Mary, Mother of God - Homily 1

Homily 1 - 2006 

What I like most about Mary is what Luke said of her today: As for Mary, she treasured these things and pondered them in her heart.  Interesting that she didn’t ask God to change anything; she didn’t insist that God to show her the way clearly because she knew God was there; and God, being God, all would be well.  But she was alert to God there, seeking God there, responsive to God there as she let life touch her: she treasured these things; and drawing on her accumulated wisdom, she pondered these things in her heart, nourished by her familiarity with his Scriptures:

I also like the blessing of Aaron that we heard in the First Reading today: May the Lord let his face shine on you and be gracious to you.  May God uncover his face to you and give you peace.  We now know, of course, that the unaided human mind can never see God.  Looking at the shining face of God would be like looking at the shining sun.  You can’t see it.  It blinds you.  All you see is darkness.  (But not because God’s not there – precisely because God is there.)

Remember Yuri Gargarin, the first person in space.  Back in 1961 he came down to earth and declared, as a good Communist, “I saw no God up there”.  Just as well, if God was “up there”, I have lost interest in such a God!  Not as far back, Kerry Packer was declared clinically dead for some time.  On recovery, he said he saw no God – because no God is there.  Just as well, again.  If God could be seen by his human mind unaided, untransformed, I would have lost interest in God again!  I am reminded of a story told about Fr John Brosnan,  for many years chaplain to Melbourne’s gaols.  He was doing a graveside burial one time for a long-serving prisoner, and was talking about some of the man’s better points.  One of the other prisoners also present said: 'Fair go, Father, he didn’t even believe in God'.  John Brosnan quickly replied: 'He does now!'

Since we can’t see God’s face unaided, the best we can do is to become familiar with the face of Christ.  That takes a lot of Mary’s pondering of the Gospels.  Yet, though we can’t see God, can’t even see Christ now, since his death and resurrection, we can be with them in the dark (or the blinding light –same thing!), keeping our own pretensions totally out of the way, empty, but there, and alert!  That’s usually called meditation.

Happy treasuring, Happy pondering, Happy “being there” in the New Year!