When our mother is around we feel safe. Even in difficult
times, we still can have our sense of security because we know that our mother
is there taking care of us. Our mother always finds a way… because she cares. She
would do whatever it takes for our sake.
Today we celebrate the Solemnity of Mary as Mother of God at
the beginning of the New Year. Mary is the “Mother of God” because she is the
mother of Jesus, the God-Man. You see, God himself needed a Mother! And how
much more so do we! Mary is our mother
too. Jesus himself gave her to us, from the cross: “Behold your mother!” (Jn
19:27). He said this to the beloved disciple and to every disciple.
We begin our journey this New Year with a confidence that we
are accompanied by our Mother. No matter
what happens, no matter what lies ahead, we feel safe; we walk unafraid because
we have a Mother who cares. Life nowadays is becoming harder for most of us. Rising
inflation coupled by frequent calamities! And there seems to be no clear plan
how to get out of this as a people. We can easily feel orphaned, left to fend
for ourselves. Yet today’s celebration invites us not to lose heart but to
trust that we are guided and accompanied by a Mother who cares.
Mary, the Mother of God and our Mother too, can guide and accompany
us in our difficult journey by strengthening our faith in God’s goodness despite
the many and varied forms of suffering we experience each day. In today’s gospel
reading (Lk 2:16-21), Mary illustrates for us the right attitude in facing difficult
realities in life. Mary has to face her own difficulties but with the strength
of a mature faith. In the words of Pope
Francis, Mary had to endure “the scandal of the manger.” What is this? This
refers to the unexpected event of the Son of the Most High being born in the
lowliness of a manger. Mary had received
the message of an angel, who spoke to her solemnly about the throne of David: “You will conceive in your womb and bear a
son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son
of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor
David” (Lk 1:31-32). How come that Mary ended up giving birth
to the Son of God in a crib for animals? How can Mary reconcile the glory of
the Most High and the humility of a stable? As a mother, Mary would have wanted
her child to be in a much better place. She could have complained. But we see
in the Gospel reading that Mary remains silent and pensive: Mary “kept
all these things, pondering them in her heart” (Lk 2:19).
Mary teaches us to face our own troubling situations with
this attitude: to keep and to ponder. When what we expect and maybe ardently prayed
for turns out to be far from the reality, Mary our Mother invites us to profit
from this discord and to grow more in faith by way of keeping and pondering.
(The following beautiful explanation is taken from the words of Pope Francis).
First, Mary “keeps.”
“She holds on to what happens; she does not forget or reject it. She keeps in
her heart everything that she saw and heard. The beautiful things, like those
spoken to her by the angel and the shepherds, but also the troubling things:
the danger of being found pregnant before marriage and, now, the lowly stable
where she has had to give birth. That is what Mary does. She does not pick and
choose; she keeps. She accepts life as it comes, without trying to
camouflage or embellish it; she keeps those things in her heart.”
Second, Mary “ponders.”
“The Gospel speaks of Mary “bringing
together,” comparing, her different experiences and finding the hidden threads
that connect them. In her heart, in her prayer, she does exactly that: She
binds together the beautiful things and the unpleasant things. She does not
keep them apart, but brings them together. And in this way she discerns
their greater meaning, from God’s perspective. In her mother’s heart, Mary
comes to realize that the glory of the Most High appears in humility; she
welcomes the plan of salvation whereby God must lie in a manger. She sees the
divine Child frail and shivering, and she accepts the wondrous divine interplay
between grandeur and littleness.”
Mary keeps and ponders.
Brothers and Sisters, we are at the threshold of a new year.
Our Mother invites us to look back into the year we are bidding goodbye to.
Surely, there were troubling experiences that we have faced. Maybe some of them
still disturb us, maybe even challenging our faith. With Mary our Mother, we
can review them with the same attitude she has illustrated in the gospel—keeping
and pondering. This is the way to grow towards maturity of our faith.
As we cross the threshold to another year, we start our
journey with confidence despite the glaring signs of a possibility of a hard
and challenging life ahead. We are confident because we have Mary, Mother of
God and our Mother too accompanying us and reminding us always not to be
anxious but to trust in God’s wisdom and goodness.
