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Mary reflecting in her heart Homily
Nm 6:22-27; Gal 4:4-7; Lk 2:16-21 Jan 1,2018
Today is :The Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, …The Mother of God.
What thoughts keep replaying in your head ?? Today, right now ??
What a laundry list !!!
If you are like me, many thought roll around inside my head.
But ‘NOT’ many thoughts‘GO’from there.
Usually it covers things like, what I need to be doingthat day –
task, chores,work items and the always present– Kathy’s list.
I think I have covered most of them. ….. Now that I mention it –
I better ask her again to be sure.
As ‘I’age…and if I am honest with myself,
more thingsthat are supposed to stay‘ON’ my mind…
are falling off all by themselves. Never to be remembered….
unless someone else helps me find them again.
This is probably….the first ‘ITEM’ on Kathy’s list.
The point is, ‘NOT’many things get out of my head and move down to my heart.
unless it relates to someone who is close to me ‘OR’
someonehigh on my chart of importance.
All this makes me think,….What do I ponder on my heart?
We hear that Mary kept and reflected on things in her heart –
which meant that she purposefullyplaced these things there.
Today being a celebration about Mary, I started to think.
Mary like Jesus is a very interesting character.
There are ‘SO’ many things you can stop and think about, the person of Mary.
‘SO’ many perspectives, qualities or traits to exam because they ‘ALL’ tell a story and ‘WE’could personally benefit from each one of those stories.
But before we focus on Mary today,
Let’s take a momentand ‘DO’as Mary did so many years ago.
Let’sjust processfor a moment what has just gone before ‘US’ in this past week–
in your lives. I can only say…WOW!! There was a lot.
A week ago, we celebrated the birth of Jesus Christ‘OUR’ Savior.
Because of Mary’s human-ness and her response to God’s invitation,
‘HER’S’was theresponse that allowed Jesus to become human and entered our world. God among us in ’HIS’ full human-ness.
Made me think, Jesus…our God-Hero, our “ABBA, Father”
- Who sent the Spirit of His Son (in the human person of Jesus)
and placedJesus into ‘OUR’ hearts, we just heard Paul’s message to the Galatians and again today we will place the body and blood of Jesus from our ‘OWN’ hands into ‘OUR’ bodies so thatwe can live today as ‘A’ son or daughter of God and
be‘HIS’ ‘HEIR’ forever.
“Now that is something to ponder on your heart.”
‘LET’S’ ‘NOT’ let his time go by and get away from us without
stoppingandpondering the ‘WONDER’ and AWE of it.
It was through “JESUS’ “ response in LOVE to the HUMAN family
‘WHICH’ allows us the opportunity to live with JesusNOW and in heaven forever.
Because without HIS‘YES’just like Mary’s‘YES’,
we would ‘NOT’ be able to be ‘FREE’ to LOVE those around us.
Which leads ‘ME’ tobelieve that“Abba, ‘MY’ Father”… awaits‘MY’“YES”
at the beginning of a New Year – 2018 ‘TO’ follow their example.
Our Psalm asks God to have ‘PITY’ on us and bless us.
Today,with great anticipation, we again ask ‘ABBA’,
‘Please let Yourface shine upon us each and every day of this New Year.’
"Mary treasured’ALL’these things and reflected on them in her heart."
What thoughts did Mary reflect upon? Were they sentimental?
If you were having a baby in a real barn,…….sentimental thoughts
would‘NOT’ be ‘uppermost’in your mind.
Were Mary's thoughts con..templative, mystical, or profound?
‘POSSIBLY’, but we have ‘NO’ reason to believe this.
Were Mary's thoughtsfull of anger‘OR’ FEAR at this ‘LESS’ than
Desirablesetting for a birth?? No one can tell ‘WHAT’ was on Mary's mind.
The onlyextended statement in the Bible on which to base any conclusions
aboutMary'sthoughts is her "MAGNIFICAT",
that we find in Luke’s gospel earlier in chapter one.
Mary praised the Lord and then proclaimed a revolution.
She prophesied: "The Lord has shown might with His arm;
He has confused the proud in their ‘INMOST’ thoughts.
He has ‘DEPOSED’ the mighty from their thrones and raised
thelowly to high places.
The hungry He has given every good thing,
while the rich He has sent ‘EMPTY AWAY’.
Mary called for a Revolution not through physical violencebut
throughRepentance.
This Revolution was made possible by her Son ‘JESUS’,
who is a Sign of contradiction for the rise and fall of ‘MANY’.
For years, many of us have been making and breaking New Year's Resolutions.
Let’s try something this year of 2018,…..Let’s change an "S"in RESolution
to a "V",and make a New Year's ‘REVolution’‘IN’ JESUS.
This will make "Happy New Year" not just a ‘WISH’ but a ’REALITY’.
SO, let ‘US’ be like ‘SHEPHARDS’ and ‘GO’ in haste…looking for the Baby Jesus
in our new yearright within our own familyat home and
in our neighborhoods and in ‘OUR’ faith community of St Katharine’s….
‘REMEMBERING’
the‘PROMISE’ that God gave us ‘ALL’:
"The Lord BLESS you and KEEP you!"
“May the Lord let His face SHINE upon you and
Be GRACIOUS to you!”
“The Lord look upon you kindly and
GIVE you PEACE.”
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