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MARY KEPT ALL THESE THINGS IN HER HEART
New Year’s Day 2010
I can think of no better way to wish you a blessed and happy New Year than to
invoke upon you the blessing we have just heard in the first reading: "The Lord
bless you and keep you! The Lord let his face shine upon you, and be gracious to
you! The Lord look upon you kindly and give you peace!"
This blessing is one of the oldest pieces of poetry in Sacred Scripture. It goes
back to the time of Moses who served as God’s mediator for the chosen people.
The name "Yahweh" or as we translate it "Lord" is here invoked three times upon
the people. For the Hebrew mind this is to impart something of an intimate
knowledge of the person invoked, to be given a certain control over that person.
This blessing makes present the deep and abiding relationship that God has
re-established with us through self disclosure, the giving of the covenant. May
this blessing rest upon you not only this day but through the whole of 2010.
We begin this New Year with the celebration of the Solemnity of Mary, the Holy
Mother of God. In a profound way this feast prepares us for whatever may unfold
in our lives in the months ahead. Our world is moving quickly, events seem to be
happening at an accelerated speed. How then to stay with them, creatively, as a
believing Christian? Mary sets us the example of what gospel living is about, as
the person ready to do all that God is asking of her. Mary gives us the example
of one who is fully present, in an abiding faith.
When we looks at what took place in her life leading up to the gospel just
presented us, one wonders how she got through it. Having found herself pregnant
under totally unusual circumstances she was initially deeply troubled but then
gave her consent. Betrothed to Joseph, she had to be at a complete loss as to
how to explain her condition, knowing she could even have been stoned to death.
Had Joseph not been visited by an angel, he was going to put her away privately
which would have left her in a state of abandonment. She was consoled by her
visit to Elizabeth but must have learned in those three months with Elizabeth a
great deal about the final stages of pregnancy and giving birth in circumstances
much more primitive than our own.
Then, in the final stages of her own pregnancy Mary was expected to go with
Joseph on an 80 miles trek over rough terrain. We can hardly image such a thing
happening today must less believe that this was part of God’s design. And then
there was no room in the Inn, only an animal stable as the place to give birth.
But Mary lived into it, trusting in the word given to her by the angel that this
was the work of the Holy Spirit who had come upon her. The child born of her in
such poverty and unforeseen circumstances had been called holy, the Son of God.
What this did to Mary’s own understanding of God, of how God may act in our
lives must have gone to the very core of her being. And then to have been told
by shepherds who had seen angels announcing good news of great joy, that the
infant wrapped in swaddling clothes in her arms was both Messiah and Lord had to
leave her wrapped in silence, with pure wonder.
We are told only that she "kept all these things, reflecting on them in her
heart." What Mary shows us is the ability to be with the great mystery of God
however this mystery may break into our own lives. We do not know what this new
year will bring but if we dare to enter into life as lived today, history in the
making, with a spirit of deep faith and trust in God we can be sure we will
recognize the hand of God. Mary holding all these things in her heart, pondering
them, is the model for Christian living, for it endows us with those inner
dispositions that will allow God’s plan to be accomplished in our own lives.
What Mary is reminding us is that God is always here, at work amid the
unexpected, the promising and sometimes painful circumstances in which we find
ourselves. To stop and ponder is to become aware of how we too are embraced by
divine grace, the unfathomable riches of God’s love for us. This alone will
bring an end to the violence we see around us, bring the peace we are asked to
pray for especially today.
To live in the faith, hope and love to which we are called is to be taken ever
deeper into the mystery we are about to celebrate. There is a profound
incarnational aspect about the Eucharist in that Christ who is risen and in
glory, comes upon this altar, transforming our lowly elements of bread and wine
into his very Body and Blood. Christ now glorified at the right hand of the
Father, is here once again wrapped in the swaddling clothes of these human made
gifts so as to reveal to us through faith, the glory of God. With the faith of
Mary our eyes are here opened to not only what takes place on this altar but to
what God wills to take place all day long. It is the formation of Christ in us
that we may live as His Body, as living members of the Church. Never has our
world been in such need of this presence and love as you are probably more aware
than I. May your New Year be filled with an abiding sense of the Gift that has
been given us in Jesus.
Fr. Michael Casagram, OCSO
Numbers 6:22-27; Galatians 4:4-7; Luke 2:16-21
Solemnity of the Holy Mother of God, 2010
Michael Casagram, OCSO
Abbey of Gethsemani
1 January 2010
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