January 1, 2017

Mary, the Holy Mother of God Year A Numbers 6: 22-27; Galatians 4: 4-7; Luke 2: 16-21 Happy New Year! My prayers are with every person picking up this blog. I have no idea who will pick this up, a person I know or a perfect stranger. I am offering my New Year’s masses for all who look at this blog. We all need prayers, this is a ‘Mass’ prayer for each of you now. Isn't it special to know that someone is offering their mass for you? Any number of people down through the years have told me, ‘Father, I pray for you every day’ or ‘I said a prayer for you today’. Both of these situations made me feel just a little bit more special and cognizant that God was with me. I am reminded of this in today’s first reading from the Book of Numbers. After many months at the base of Mount Sinai,, the tribes of Israel were prepared to set out for the Promised Land. Moses had brought them from Egypt. They had time to prepare leaders to guide them. They had celebrated the Passover as a reminder of all the difficulties and hardships along with the persecutions and ill-treatment they had received at the hands of the Egyptians. Aaron and his sons were the priests and had been offering sacrifices to God. Up to now only Moses could invoke the Divine Name of God over the people. Now the priests also had the privilege of invoking the Divine Name over the people which appears three times in today’s reading. God’s blessing has been experienced so often in their journey: protecting them from enemies and providing food and water in the desert. All this would remain as long as they remained faithful. They did for a while then lost faith and God would forgive them. This reading is special to me because my Jesuit Spiritual Director, Fr. Joe Neville, who died last September 3, would In always give me the same blessing from today’s reading.exact blessing from today’s 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!” Do you bless your children when they leave you? Do you bless your parents and grandparents for all they have done for you? Do you bless your friends for all their love? Reflect upon this…! In the second reading, Paul is bringing out a very simple message for us by marveling at God’s plan of salvation. At the moment that God wanted, Jesus was born of Mary. He was born to free us from the law. So we are no longer slaves under the law but are children of God privileged to address God as Father. Msgr. Chet Michael felt that J. B. Phillips The New Testament in Modern English was the most accurate translation of Paul’s letters. I quote, “But when the proper time came God sent His own Son, born of a human mother and born under the jurisdiction of the Law, that He might redeem those who were under the jurisdiction of the Law, that He might redeem those who were under the authority of the Law, so that we might become sons of God. It is because you really are His sons that God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts to cry ‘Father, dear Father’. You are not a servant any longer; through God you are a son; and. If you are a son, then you are certainly an heir.” “And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart.” Think about it for a minute: what was Mary’s greatest gift to us? Was it her saying ‘Yes’ to the Angel? Was it her absolute trust in God, not knowing in the slightest what was ahead of her? Was it raising and teaching Jesus how to pray and to be a person of love? Was it her numerous examples of living in charity, like visiting her cousin Elizabeth? Was it her showing respect to every person, the poor shepherds and the multi-rich magi? Or was it her trying to work through all the situations that continually came up in her life that puzzled her so much so that she “…kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart”? I have a lot of work to do on this ‘reflecting’. Luke indicates today that Mary kept reflecting. The Greek word used is symballo and can mean ‘converse,’ ‘meditate’, or ‘ponder.’ Luke certainly implies that Mary was not able to immediately grasp the full meaning of what she was told or what was happening. Luke does not say that this was a deficiency on Mary’s part. Mary’s faith in God and her absolute trust made her STOP and think about God’s action in her life and God’s gentle care. This is something that each of us can relate to…why do these ‘special’ things happen in my life? Is God telling me something? Mary took time out in her life to think on these things. If I just pass these ‘special things’ by, I will never see the presence of God and how He is leading me and showing the meaning of what is happening in my life. It is impossible to know God’s plan. He gives us help by deepening our faith in Him and comprehending His love and care in many circumstances. When we look at the times that Mary is mentioned in the Gospels we see that her heart must have been a treasure chest of God’s love. At the same time many of these were fearful moments: running away from Herod’s death squads, living in a foreign country and not knowing the language, watching her Son be rejected by the ‘religious experts’ of the day, swallowing all fear and standing next to Him during His crucifixion and death. These coupled with the miracles and people leaving her Son healed, comforted and loved. The strong implication is that Mary turned to God, trusting Him who brought her through each day of her life. Do I? I imagine that After Jesus’ Resurrection and Ascension, Mary did quite of bit of comfort counseling to the apostles and those who were close to Jesus who needed Mary’s wisdom and gentle strokes. Do I realize that the people who come into my life daily in need could be directly sent by God so that I, like Mary, could respond by sharing the gifts God has touched me with? So I reflect on: • Who needs my blessing today? What place or situation could use a blessing? • Where do I have conflict in my heart? Have I tried asking God for help in this? • When I look at my life, I see some major times of real ups and downs. What helped me to ‘keep it all together’? Did I express my gratitude? • It is good for me to reflect on the times I spoke ‘heart to heart’ with God. How did I focus myself so I could ‘hear’ God? Sacred Space 2017 shares: “According to the story, an angel had months ago appeared to Mary, and more angels had now appeared to the shepherds. All the heavenly messengers had conveyed an assurance: ‘You are going to see that God has sent into the world a prince from heaven’s kingdom.’’ The promise filled all with anticipation and the fulfillment filled all — Mary and the shepherds—with thanksgiving. Placing myself alongside Mary before the child, I try to open my heart to thanksgiving for all that God has done in my life. We start the year, as we start life, under the protection of a mother. Today we celebrate the most passionate and ensuring of all human relationships, that of mother and child. As Mary looked at her baby and gave Him her breasts, she knew that there was a dimension here beyond her guessing. Christians thought about it for three centuries before the Council of Ephesus, in which they dared to consecrate the title ‘theotokos’, mother of God. Like Mary, I treasure the words spoken about Jesus and ponder them in my heart.”