Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God
I must admit, Advent 2016 was a challenging Advent. Changes in the staff at both parishes, the literal doubling of my official responsibilities, my travel to India to visit my ailing father, the many funerals during Advent, all contributed to a rather restless Advent. You may not believe this, but, I eagerly looked forward to my 14 hour non-stop flight to get some alone and quiet time. I am not saying that advent and Christmas were not meaningful. I am simply saying that my soul was craving for something deeper.
As we begin a New Year with the Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God, I am choosing to reflect on the words from today’s gospel, “And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart.” If we want our New Year to be meaningful, I believe that the answer lies within us. Like Mary, we are all being invited to be people of interiority.
Let me say three things about this:
1. Interiority: Discovering the Sacred Space Within. Have you noticed how neat and clean the stories surrounding the birth of Christ are? The story of the conception and birth of John the Baptist, the story of the annunciation, the story of Joseph’s decision to take Mary into his home and even the story of the Holy Family’s flight to Egypt seem so clean. Angels appeared at every juncture, the characters in the stories remained unquestionably docile, and life unravelled itself as in a Hollywood movie. I am not questioning the veracity of the sacred scriptures, but, does it not strike us that angels do not similarly appear to us? Or am I the only one who has been excluded? I am proposing that the key to understanding the neat stories is the words, “And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart.” The angels could mean literal angels. But they could also point to the kind of people that Mary, Joseph and the others were. They were people with a deep sense of interiority. They were people who were in touch with the sacred space within them. Since they “kept all these things, reflecting on them in their hearts,” I like to think of the angels as God speaking to them in the depths of their being. Today, Mary is inviting us to be people of interiority - people who are in touch with the sacred space inside.
2. The Challenge of Interiority. Interiority is a challenge for us today. We are constantly tempted to live on the outside. We dedicate a lot of time and money on our external appearance. Moreover, our life-style, our work, our technology, our gadgets, and social media make it very hard for us to be people of interiority. We are on line 24x7. Perhaps many of us are electronic addicts. If we add to the mix our work, family, children, our aged parents… where is the time for interiority? On the other hand, the nativity stories tell us that “reflection in our hearts” is the key to Christian spirituality. They tell us that God speaks most intimately in the depths of our being. They tell us that our focus on the external can make us insensitive to God’s presence within us. In today’s second reading too, Paul reminds us: “God sent the Spirit of his Son INTO OUR HEARTS, crying out, "Abba, Father!" Paul’s focus is on the interior. Similarly, Mary teaches us to pay attention to our life within. Mary, teaches us to develop an intimacy with God inside us. Mary teaches us to be a contemplative people in an active world. Mary teaches us to live life on the slow lane. Mary teaches us that who we become inside is important for a meaningful and purpose-filled life; that to find God within is the difference between mortality and eternity.
3. A New Year Resolution. Today is the first day of a New Year. Many people last year, did not live to see this day. But we did. A New Year is always a promise of something new. I wonder whether our new year resolution could be to become people of interiority. I wonder whether we could strive to become a more contemplative people. There are few steps we could take to become like Mary. In the coming year, may be we could commit ourselves to just a few minutes of silence everyday. More often that less, may be we can try to turn off everything around us and connect with our Creator within us. In the coming year, perhaps we can resolve to read the scriptures, and like Mary, “keep all these things, reflecting on them in our heart.” May God speak to us in our hearts. May angels appear to us within us.
As we focus on the sacred space within us, and as we invite Jesus in the Eucharist to into us, and as we begin a New Year, let me end my homily with the words of today’s 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! Amen.
- Fr. Satish Joseph