January 1, 2007 At Saint Mark Church in Norman, OK
Numbers 6: 22-27 + Psalm 8 + Galatians 4:4-7 + Luke 2: 15-21
So often the Motherhood of Mary gets lost in all the other dogmas and theological issues rooted in our Christian tradition of Mariology. Annunciations, Assumptions, Coronations, Conceptions all center around one essential reality, motherhood. Even in Koran Islam recognizes this motherhood. Mary is mentioned there by name more often than in the New Testament. I suppose it’s because it seems so common and ordinary
that the great minds of the church find it more challenging to explore all those other things. Personally, the older I get, and the more wisdom I gain from life and relationships leads me to think this is the premier feast of Mary.
Recent theology entertains the idea that Mary is the ideal disciple of Jesus as one who hears God’s word and acts upon it while treasuring God’s mysteries in her heart. But that recent theology also ought to entertain the idea that before she became the ideal disciple of Jesus, he learned from her. She nurtured and taught him the traditions of his people and guided him through childhood to maturity. She presented him to the Lord in fulfillment of the Law. She took him to the temple where he is first revealed as “Teacher”. As such, she stands in our tradition first as Mother and model of that exalted vocation: “Motherhood.” It’s not then about car seats, diapers, baby food, and soccer. Motherhood is about leading, teaching, and planting seeds of faith.
For us all, men and women, she becomes the inspiration of contemplation and reflection. She inspires us to consider deeply the significance of events rather than live a bland and shallow life. What Luke suggests is that she stood before life as a participant, not a victim.
When things happened, she did not understand, she could never have stood back and shook her head and wondered, “Why?”. She would have looked at things and wondered, “What does it mean?” and then “What am I going to become because of it.” This is the way people formed in the deepest tradition of our faith stand before tragedy and pain. They see violence but do not become violent. They experience loss and tragedy but do not become bitter and angry, because they ponder these things in their hearts asking the right questions: “What does this mean?” and “What shall I become because of it?” A life by this model is not shallow or easily upset.
Mary inspires us to constant reflection on the truths of our faith, which continue to be made real in life’s experience. She inspires us to fidelity in practicing our faith, practices that are disciplines of soul that lead a community to a clear focus on the presence of God in human affairs.
And so, on this first day of the new calendar year, we can hardly do better than gather in this holy place and invoke the memory of one whose life in human history ushered in a new age. The message of the Church this day is that new beginnings are always possible. We are never condemned to repeat over and over again our past failures or past weaknesses. This is the hope that faith stirs in us for the days to come, and in that hope our Joy is sustained.
Long ago Saint Ambrose stood in the Cathedral of Milan and said this to the assembly: “Let Mary’s soul be in each of you to proclaim the greatness of the Lord. Let her spirit be in each to rejoice in the Lord. Christ has only one mother in the flesh, but we all bring forth Christ in faith.” My dear friends, one week ago at this hour, the Christmas Feast was still being celebrated in the day. Today we may pray in gratitude for God-bearing women, and we reflect that they, too, have conceived Christ in their hearts and are called to bring him forth to a suffering world longing for peace.