Mary offers us a wonderful gift on this New Year’s Day. “Mary kept all these things,
reflecting on them in her heart” (Lk 2:19). Gabriel shares with Mary that she will conceive a child through the power of the Holy Spirit, her relative Elizabeth, who is past child bearing years, is six months pregnant, when Mary and Elizabeth meet John leaps in the womb of Elizabeth, the shepherds convey the message they received from the angels that Mary’s baby is the long awaited Messiah, Magi came from the East bearing gifts, Simeon and Anna offer prophetic confirmation that Jesus is the Messiah.
Indeed these are matters to ponder, not to just take at face value and move on with the day. The Church at her best has followed the model of Mary’s reflection, pondering, and meditating on what these words mean and has come to call this day the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God. This title says more about Jesus than it does about Mary. We can only come to the same conclusion as the Church Fathers did during the council of Ephesus in 431 AD if we too, take the time to prayerfully reflect on them and immerse ourselves in the depth of what they convey:
Mary is the Mother of God, in Greek – Theotokos – the God bearer. The full divinity of the Son of God was present at the conception of Jesus in the ovum of Mary. He would remain fully divine as the second Person of the Trinity, as he developed fully human in the womb of Mary, and was born of Mary. This is the Mystery of the hypostatic union, in which Jesus is one divine person subsisting in two natures the human and divine.
Theological insights such as Mary being the Mother of God are easily missed or worse dismissed if we conform ourselves to the present age of instant gratification, instant access, surfing the internet, taking in sound bytes from Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram and amassing information overload. All of these technological avenues can be wonderful if we stop, slow down, and as Mary did, ponder what they offer.
If we still read books, do we do so with pencil and highlighter in hand, take notes and go back to those points underlined, highlighted, and or noted and ponder the insights we have received? Or do we just have a moment of pause and say hmm, interesting, and then move on to the next factoid?
May today be a day to take a few deep breathes, to slow down, and commit to ponder, to return to the same thought or insight through the day. It could be a word, a phrase, or a short statement that we write down and return to often. The phrase could be as simple as a paraphrase from today’s reading: Mary pondered on these things in her heart. We can reflect on where God has been calling us to stop and take a deeper look at our lives. It could be one word: Theotokos. We can ponder the meaning and relevance of what Mary being the God bearer means to our life today this first day of the New Year.
If we seek to live a life of joy and fulfillment in 2018, we need to slow down and reflect on life, on what is important, what has value, and where we are putting our time and effort and how we are aligning ourselves with God’s will to actualize our potential. Otherwise we may just float along indecisively, or stagnantly with indifference or cynicism, merely reacting to situations that arise, or worse plodding along bored and listless. Taking time to risk, to embrace and immerse ourselves in a life of thoughtful study, prayer, worship, and service, we may be better positioned to be engaged in living our lives with meaning and purpose, able to act decisively with clarity, and experience more fully what we are here for, being salt and light to the world.
May 2018 be a wonderful new year of meaning, joy, and fulfillment. May God be with us to bless and guide us along the way, and may we make time each day to spend with him in the silence of our hearts and so like Mary be better able to bear God to one another in our corner of the world. Happy New Year! Peace and all God’s good.
Photo: Marian side chapel, St Augustine Parish, Culver City, CA
Link for today’s reading for January 1, 2018:
Spiritual Stepping Stones 