Mary, Mother of God - Homily 1

Homily 1 - 2017

I am wary of New Year resolutions. Not that we do not need discipline in our lives, but thinking as a Christian, it is not so much what I do that matters but why. For example, two people, after realizing how much they over-indulged over the Christmas period, may resolve to go on a diet. One may do it because he is disgusted with his waist-line, and hates having a fat body. The other may do it because she genuinely respects her body and gently realizes that she has failed to do so. For one the response expresses self-rejection, even self-hatred. For the other the same response expresses self-respect, self-appreciation, even a genuine self-love. Or again, two people may volunteer to work in some community service organization. One may do it because she sees Jesus in a person in need and wants to store up a bit more merit for herself. Another does it because he just sees a person in need and respects the shared humanity of that person. In the one case there is a level of self-interest, in the other simple compassion for the other. They are different. How would you assess them?

Jesus said, “Do unto others as you have them do unto you.” Was he referring to people’s motivation for doing good - sort of, “You scratch my back, then I’ll scratch yours”? Or was he simply providing an easy guide for how to put love of others into practice.

Does it matter? Personally, I think there is a world of difference. I believe that as a Christian, my immediate priority is not what I am doing, but what kind of person I am hoping to become: one absorbed by the pursuit of personal perfection, or one learning to respect, hopefully even to love, other persons simply as they are [and that includes gently respecting and loving myself].

How I relate to the world is very much a factor of how I see the world. When Jesus came among us, his first invitation to us was to allow our capacity to see to expand and to deepen. The word he used is often translated as “Repent” or “Convert” – but that misses the point. He was referring to how we see our world. Later in the Gospel, he alerted his hearers to the problem of seeing the splinter in the eye of the other while being totally unaware of the log interfering with their own vision. One spiritual author whose wisdom I greatly admire often repeats the mantra, “How you see one is how you see everyone”. It reveals more about what you are than what they are.

As today we celebrate Mary, it might be appropriate to ask, “What was Mary like?” In the light of what I have just said, my answer is more likely to tell you what I am like that what she is. So, be warned.

One of the few things the Gospels tell us about Mary’s personal behavior was mentioned there in today’s passage, “As for Mary, she treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart.” What did it do to her? The Gospels don’t tell us; but if it was already a custom of hers, it may explain why she was able trustingly to say to Gabriel, “Be it done unto me according to your word”, and why, when she met Elizabeth and became filled with the Holy Spirit, she loudly exulted in God her Saviour, the God she spontaneously identified as being on the side of the little ones. Her pondering on life in the still depth of her heart had resulted in a profound self-awareness, a profoundly sensitive world-awareness, and a deep insight into and trust in God.

It has been my old year resolution; it is my New Year resolution; it will be my everyday resolution: like Mary, with Mary, to treasure the experiences of life and to ponder them respectfully, not in my head but in the quiet reaches of my heart. You might try something similar yourselves.