Feast of the Epiphany - Homily 5

Homily 5 2022

Beginning a little before Christmas Eve and finishing up today, ten days later, we Catholics have covered in our daily Liturgy celebrations the Infancy Narratives of both Luke’s and Matthew’s Gospels, and the opening prologue in John’s Gospel – rich fare indeed!
 
I want this morning to reflect briefly on a comment that recurred twice in Luke’s Gospel – a comment about Mary, Jesus’ mother, a key player, if ever there was one, in the mystery of the Word of God, the eternal Christ, becoming human, or even more concretely, “flesh”.  You will know the comment: “As for Mary, she treasured these things, and pondered them in her heart.” I warm to that observation because for me, it seems to sum up the key to the uniqueness of Mary.
 
Mary apparently let her life experiences touch her. She took them seriously, “treasuring them” even. And especially, “she pondered them in her heart”. The significant fact there is that she pondered life in her heart, not in her head. She may have done that, too, of course. But the two processes are quite different.  With our minds we can think about God, analysing, clarifying, comparing, etc. With our hearts we relate.
 
We can adore God; we can praise God; we can question God. These are head experiences. They tend to put God up on a pedestal, to differentiate us from God, perhaps even to “keep our distance” – as Moses was told to do at the Burning Bush incident: “Take off your shoes. The ground on which you stand is holy ground”.
 
On the other hand, we can longingly search for the presence of God in our experiences. We can sit quietly with God, saying nothing; we can let God simply gaze lovingly at us; and we can seek to gaze back at God. We can let God love us; even forgive us. And allow ourselves and God to enjoy it. These are heart exercises. They draw us more closely together, God and us. With our hearts, we can seek to relate, person to person, to God, to draw closer.
 
Perhaps, we need to approach God with both our head and our heart. But in time, we come to realise that our heads are not too reliable: God is, after all, beyond the capacity of our puny human comprehension. Yet we find that our hearts can continue to relate to the mysterious mystery we know as God, that the mystery is no handicap. As two people grow in love, they come to know each other, the real other, less and less in a certain sense. They recognise there is always more to discover, to depth, than they first expected. But that nourishes their love, rather than lessening it.
 
As you look at yourself and God, as you look at your prayer, would you say you pray more with your head or with your heart?
 
Luke said of Mary that “she pondered …  in her heart”. I wonder if that was why Luke also had the archangel Gabriel say to Mary, “Rejoice, so highly favoured! The Lord is with you.” I suspect it had very much to do with it.