immaculate Heart of Mary that adorns the Burmarrad parish church. This painting features several personages, vivid colours and expressions immortalised for posterity by renowned artist Emvin Cremona who completed and signed it off in 1961.

Soothing blue tones dominate the painting, immediately imbuing us with a sense of serenity and tranquillity amidst the bustle of life. The pale blue in the lower section denotes the blue seawater, which centuries ago used to extend further inland closer to the village. The sea is still very near, but it is no longer infectious (as the name of this little village implies). The water flowing out of the pierced heart of the Saviour is likewise noncontagious and, being one of the first to believe in Christ, Mary thus is also one the earliest springs of living water, as Jesus himself promised in the Temple of Jerusalem, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, ‘Out of the believer’s heartshall flow rivers of living water’” (John 7:37-38).

The light blue in the lower section symbolises not just the blue of the sea, however. Etched therein, albeit blurred, we can pick out the surrounding countryside which welcomed St Paul and the Christian faith he introduced to the Maltese people. It also signifies the azure blue of the globe, as seen through God’s merciful heart and which his Mother’s heart protects. The pale blue gently rises upwards, until it gives way to a dusky blue tone, becoming darker towards the top as it merges with orange-coloured stripes that look like clouds in the sunset in which Mary shines, the evening star who keeps watch with us in bright days as well as in dark nights.

Ever since the dawn of creation, planet Earth has been in the same, steady diurnal cycle, but which seems to have become faster and more hectic, often leaving us feeling breathless. Nevertheless, Christ, the Sun of justice, continues to shine. And if, just like when being lulled by gently rolling sea waves, we commit ourselves with confidence to the sweet embrace of his Mother, we will really be able to experience what St Paul writes in his first letter to the Thessalonians:

For God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live with him.

1 Thessalonians 5: 9-10