Presentation of the Lord - Homily 2

Homily 2 - 2020

Today’s passage concluded with the observation, “They went back to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. Meanwhile the child grew to maturity, and he was filled with wisdom.” In fact he stayed home in Nazareth for thirty years, living with mother and father and probably the extended family. As he grew over those 30 years, Mary grew, too, from about 15 years of age to 45 — crucial years in any woman’s life. Joseph’s presence is never mentioned during Jesus’ public life. The general presumption is that he died during those years while Jesus was still in Nazareth — probably more towards their end than in the earlier years.

The 15 year-old Mary would have become quite a different woman by the time she hit 45. She, too, would have matured and, along with her son, “grown in wisdom”. No doubt the same could be said of Joseph. Both parents would have had a deep influence on Jesus’ growth in wisdom. Certainly, by the time he reached 30 and began his public life, Jesus knew where he stood; he knew what he wanted to say; and he said it with conviction and confidence.

What did he pick up from his parents as they sat around and talked after their evening meals, or around the fire on the colder winter evenings? What did he learn as he observed his parents interacting with each other, with members of the extended family and with people around town? From where did he derive his deep habitual concern for the marginalised? How did he arrive at the conviction that the world would make sense only as people learnt to love their enemies? Why was he impressed particularly by the merciful, the pure of heart and the honest, and those he called peace-makers?

Luke had spoken of Mary — a 15 year-old young woman, hardly more than a girl — already “magnifying the Lord” who “pulled down princes … and exalted the lowly”; who “sent the rich away empty” and “filled the hungry with good things”; who persistently “showed mercy to Israel” whenever Israel just as persistently turned away from God and betrayed God’s love.

Over the next thirty years, together with her son and, for some of the time, together with Joseph, Mary continued to grow in wisdom — not simply by coming to know God better, but by becoming more thoroughly like the God in whom she exulted, learning to love God with her whole being — mind, heart, soul and strength — as she opened her heart ever more to the love of all God’s creatures.

Mary’s vision moved beyond black or white, right or wrong, ordered or chaotic. As she matured, she discovered that she could love all people — right and wrong, ordered and chaotic, however they thought or acted. Instead of narrowing the world into categories of “either/or”, she opened her heart to the inclusiveness of a “both/and” way of perceiving. I marvel at how she held in tension her spontaneous, irrepressible “exulting in God" who had just made of her an unmarried, pregnant mother in a dangerous honour-obsessed, violently patriarchal culture. Equally easily she balanced the fact that God had "done great things” for her without her losing touch, even for a moment, with the profound realisation that she was anything other than God’s “lowly handmaid”.

It was this “both/and” way of perceiving that allowed her to hold together both strong disagreement and spontaneous hostility and even dislike towards others with the calm ability honestly and deliberately to interact with them with genuine care and respect. It was this freedom that enabled her to love anyone unconditionally.

From where did that freedom come? Luke wrote of the 15 year-old Mary already appreciating and “pondering" experience. Matthew showed Joseph responsibly weighing both law and conscience. After spending his formative years with both Mary and Joseph, it was no surprise that Jesus regularly went aside to ponder prayerfully before acting responsibly. It seems that all three confirmed each other in their common pursuit of wisdom.

In so many ways, Jesus’ parents can be powerful role-models and unequalled life-coaches for us all.