Votive Mass of Mary, Fountain of Salvation

Scripture Readings: Ex 24:3-8;  Mt 13:24-30    

What if today we honored Mary both as the Fountain of Salvation and as the Fountain of Youth?   Aren’t they really the same thing?  Salvation from what?  From death, of course, especially eternal death.   Isn’t that what the Fountain of Youth promises?  It’s a legendary spring that restores the youth of anyone who drinks or bathes in its waters, so that they become eternally young. 

In spite of technology and medicine we are all tethered to aging, death and decay.  A Fountain of Youth has eluded explorers for thousands of years.  Yet it is really as close to us as Baptism.  Mary is the fountain, Jesus is the living water.  The legendary fountain prophesizes the sacramental reality.  Whoever is immersed in the waters of Baptism has eternal youth, just like Mary, Jesus and all the saints.  Let us rejoice because unlike the fields where weeds grow with the wheat, there are no weeds or algae in Mary, our Fountain of Youth and Salvation.