2020 January 1 _ Solemnity Mary Mother
of God _
• Numbers
6:22-27 • Psalm 67 • Galatians 4:4-7 • + Luke 2:16-21 •
[__01__] Do
you have time? Do I have time? Or, does time have us.
We might feel – especially at the close of one year and
the opening of a new year – that we are under the control of the hands of time,
or the hands of the ticking clock.
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI wrote that we are really not
at the mercy of time.
Jesus, in this sense, lived, died and rose from the dead
not only to free us from sin and death but also to free us from worrying about
time, or being under the control of time.
It is paradoxical that we gain control of “time” in our
lives not by perpetual motion, but by perpetual meditation, by silence.
[_02_] Time does not equal death.
[__03__] Nevertheless,
we try to gain control of the time. One example for me was the new phone – the
smartphone I obtained recently.
I never had a smart phone before a few months ago. And, I
am really impressed with the phone’s ability to calculate time..not just
exactly what time it is… but to tell me exactly when the phone is going to
“die”.
Last night at 6:50 pm:
the phone will run out of battery in 1 day, 7 hours, it is 21% charged.
And, if I change the battery settings to “low battery mode”, I increase the
life span by several days.
I wish I had such control of all my resources and deadlines.
By praying and seeking silence, for example, I am
reminded and something can be revealed to me about what is really “left” or
what is really “inside” of my heart. I
am not saying that every moment of silence and prayer brings a profound
revelations and a-ha moment of insight…but it is paradoxical that the slower I
move… the more I can learn…the more I can gain control of time and what God is
speaking to me about.
The phone reminds me – in a mechanical and physical way –
that slowing down has benefits. Am I not called to have the same attitude
toward my prayer and prayer time with God?
Pope Emeritus B16 wrote it this way: “Do [men and women] make progress when they
enjoy greater comfort but their hearts stand still or shrivel up? And can a man make progress when he does not
even know himself? When he has time only for what he owns and not for what he
is?” (Meditation
for New Year’s Eve, ”Dogma & Preaching, p. 347)
In this the Gospel of Luke of this this Solemnity we read
that Mary, the Mother of God: “Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them
in her heart”
Mary – in prayer and silence
– pressed PAUSE [ ▌ ▌], in order to receive and to know the gift of God through
Jesus Christ to her. Mary does not make
her heart stand still… rather she pauses, makes the world “stand still” … so
that she can receive and ponder what God
has given her.
In
sports – basketball or soccer or NFL football – that’s how a player often
“fakes out” another player. He or she is still while the others are still
moving. In this regard, a surprising amount of progress can be made in just one
moment of stillness.
Mary a model of prayer for us. By saying Yes to God and
to the Holy Spirit, Mary is allowing God to work through and in her. In order to change directions – in order to
make a change – we might recall that we need at least one moment of stillness. Sometimes, more than one moment is helpful.
We might consider as a resolution for the new year – can
put aside and invest time – at least 5 to 15 minutes per day of stillness for
God to work in me. And, to consider
gradually increasing that time for God to be present.
[__04__] As
we welcome a new year, I also would like to remind you of the reverence to
which we are called – the respect to which we are called – for those who have
lived longer and lived a greater number of years.
Age is an asset, years are an asset, not a liability.
Who has time? Older people have time.
Pope Emeritus Bendict XVI wrote:
“Should
not [New Year’s Eve / New Year’s Day] cause us to reflect for a moment along
these lines as well? Should we not recognize and acknowledge to one another
that people need not be ashamed of any stage of life … as we ring out the old
year and ring in the new, should we not realize once again that, in order to be
fully himself, man needs the whole of his allotted time, from childhood to old
age? Should we not try to accept again more fully the entire span given to man
and to develop tolerance and even appreciation for the stage of life through
which each person is living, with the realization that all of us have something
to offer one another?”
(“Meditation
for New Year’s Eve” Dogma & Peaching, p. 349)
B16 is stating / reminding us that we need not just
youthful energy but we also need “the
maturity and experience and the resigned serenity of the elderly [person] in
our lives … In this period of history, when the future is the predominant
concern and people therefore seek to stop the clock at a certain point, perhaps
by far the most important thing we can learn is to say a wholehearted “Yes!” to
older people and to our own growing old and, in so doing, accept time and the
future.
(“Meditation
for New Year’s Eve” Dogma & Peaching, p. 349)
[__05__] We also need the help of others to survive and
sustain ourselves in time. We need the knowledge and wisdom of others.
Here is one such example.
Two elderly couples are walking down the street, the 2 women are leading the way, 2 women
talking to each other and 2 men talking
to each other.
And, 1st man says to the other: “What did you do for New Year’s Eve?”
The other: “We went to this great restaurant. It was
amazing. The food was fantastic, the service was impeccable, the prices were
great, the ambience and environment lovely…. “
The 1st man asks, “Great, what was the name of
the restaurant?”
And, the second man says. “What is the name of that
flower, that smells so lovely, it has red petals, long steam, there are thorns
on the stem…. ”
And, the 1st man says: “That would be the
rose.”
And, the 2nd man says, “Of course.”
So, we need others to help us to remember, at every stage
of life, to remember the beauty and goodness of life.
And, in this case, just to remember.
Because The 2nd man also says to his wife, “of course, the rose. HEY … ROSE…. What was the name of that
restaurant?” [__fin__]
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