Second Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) 2013

2^nd. Sunday (Year C)

(Isaiah 62:1-5; 1^st. Corinthians 12:4-11; John 2:1-11)

In today's Gospel we are shown Jesus bringing great joy to a young couple threatened with deep embarrassment and no little sorrow, and we note that Jesus' blessing came into their lives through Mary.  

Today, He does the same in and through Mother Church, His Mystical Body, which works, suffers, and prays to bring the blessings of His grace and truth to all the nations, and to further the establishment of God's Kingdom here on earth; as He Himself had foretold when speaking to His disciples before His Ascension:

Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.  (John 14:12)

Jesus is now seated at the right hand of His Father in glory where He is totally devoted to giving glory to His Father and winning salvation for His brethren on earth and in need: for Jesus is, indeed, totally and gloriously selfless:

And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.   (John 14:13)

In the first reading Isaiah showed Jesus' desire to bring us salvation and have us share in His own glory, by the words:

For Zion's sake I will not hold My peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until her righteousness goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a lamp that burns.   

And looking back at Mary in the Gospel reading we see how Jesus has made her glory shine out before our eyes like a lamp burning to guide us to salvation:

When they ran out of wine, the mother of Jesus said to Him, "They have no wine."  

Apparently, Jesus did not think it a matter that concerned Him personally:

(He) said to her, "Woman, what does your concern have to do with Me? My hour has not yet come." 

However, Mary had devoted herself totally and unreservedly to the welfare of her Child: nourishing Him, protecting Him, and supremely, teaching Him all she knew of God in order that He might learn how, in human flesh, to respond to His heavenly Father and live, as His Son, among men; and now she is about to be rewarded.  She is to be allowed, indeed, to be inspired by the Father, to help her Son hear, recognize, and embrace His heavenly Father’s call to begin His public ministry of salvation.

At His recent baptism in the Jordan by John, Jesus had been manifestly acknowledged and inwardly confirmed by His Father’s heavenly proclamation.  Moreover, He had been endowed by the Gift of the Holy Spirit, and then finally prepared for His future labours and spiritual combat by His victory over the Devil in the desert contest.  He was, indeed, ready, and all was prepared and poised for Him to begin His work of salvation.  However, He would not repeat His youthful ‘mistaken’ zeal to ‘be about His Father’s business’ ... He must watch and wait for His Father’s specific commission.

Of course, Mary did not, and could not, know that of which Jesus Himself was unaware. Nevertheless, just as God the Father willed to honour John the Baptist by allowing him to baptize His Son, so too He willed to honour Mary -- the most perfect mother of His only-begotten Son -- by moving her to help Jesus start out upon the work for which His heavenly Father had destined Him, for which His earthly childhood with Mary and subsequent years of obedience as Son of Mary and Son of the Law had been preparing Him, and for which His baptismal experience in the Jordan had now primed Him.  How did Mary, under God's inspiration, do this?

Very simply, as you would expect:

            His mother said to the servants, "Whatever He says to you, do it." 

That was indeed simply said, but it was certainly not expected.  Jesus would have seemed to want no part in relieving the rather embarrassing shortage of wine at this local wedding... after all, it was probably not such a rare occurrence when wedding celebrations went on for up to seven days with guests coming and going and when the families involved were rarely rich.  Whatever the case, Mary -- the humble handmaid of God -- gently insisted with her Son by turning to the servers standing by and saying, "Whatever He says to you, do it."  All eyes, therefore, were now firmly and expectantly fixed on Jesus.

Such behaviour, such insistence, was strange, most strange indeed for one characterised by her great humility, and the incongruity of it was enough for Jesus: He recognized His Father’s grace guiding His mother’s behaviour, just as He would later recognize His Father’s part in Peter’s humble confession and open declaration that He, Jesus, was the Christ, the Son of the living God:

Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.  (Matthew 16:17)

Here at this wedding feast in Cana Jesus recognized that His Father was honouring Mary, and indeed was inspiring her to give her Son her very own special, maternal, blessing, by calling on Him for a miracle that would celebrate the fact that the hour for Him to really start about His Father’s business had, at last, come!!

What joy filled His heart, and what expression and significance He gave to that joy!  Around 150 gallons of best wine filled those 6 stone water jars brought by the servers:

All you who are thirsty, come to the water!  Come, without paying and without cost, drink wine..!   (Isaiah 55:1)

Wine, fruit of the Vine!  I, Jesus, am the vine, the fruitful vine ... so much wine, so great a vine 

... Drink from it all of you, for this is My blood of the covenant ...  from now on I shall not drink this fruit of the vine until the day when I drink it with you new in the kingdom of My Father.   (Matthew 26)

God would not take Mary's Son from her, she would give Him as she did those years ago when presenting Him in the temple at Jerusalem.  God would not take Mary's Son from her, He had not done that to Abraham, He would not do it to Mary; moreover, Mary, being greater than Abraham, was allowed to give her supreme blessing to her Son and Saviour and thus help Him set out with great joy along the way that would lead, ultimately, to His Passion, Death, and glorious Resurrection.  Isaiah's prophecy was being fulfilled:

You shall also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.  (Isaiah 62:3)

Mary's own words too had been prophetic:

My soul magnifies the Lord, for behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed; for He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name. 

Today, that same work of God, that abiding desire of Jesus, for our salvation and glorification, is being carried on and brought to fulfilment through the Holy Spirit at work in and through Mother Church and in the souls of Jesus' faithful disciples, as St. Paul says:

The manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all. 

Moreover, Paul assures us that we are all called to share in Jesus' work:

To one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 

St. Paul could make only a small choice, because the gifts of God cannot be numbered and no one is left ungifted.  Some of those gifts are, indeed, beyond our imagining: for example, how could anyone have foreseen that the Father would inspire Mary to persist in her request even though Jesus, initially, did not want to know anything further about her concern?

People of God, all disciples of Jesus should have no doubt that He can and does will to make use of the talents of each and every one of us, thereby associating us with Himself, in His work for the glory of His Father and the salvation of souls.  We, for our part, however, must, first of all, want Him to do this with our lives; and then we must learn to listen for His voice and to respond immediately to the promptings of His Spirit, that we might be able to carry out His will and share in His  work.  Only in that way can Isaiah's prophecy be fulfilled in us:

            Nations shall behold your vindication, and all the kings your glory.

God has already begun to do this for Mother Church: the greatest empires and the mightiest kings have, over two thousand years, come -- in all their power and magnificence -- and gone, despite all their cruelty and cunning.  Mother Church has withstood and outlived them all.   And those other prophetic words:

You shall be called by a new name, pronounced by the mouth of the Lord,

are also being fulfilled for her in us her children who have been baptized and made a new creation through water and the Holy Spirit, a new creation with the new name of children of God in Spirit and in Truth. 

God wants this work to continue, He wants us, in Mother Church, to share in the glory of His Christ; and, by the Spirit, to offer His salvation to all mankind:

There are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all: the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all.

People of God, despair neither of God nor of yourselves.  Some there are who say they are not gifted enough to do anything for God.  That is an attitude of mock humility, because it contradicts the words of Scripture for, as St. Paul tells us, the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all; indeed, such an attitude is sinful, since it would blame a supposed lack of generosity on God’s part to cover up personal self-love and indifference. There are others, however, more sincere and humble, who are tempted to think that because they have done nothing remarkable, therefore they have done nothing.  Some of them then go on to think that not having done anything shows that they cannot do anything, and, despairing of themselves, they are then tempted to give up.   Don't let the devil deceive you, my dear People, such thoughts as those can be the testing of a humble mind, but only provided that they do not lead you to that last step and final trap of "giving up". 

Mary knew that she had done nothing herself:

He who is mighty has done great things for me, He has regarded the low estate of His handmaiden;

she was acutely aware of her lowliness and never tried to make herself anything other than what she was before God.  Mary did not seek to make herself known or appreciated by men: her desire was to do God's will, to be most truly His handmaid; and it was for that reason that she was so prompt to hear and obey God at Cana when He called her to give her last great instance of motherly guidance to her Son.   It was Mary's selflessness that made her the wonder she is: she always heard, recognized, and responded to God working in her and through her for His Son.  This Jesus had long recognized and frequently admired:

And it happened, as He spoke, that a certain woman from the crowd raised her voice and said to Him:

 "Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts which nursed You!"  But He said, "More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!"   (Luke 11:27-28)

People of God, God can do anything with those who are humble, those who truly seek Him first and foremost in their lives and who are willing to trust Him in all things.  Ask Mary to pray for you; beg the Holy Spirit to guide you; thank God for His goodness to you in Mother Church.  Do these things and the Holy Spirit will be with you to form you into an ever more close and true likeness of Jesus; bringing forth fruit in Him and with Him for the glory of the Father and the salvation of souls.                           

Baptism of Our Lord Year C 2013

BAPTISM of Our Lord (C)

 (Isaiah 42:1-4, 6-7; Acts of the Apostles 10:34-38; Luke 3:15-16, 21-22)

There was an atmosphere of tense expectancy among the crowd thronging to John by the banks of the Jordan: there was something about the man -- his solitary life-style, his obvious asceticism, and his powerful words – all of which made him seem like one of the old-style prophets whom the present generation of Jewish faithful had only heard spoken of as being from what seemed a dim and distant past.  Indeed, but there was something more about John the Baptist: an undeniable and yet mysterious something which was causing many to think that he might possibly be the promised Messiah -- the Christ, as St. Luke puts it -- for whose coming Israel had been praying for centuries.  Although John did his best to dampen these expectations of him, nevertheless, people came crowding to him for his baptism; and they were so centred on the person of John that they probably did not notice at all the figure of one more young man quietly joining the queue moving forward for baptism.

However, with the approach of that young man John’s ministry was nearing its fulfilment and his true purpose and identity were about to be revealed, for that young man had once – many years before – been brought (while still in His mother’s womb) to John, himself then shortly to be born, for John’s sanctification and preparation for his life’s work.  And now that young man – Jesus of Nazareth – was being led to John once again, this time by His heavenly Father for His Son’s Personal commissioning and manifestation, and for John’s fulfilment as supreme witness and faithful forerunner:

            He must increase, I must decrease.
 

Jesus, at His ‘coming of age’ as a son of the Law, having long recognized and now, for the first time, openly declaring God to be His most true and only Father, had – after being ‘lost’ in Jerusalem and, despite His youthful longing to be doing His Father’s business -- been led to recognize His duty to Mary His mother (and Joseph while still alive) to return with them to Nazareth and to live there obediently until His human maturity.  He grew in grace and favour before God and men, but His own longing remained the same, to be about His Father’s business, and He did ever await, and ever more diligently listen for, His Father’s call in all the circumstances of His daily life and professional work, above all, however, in His Personal prayer and participation in synagogue worship.

He had heard of John the Baptist’s prophetic work and of its effect on many of Israel’s faithful; and He had begun to wonder if He should be there, where people were openly acknowledging their need of God, and where His Father was manifestly at work .... He so longed to seek out His Father’s traces!  And thus it came about: Jesus joined the crowd of God-seekers around John; listening and watching, not so much for John, His publicly-acclaimed relative, as for His own supremely beloved and, as yet, most secret Father.

When that apparently indistinguishable young man was actually receiving John’s baptism a voice spoke from heaven and a dove descended on Him: John saw the dove and perhaps heard the words spoken; the people, however, though they sensed the unique atmosphere of sacred presence, saw and heard nothing humanly distinct, because the words from heaven were directed not to them but to the young man Himself:

When Jesus had been baptized and, (as He) was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form like a dove.  And a voice came from heaven, "You are My beloved Son; with You I am well pleased." 

John had been prepared for such a vision, for God had told him that:

One mightier than (he was) coming, who (would) baptize (the people) with the Holy Spirit and fire. 

As a result, John had been able to recognize Jesus when he saw:

            the Holy Spirit descend in bodily form like a dove upon (Him).

 John might even have been permitted to hear those words the voice from heaven addressed to Jesus; however, it may also have been that such personal words from the Father in heaven to His only-begotten Son were too intimate and too holy for even one so exalted as John the Baptist to be allowed to hear.  Consequently, we in Mother Church should recognize that we are wonderfully privileged to know not only what the Jewish penitents by the Jordan certainly did not know, though Jesus was bodily present in their midst, but also what perhaps even John the Baptist himself was not allowed to hear; and that, of course, would be in perfect accord with the words Jesus was to speak later concerning John (Matthew 11:11):

Among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. 

Nevertheless, whether or not he heard the words, John most certainly saw the Spirit descending like a dove on Jesus, and would, undoubtedly, have immediately recalled what had happened to Noah in the beginning (Genesis 8:10-12):

Noah sent the dove out from the ark.  Then the dove came to him in the evening, and behold, a freshly plucked olive leaf was in her mouth; and Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth.
   

Noah realised that mankind’s punishment had come to an end when the dove returned to the Ark bearing the olive branch in its beak, for that was a sign that the waters of the flood were retreating and land was once more to be seen: land waiting to bring forth fruit again for those surviving the punishing flood.  Likewise, when John saw the Spirit descend like a dove on Jesus it is highly likely that he was prophetically privileged to appreciate that mankind’s ancient servitude to sin was coming to its end and that they would be enabled to find, once again, acceptance and peace with God through this mysterious young relative of his, Jesus, now standing before him, dripping water and engrossed in prayer.  John knew well those words of Isaiah which we heard in our first reading:

Behold! My Servant whom I uphold, My Elect One in whom My soul delights!  I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles.   He will not fail nor be discouraged, till He has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands shall wait for His law.

Indeed, it was with such a One in mind that he had told the waiting people:

I indeed baptize you with water; but One mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 

The Son, with Whom the voice of the Father declared Himself delighted, was -- as Son -- One with the Spirit in the glory of the Father; He was thereby, indeed, able as the Messianic leader to receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit in His human nature and, indeed, would shortly ‘deploy’ that human fullness of Holiness and Power for the very first time by entering upon the ultimate preparation for His public ministry through an encounter with and victory over His arch-enemy, the Devil, in the desert, the Devil’s very own dwelling-place.

We learn from words of Jesus recorded by St. Luke (12:49), words spoken shortly before His final and conclusive encounter with the Satan on Calvary, with what dispositions Jesus received His baptismal endowment of the Spirit:

I came to send fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! 

Jesus received in His own humanity the Spirit He would subsequently pour out over human kind in and through His Church; for the hearts and minds of those true disciples who would have faith in, and give obedience to, Jesus could only be cleansed of their native sinfulness by such a Gift as the Spirit, Who, in His cleansing activity would indeed show Himself as a Spirit of fire: a purifying fire preparing the way for the new life and growth of a new People, the Body of Christ.

That ardent longing of Jesus to ‘send fire on the earth’ was, indeed, the very purpose for which, having risen from the dead, He expressly equipped His Church, the very work He confirmed His Apostles to spearhead: 

When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.  And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.  Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. (Acts  2:1-3)

John the Baptist had spoken of the work that Jesus’ baptism would accomplish when he declared:

He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.  His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather the wheat into His barn; but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire.

That was how John, the greatest of Old Testament prophets, understood the image of fire.  However, that is an understanding we can and should appreciate more fully in the light of the subsequent work of Jesus here on earth and of His Holy Spirit in the life of the Church.   The Spirit would indeed ‘burn the chaff’ in the hearts of His chosen ones, and the greater their obedience and docility, the more they would allow Him a free hand in their lives, the greater would be the blaze of purifying love He would kindle and enflame within them.  For the world at large, however -- for those stumbling and hurting themselves in the darkness of sin -- He would show Himself to be the Spirit of Love and of Truth, a tongue of fire enabling the Apostles and prophets of Mother Church to proclaim the love of God and His Good News of peace for all of good will (Matthew 10:20):

It is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you. 

People of God, let us learn from the baptism of Our Lord something of the nature of our vocation.  If the Spirit of Jesus is to be heard by the world around us, a deeply sinful world delighting in its own disfigurement … if He is to be heard and appreciated by them in the manner of that beautiful word-picture painted by the great prophet Isaiah (52:7) who says:

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who proclaims peace, who brings glad tidings of good things, who proclaims salvation;

if, indeed, we are to help our world encounter Jesus as He Himself wanted to be found by them:

The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed (Luke 4:18),

then, People of God, we must implore the Spirit of Jesus to work in us as fire, as  purifying fire in our very deepest selves, purging us ever more and more from our sinfulness, and enabling us to commit ourselves ever more whole-heartedly to Our Lord and Saviour.  That is the only spirit of sacrifice, the only testimony of fraternal love, that can make us true disciples of Him Who sacrificed Himself for the sins of our world.  We cannot trust in our own presumed zeal and good intentions; for what is needed most of all today is not that we -- as individuals -- show off ourselves as good people doing good things, nor that we -- as a body -- continually try to come up with new ideas, new gimmicks, to attract people; but that the Spirit of Jesus is able to find a welcome in the hearts of the men and women of our day thanks to Mother Church’s authentic proclamation of, and faithful witness to, the Good News of Jesus, and by our own deepest prayers and most sincere endeavours to allow the Spirit to work fully and freely in us, leading us along the ways of Jesus: ways of self-sacrifice for the good of our brethren and ways of gratitude and praise for the glory of our Father in heaven.                           

The Epiphany 2013

                      The Epiphany (2013)                                           

  (Isaiah 60:1-6; Ephesians 3:2-3, 5-6; Matthew 2:1-12)

It is commonly thought that the technical language of some Church documents and theological writings makes them not only largely meaningless but can even lead to spiritual indifference for ordinary Catholics.  And yet, because, such doctrinal terminology has been finely tuned over many centuries by some of the greatest minds and the deepest hearts among the disciples of Christ, in many cases it most subtly articulates and protects supremely beautiful truths about God and His great goodness toward men, truths well able to kindle ardent flames of divine love and glowing words of divine praise from faithful men and women still to be found who, in even these most modern times, are able to quieten their multitudinous thoughts and distractions long enough for them to dispassionately hear, thoughtfully appreciate, and gratefully learn from the teaching of Mother Church.

Our God is uniquely transcendent in all His perfections, such is the teaching of both Christian philosophy and Catholic dogma: He cannot be contained within any limits because He is infinite, and infinity is limitless: He is the Almighty and the All Holy, whose sovereign Power sublimely sustains and gives expression to His incomparable Wisdom and supreme Goodness.  

In line with such appreciations of God we find in today’s Gospel reading that the Magi first became aware of the proximate birth of the Christ through the appearance of an extraordinarily bright star in the heavens; whereupon, they set out without delay to follow its lead, taking with them incense for the most holy Being announced by this new heavenly phenomenon.  Their high expectations, were to be super-abundantly confirmed later by certain shepherds who reported an angel having appeared to them -- as they were watching over their sheep in the fields --  proclaiming the birth of a most Holy Child; and, moreover, that a veritable multitude of the heavenly host had thereupon joined the angel, singing the praises of God and the glory of this Child, using words which enabled the Magi  to recognize Him as the Holy One Whose star they had been so diligently following: words speaking of and echoing round the heavens where their guiding star had first appeared:

            Glory to God in the highest.

The Magi, following the lead of the star, expected to find the One they were seeking among the highest on earth, that is, in Jerusalem, the city where the great God of Israel had chosen to dwell; perhaps, indeed, at the court of him who was the present Rome-favoured king of this Chosen People and builder of their glorious Temple which was one of the wonders of the Roman world.  And, in line with such expectancy, they had brought with them a second gift; this time, one of royal gold.

They had been well received by Israel’s king, Herod, who, after having summoned and enquired of his most learned scribes and scholars, priests and sages, encouraged the Magi in their search for the Child with an oracle taken from the age-old Jewish scriptures:

You, Bethlehem, are not the least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you shall come a Ruler Who will shepherd My people Israel.

The Magi, therefore, proceeded confidently in their search for the Child by  continuing to follow the heavenly star of great beauty in accordance with the ancient oracle and the royal encouragement given them in the great and holy city of Jerusalem where the One to come was clearly foreknown, anxiously expected, and, it would seem, reverently desired. 

However, since no limits can be set to God’s perfections, although He is indeed limitlessly in majesty, He is also limitless in humility: being greater than all, yet there is none more lowly than He.  Therefore, when the Magi eventually arrived at the spot over which the star itself seemed to have stopped, they saw, to their surprise, that it was nothing more than a house or shelter containing a manger:

They were overjoyed at seeing the star, and on entering the house they saw the young Child with Mary His mother.  They prostrated themselves and did Him homage. 

This was not what they had expected to find, and yet, turning to open up and offer their gifts, they realized how wondrously wise had been the Power that had inspired and brought them thus far.  For, opening their treasures, they revealed the thoughts that had led them to carefully chose their special offerings; not only frankincense for the holy and gold for the great, but also myrrh, essential indeed for the anointing of one specially chosen, but also – and this was not part of their intention -- much appreciated for the weak to be embalmed in their embrace of death, and for the lowly and rejected to be succoured and comforted in their pain and distress:

 They brought Jesus to the place Golgotha, which is translated, Place of a Skull.  Then they gave Him wine mingled with myrrh to drink, but He did not take it; and then they crucified Him.  (Mark 15:22-24)

Nicodemus came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred pounds. Then they took the body of Jesus, and bound it in strips of linen with the spices, as the custom of the Jews is to bury. (John 19:39-40)

People of God, today we celebrate the Epiphany, the manifestation of the glory and majesty of Jesus.  I hope that, having now come to some appreciation of the rich content of the technical terminology used in the Church’s teaching at times, you are aware that the glory and the power, the majesty and the beauty, of Jesus in all His perfections, in no way excludes you; because those perfections extend -- so to speak -- down as well as up.   God is the greatest, He is also the least; supremely majestic, and yet there is none so humble.  In the Eucharist here at Mass He offers Himself to be our very own, heavenly food, while on every hand He supports the whole of creation and is worshipped by myriads of angels; He reigns in majesty and bliss and yet none, be they ever so lowly, suffer what He, their Lord and Master cannot, or will not, share for their comfort and saving.  In His omnipotent power, He is the first and the last, the beginning and the end of all things; in His wisdom He pervades the heights and the depths, He surveys all times and seasons, past, present, and to come.  Above all, He knows our minds and hearts in all their twists and turns wherein even we ourselves are frequently at a loss.  This He can do because of His great love, the love whereby He originally made us in His own likeness, and the yet greater love whereby He remade us, when He sacrificed His Son for our salvation, Who subsequently rose on the third day for our glorification, before endowing Mother Church with His Father’s Promise -- His own most Holy Spirit -- for our personal sanctification and gradual re-formation in His likeness as children of the Father.

People of God, let us understand aright the essence of this divine celebration and manifestation which is the Epiphany: our God is unique, infinite, and transcendent, in His perfections; and yet all His perfections are such as to be summed up by these three words of St. John, God is love.

For those still daunted and somewhat put-off by the technological scholarship required for the doctrinal expression and defence of God-given truth as well as its theological understanding and development, let love explain all: because love sustains all, love inspires all.  Love, and love alone – divine love, that is, to be rightly appreciated and appropriately understood -- embraces all that Mother Church teaches, all that the Scriptures contain, and all the human mind can ever aspire to understand and appreciate about Jesus, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and for the supreme glory of Him Who is the God and Father of us all.

                          

Mary Mother of God (YearC)

Mary, the Mother of God (C)  

(Numbers 6:22-27; Galatians 4:4-7; Luke 2:16-21)

In the second reading we heard St. Paul telling his converts in Galatia:

As proof that you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, "Abba, Father!"

Today, therefore, Mother Church invites us to consider how wonderfully the Spirit dwelt in the heart of Mary: not just for her admiration and praise, but also for our own great good, and thus, indeed, for the supreme glory of God!

St. Paul’s words reveal to us something of the innermost ‘secret’ of Mary: they speak not what she might have been capable of, able – of herself -- to do, but of what the Holy Spirit Himself did in and through her; indeed, they speak also of what Mary allowed the Holy Spirit to do in and through her.  He did ‘great things’, but could not -- could not because He would not – do them without her co-operation; without her giving-up, losing hold of, indeed, total abnegation of, self; without, that is, her most radical and simple self-forgetfulness.  Such self-emptiness before Him, such total openness for Him, such absolute commitment to Him and His purposes; that indeed, is the secret of Mary:

Behold, the handmaid of the Lord; be it done unto me according to Your Will.

So absolute -- so complete and unreserved -- was the response of Mary to God’s initial words delivered to her by the angel Gabriel, that Jesus openly praised her for that above all else (Luke 11:27-28):

A certain woman from the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, "Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts which nursed You!"  But He said, "More than that, blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it!"

Blessed are those who hear the word of God, who like Mary let that word freely -- like a threaded needle -- introduce the Spirit of God into their lives, allowing Him to  commence His work in them.  Blessed indeed are those who then keep, hold onto, turning neither heart nor head to the right or to the left, but always, simply and solely, allowing God’s word and God’s Spirit to lead them where He will.

We can recall here another Mary of whom the New Testament speaks most clearly in this same vein, for she is able to help us learn something more about Our Lady’s ‘secret’:

Jesus entered a village where a woman whose name was Martha welcomed Him.  She had a sister named Mary, who sat beside the Lord at His feet listening to Him speak.  Martha, burdened with much serving came to Him and said, ‘Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me by myself to do all the serving?  The Lord said to her in reply, ‘Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things.  There is need of only one thing, Mary has chosen the better part and it will not be taken from her. (Luke 10:38-42)

Clearly, important choices have to be made, perhaps friends offended and opposition provoked; at times, even good, very good things left aside, behind, for what is better.  ‘Secretum meum, mihi.’

For further guidance we can also recall the experience of Elijah of old:

At the mountain of God, Horeb, Elijah came to a cave where he took shelter.   The word of the Lord came to him, ‘Go outside and stand on the mountain before the Lord, the Lord will be passing by.’  A strong and heavy wind was rending the mountains and crushing rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind.  After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.  After the earthquake there was fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.  After the fire, there was a tiny whispering sound.  When he heard this, Elijah hid his face in his cloak and went and stood at the entrance of the cave.  A voice said to him, ‘Elijah, why are you here? ... ‘Go take the road back to the desert near Damascus.  When you arrive you shall anoint Hazael as king of Aram... Then Jehu, as king of Israel, and Elisha, son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah, as prophet to succeed you.’  (1 Kings 9, 11-16)

The voice of God had been ardently desired, long awaited, and carefully listened for, by the prophet in his great need.  Ultimately he recognized it by its unearthly calm and peace-breaking quiet which bespoke of holiness and led him to hide his face in his cloak before it, that thus he might listen closely and understand clearly what the Lord would have him do to achieve his destiny.

In our Gospel reading we learnt that those who searched for the Child found:

            Mary and Joseph, and the Infant lying in a manger.

So it is for all those disciples whom Jesus has told to take Mary to their hearts as their own Mother: in our search for Jesus, we will find Him, most easily and most surely, with the help and comfort of Mary’s prayerful presence in our lives.  Mary is no mere addition, certainly no complication, for Catholic spirituality.  Indeed, we can readily appreciate the privilege of Mary that enables her to lead each and every one of us to Jesus when we recall that she is not simply the model of the Church, but that, during her pregnancy she was, in all literal truth, the original Church itself, the unique dwelling place on earth of Jesus, God’s Son made flesh, the New Testament Ark of God’s presence among His People; and that she still is the purest essence of the Church, without spot or wrinkle of any sort.  Only in Mother Church can each and every one of us find Jesus truly and love Him fully, and that we will do most surely with Mary’s indispensable help.

St. Paul is quite explicit: it is the Spirit within us Who cries out Abba, Father!  It is not that He authorises us, permits us, or even, enables us to cry, Abba, Father!  It is the Spirit Himself, first coming to us as God’s gracious and most gloriously mysterious  GIFT -- the sublimely precious fruit of Christ’s sacrifice -- Who thus speaks in us and for us to the Father.  Thus is Jesus, Mary’s Son, born anew in each of us for the Father.   After that, everything depends on just how much ‘room’ – so to speak -- we give the Spirit of Jesus to work freely and fruitfully in us; and that means that we must appreciate, learn from, and adopt in our own lives something of the ‘secret’ of Mary our mother: for that will ultimately determine our human and Christian development as children of God and children of Mary.

We should recognise that Mary is our model and inspiration for our deepest and most personal relationship with Jesus, in so far as she -- our Mother -- was, and is always, most sublimely one with her Son:

Mary kept all these things (that she had experienced and heard concerning Jesus) and pondered them in her heart.

She is the supreme example and the surest guide for anyone seeking salvation; for anyone hoping and longing to find God as our true Father in, through, and with Jesus.  First and foremost, we should Imitate Mary by treasuring the Good News of Jesus handed down to us by Mother Church: in her teaching which forms us as His disciples, and in her Scriptures, which not only recount for us the foreshadowing and forthcoming of the Christ, but also, with her sacraments, mediate His very presence in our midst as members of His Church, and in our individual hearts as His true disciples today.

People of God, hear the Good News of Jesus with reverence and joy; treasure and nurture His grace in your hearts; and seek, above all, to respond – by the Spirit -- with that wholehearted confidence in, gratitude and commitment to, God, to which Mary gave such perfect expression when she said:

            Behold, the handmaid of the Lord; be it done unto me according to Your Will.

Holy Mary, you are indeed blessed above all women by God the Father, for through you there comes to us the One in Whom and through Whom all the blessings of heaven itself are ours!