Today Christians around
the world are celebrating the Solemnity of the Mother of God. So the focus of today’s reflection could be
upon Mary but it’s also a day when the theme of the blessing of God’s peace is explored. All around the world Christians are praying
for global peace.
Peace – this is a theme worthy of our reflections as we begin
a new year that by all indications threatens to be troubled with everything
from the increased probability of internecine wars throughout the middle east o
the possible economic collapse of the Eurozone.
Truly this is a time when peace will be on our hearts and
minds. We will certainly be praying for
peace with our enemies but also peace:
between husbands and wives.
between estranged relatives.
between Mother’s and their children.
between Father’s and their children.
And what about inner peace? Freedom from
that ever-present inner turmoil. No more
compulsive drivenness.
The inner peace that comes with freedom from our haunting
addictions to anger, alcohol, or any form of drugs.
Freedom from that haunting sense that we’re failures at life
itself. And so on and so on . . . . .
The theme of peace appears today on many levels in our
readings. In fact, it’s meaning is
explored in every one of today’s readings at one level or another.
In our Old Testament Reading from Numbers
chapter 6 beginning at verse 22 we read the ancient and memorable prayer for
the blessing
of peace. This prayer is a very
appropriate prayer to open the New Year:
Num. 6:24 “The LORD bless you
and
keep you;
Num. 6:25 the LORD make his face shine upon you
and
be gracious to you;
Num. 6:26 the LORD lift up his face towards you
and give you His peace.”
God’s Blessing = Peace: The Hebrew word for peace is Shalom. It was this Shalom that was lost at our
Fall in the Garden of Eden and it is this Shalom that humankind has prayed for
ever since. It is the experience of this
Shalom that comes when God blesses us His creation.
God’s blessing is
always His peace!
This resonates
perfectly with our Psalm reading. Listen once again to the Psalmist’s plea for
God’s blessings which will bring peace to the face of the earth:
Ps 67:2-3, 5, 6,
8
Psa. 67:2
Then the earth will acknowledge your ways, and all nations your power to save.
3 Let
the nations praise you, God, let all the nations praise you.
5 Let the nations praise you, God, let all the
nations praise you.
6 The
earth has yielded its produce; God, our God has blessed us.
7 May
God continue to bless us, and be revered by the whole wide world.
God’s
blessing of peace is also our inheritance in Christ as St. Paul reminds us in
our Epistle reading from the Book of
Romans chapter 4 beginning at verse 4:
Brothers and sisters:
When the fullness of time had come, God sent his
Son, born of a woman, born under the law,
to ransom those under the law,
so that we might receive adoption as sons.
As proof that you are sons,
God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts,
crying out, “Abba, Father!”
So you are no longer a slave but a son,
and if a son then also an heir, through God.
As adopted children of
God, the peoples of the earth will experience the peace
of their common brotherhood and sisterhood with God and one another. All will be empowered to experience God as
their Father, indeed, as their beloved Daddy:
The beginning of a New
Year is a good time to reach out to one another and to pray for God's blessing
of peace for all.
The word peace in our Gospel reading is ei˙rh/nh and it means:
Freedom from worry and it is often
expressed by means of an idiom, for example, ‘to sit down in the heart,’ ‘to
rest in the liver,’ or ‘to be quiet in one’s inner self.’
The experience
of peace is an embodied reality – to be quiet in one’s inner self. This is the focus for our reflections this
morning.
Do
we really want that embodied experience of inner quietude within one’s very selves?
Have
you ever experienced that?
Have
you ever reflected deeply about your fundamental desire for inner peace?
In
our Gospel reading we see the reactions of the Shepherds and Mary to the
arrival of Jesus Christ whom the Prophet Isaiah calls the Prince of Peace:
Is. 9:6 For to us a child is born, to
us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor,
Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Christ is the Prince of Peace – the
harbinger of all peace.
Look
with me again at our Gospel reading from the Gospel of Luke chapter 2 beginning
at verse 6:
Luke 2:6 While they were there,
the time came for the baby to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her
firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because
there was no room for them in the inn. 8
And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch
over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and
the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But
the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy
that will be for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior
has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to
you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
Luke 2:13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host
appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth
peace to men on whom his favor rests.”
Luke 2:15 When the angels had left them and gone into
heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this
thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” 16 So they hurried off and found Mary and
Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17 When they had seen
him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18
and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.
Luke 2:19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.
Luke 2:20 The shepherds
returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and
seen, which were just as they had been told.
Luke 2:21 ¶ On
the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise him, he was named Jesus, the
name the angel had given him before he had been conceived.
Look
with me once again at verse 19:
Luke 2:19 But Mary treasured up all these things and
pondered them in her heart.
Today it is Mary
who teaches us what it takes to hold, nurture and grow in this inner sense of
peace . . . in our inner beings!
Luke 2:19 But Mary treasured up all these things
and pondered them in her heart.
The word translated here as “treasured” is the Greek word sunthre÷w and it means:
“to exert mental effort in storing information so as to have
continual access and use of it — ‘to cause oneself to be fully aware of, to
keep in mind, to remember.”
‘Mary exerted mental effort to keep all
these things in mind and thought deeply about them’
She
caused herself to be fully aware of the gift of peace found in her Son Jesus
Christ.
Jesus Himself said,
Peace I leave with you,
my peace I give unto you; not as the world gives, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let
it be afraid.” Jn 14:27
Application:
Now think about what Mary may have pondered during those
30 odds years in which she had Jesus with her.
·
We were made in the image of God
and Jesus, now God incarnate, suspended in the womb of Mary while made in His
Father’s image would also have the likeness of another – a woman.
·
When Jesus was born – what did
Mary see when she looked upon Him – something of herself and something of
Another. What was it in that impression
of Another that so captivated her?
·
What must it have been like to
look at her son – the incarnate God – and watch what a God-man lived like on
the face of the earth?
·
As she watched Jesus play with the
other children of the little village of Nazareth how did her God-child play
with them?
·
Was there a sense of the serenity
of the place from which He had come?
·
Was there an aroma of heaven about
Him?
·
Did the people of Nazareth know
that they had a very special being within their walls?
·
Were there times when Mary’s
relationship with her Son were strained as she and He grew up?
·
And what of their conversations –
their many conversations about God the Father and God the Holy Spirit?
·
Did Mary ever notice in his eyes
that glint of familiarity when Jesus mentioned their names?
·
Did Jesus ever thank Mary for her
mothering of Him? What must she have
felt when this occurred?
·
What heavenly secrets did Jesus
reveal to her?
·
Who taught Jesus to pray and who
prayed with Him hour after hour?
·
What did Jesus teach Mary about
prayer and relationship with the Father?
·
Because Jesus had a perfect
relationship with the Father there was perfect peace between them. What then was it like living with a person
with whom God the Father was in perfect harmony?
And so the pondering may go.
Now I ask myself and I ask you - are we not to do the
same?
Is it not God’s plan for us that we too, who are filled with
the Spirit of the Incarnate Lord, to exert great mental effort to ponder all
that an intimate relationship with Him will bring to us?
So if you and I want to
grow in that inner sense of peace we are being reminded today – the first day
of this new year – to ponder what we have as Christians and what we are to do
with it.
We have the Holy Spirit
in us - the gift of the Spirit of the Prince of Peace enabling us to say with
absolute certainty “Abba Father.”
Do you have that sort
of relationship with Jesus Christ?
To Ponder: If you wish to experience that sense of peace
which is the birthright of every follower of Jesus Christ then we need to
follow the example of His mother – who spent her life pondering these things!
To ponder – this is our
calling if we are ever to experience any sense of extended peace in our inner
being – in our soul.
The Greek word translated “to ponder” is sumba¿llw; and it
means to give careful consideration to various implications of an
issue — ‘to reflect on, to think about seriously, to think deeply about, to
meditate upon, to contemplate upon.
This is what Mary did – she pondered – she carefully
considered various implications associated with Jesus and His ways.
Mary was a contemplative.
Jesus was different; magnificently different and Mary got to
watch and learn from Him. She got to
meditate upon His words and actions.
The question to begin this New Year is this – Do you want to
be a much better person 12 months from now?
Someone more and more like Jesus Himself?
Then Treasuring and Pondering are going to have to become
habits of your heart!
Let’s begin this process with your writing down 4 questions:
you want to answers to this year.
They could be:
·
How can I experience more and more of You
and Your peace?
·
What does Your peace feel like?
·
What needs to change in my life for me to
experience Your peace?
·
How can I who is driven by restlessness
ever experience Your peace?
·
How can I draw ever closer to You the
source of all peace?
And here are some prayers
that you could pray:
·
Reveal to me what I need to let go of to
experience more of You and Your peace?
·
Come close to me Lord so that I may inquire
of you.
·
Be to me as you were to Mary.
·
Help me to become a contemplative who looks
for and finds you all about me.
·
Help to stop my incessant inner
chatter. Replace it with your calm
Presence.
·
Reveal to me sources of unrest in my soul,
in my environment, in my associates, in my job, in our home, in our Church . .
.
·
Help me to develop prayer habits that will
fight back to incursion of all unrest in my life . . .
And so let us pray . . .
