New Year's Day 2011

LUKE 2:16-21

THE FIRST DAY OF JANUARY IS A FEAST DAY LOOKING FOR A FEAST, I GUESS. IT'S NEW YEAR'S DAY, OF COURSE. ONCE IT WAS THE FEAST OF THE CIRCUMCISION OF JESUS. AMONG SOME CHRISTIANS IT IS THE WORLD DAY OF PEACE, AND SOME CALL IT THE FEAST OF THE NAMING OF JESUS. IT'S THE LAST DAY OF KWANZA. AND THIS YEAR IT IS THE FEAST OF MARY, THE MOTHER OF GOD, FOR US CATHOLICS. POOR JANUARY FIRST! IT HAS A REAL IDENTITY PROBLEM. I GUESS THE ONLY THING IT HAS GOING FOR IT IS THAT IT DOESN'T FALL ON A DATE DETERMINED BY THE MOON, LIKE EASTER AND PENTECOST.

WHEN I LOOK BACK AT MY LIFE, I CAN REMEMBER WHAT KIND OF PERSON I WAS WHEN I WAS YOUNG. I DIDN'T KNOW IT AT THE TIME, BUT I REALLY LACKED HUMILITY. I HAD ALWAYS GOTTEN STRAIGHT A'S IN SCHOOL, AND LEARNING CAME EASY TO ME. MY LIFE CHANGED AFTER I GOT MARRIED. LIVING WITH SOMEONE WHO SOON LEARNS ALL YOUR FAULTS; HAVING CHILDREN AND MAKING INEVITABLE MISTAKES IN RAISING THEM – YOU SOON LEARN THAT YOU HAVE A LOT TO BE HUMBLE ABOUT. SO GETTING MARRIED WAS A REAL TURNING POINT IN MY LIFE, AND I THINK THAT IF I HADN'T GOTTEN MARRIED, I WOULD HAVE SPENT THE REST OF MY LIFE THINKING I WAS SPECIAL, NEVER DISCOVERING THAT I NEEDED REDEMPTION. AND I CAN LOOK BACK ON THAT AND SEE THE HAND OF GOD IN MY LIFE, GRANTING ME A GREAT BLESSING – A WONDERFUL WIFE, CHILDREN, A GREAT CAREER – AND AN OPPORTUNITY TO GROW SPIRITUALLY BECAUSE OF THESE VERY THINGS.

OUR WORLD IS IN LOVE WITH CHANCE. THE PREVAILING THEORY OF EVOLUTION IS THAT EVERY LIVING CREATURE AROSE THROUGH SHEER CHANCE. AND WHEN SCIENTISTS DISCOVERED THAT THE UNIVERSE HAD A BEGINNING, THAT EVERYTHING IN THE UNIVERSE WAS SEEMINGLY DESIGNED SO THAT LIFE, AND ESPECIALLY HUMAN BEINGS, COULD ARISE, THEY HAD TO CHOOSE WHETHER TO BELIEVE IN A GOD, OR TO EMBRACE ANOTHER IDEA, NAMELY THAT THERE WERE UNCOUNTABLE UNIVERSES WHERE THINGS WERE ALL A LITTLE DIFFERENT, SO NATURALLY THERE COULD BE ONE OR TWO WHERE THINGS JUST BY CHANCE WERE EXACTLY RIGHT FOR LIFE TO ARISE.

WE CHRISTIANS DON'T REALLY BELIEVE IN CHANCE. WE BELIEVE THAT SOMEHOW EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENS IS GOD'S WILL, EVEN THOUGH HE LEAVES US WITH FREE WILL. AND THAT MEANS THAT EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENS TO YOU OR ME IS GOD'S WILL. AND WE CHRISTIANS BELIEVE ANOTHER THING ABOUT GOD. GOD IS A LOVING GOD AND GUIDES OUR LIVES SO AS TO GIVE US EVERY OPPORTUNITY TO BECOME ONE WITH HIM, WHICH IS THE ONLY GOAL WORTHY OF A HUMAN BEING.

SO TODAY WE HEAR ABOUT MARY, KEEPING ALL THESE THINGS AND REFLECTING ON THEM IN HER HEART. MARY IS THE PERFECT HUMAN BEING. SHE KNOWS THAT EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENS TO HER IS WILLED BY GOD. AND IF THAT'S THE CASE, THEN SHE INTENDS TO EXAMINE WHAT GOD HAS WILLED, SO THAT SHE CAN KNOW MORE ABOUT GOD'S PLAN FOR HER. AND AS SHE THINKS ABOUT WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO HER IN THE PAST, IT BECOMES EASIER FOR HER TO READ GOD'S WILL FOR HER IN THE EVENTS OF THE PRESENT. THAT'S WHAT REFLECTING MEANS – LOOKING FOR MEANING IN OUR LIVES, LOOKING FOR THE HAND OF GOD IN THE TWISTS AND TURNS OF OUR OWN STORY.

BUT MARY DID NOT JUST REFLECT. SHE WAS FAMILIAR WITH THE STORY OF ISRAEL. SHE MAY NOT HAVE BEEN ABLE TO QUOTE THE OLD TESTAMENT CHAPTER AND VERSE – BUT SHE KNEW THE OUTLINES OF THE STORY AND ESPECIALLY THE PROMISES GOD HAD MADE TO HIS PEOPLE. SO WHEN SHE REFLECTED ON THE THINGS SHE KEPT, THE EVENTS OF HER LIFE, SHE DID SO IN LIGHT OF THE SCRIPTURES AS SHE KNEW THEM. BECAUSE IN THE SCRIPTURES, JUST LIKE IN THE EVENTS OF HER OWN LIFE, GOD SPOKE TO HER, AND MARY WANTED NOTHING SO MUCH AS TO UNDERSTAND GOD'S WILL AND CARRY IT OUT. BEING WITHOUT ORIGINAL SIN, BEING CREATED AS A PERFECT HUMAN BEING, MARY KNEW THAT THE DESTINY OF A HUMAN BEING WAS TO BECOME ONE WITH GOD, AND THAT NOTHING WAS AS IMPORTANT AS LIVING IN HIS WILL.

AND THE SAINTS DOWN THROUGH THE AGES FOLLOWED MARY'S EXAMPLE, AND EXAMINED THEIR OWN LIVES IN THE LIGHT OF SCRIPTURE TO DISCOVER THE WILL OF GOD FOR THEM. THINK OF SAINT FRANCIS, WHO SET OUT TO IMITATE CHRIST AS WELL AS HE COULD, HAVING CONSIDERED HOW HIS OWN LIFE UP TO THEN HAD BEEN GUIDED BY SELFISHNESS. THINK ABOUT SAINT AUGUSTINE, WHO RECORDED IN HIS AUTOBIOGRAPHY HOW EACH EVENT IN HIS LIFE FIT TOGETHER LIKE A PUZZLE, TO LEAD HIM TO SURRENDER HIS LIFE TO GOD.

GOD IS ALWAYS SPEAKING TO US. WE KNOW HE SPEAKS TO US IN THE SCRIPTURES. BUT HE ALSO COMMUNICATES WITH US IN EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENS TO US, IN ALL THE EVENTS OF OUR LIVES. AND IF WE KEEP THESE THINGS AND REFLECT ON THEM IN OUR HEARTS AS MARY DID, WE WILL LEARN HIS LANGUAGE, WE WILL BE ABLE TO KNOW WHAT HE IS SAYING TO US.

MOST OF US PRAY. WE ASK FOR THINGS, WE ASK FOR FORGIVENESS; SOMETIMES WE ADORE, SOMETIMES WE THANK. BUT FOR MOST OF US, PRAYER IS A MONOLOGUE WHERE WE SPEAK TO A SILENT GOD AND HOPE HE HEARS US. MARY SHOWS US THAT PRAYER IS SUPPOSED TO BE A DIALOGUE, AND THIS MEANS THAT WE LISTEN TO GOD SPEAKING TO US.

WHEN I LOOK AT MY MARRIAGE, IT CHANGED MY WHOLE LIFE; AND LOOKING BACK IT IS CLEAR THAT GOD WAS WORKING IN MY LIFE. AND I CAN THINK OF MANY OTHER MOMENTS WHEN GOD SHAPED THINGS TO OFFER ME A CHANCE TO GROW CLOSER TO HIM SPIRITUALLY. AND THERE ARE UNDOUBTEDLY MANY TIMES WHEN I MISSED WHAT GOD WAS SAYING TO ME.

MARY SHOWS THE WAY. SHE SHOWS US HOW IMPORTANT IT IS TO KEEP THE THINGS WHICH HAPPEN TO US AND BRING THEM OUT REGULARLY TO REFLECT UPON THEM. AND IF WE REFLECT ON THEM IN THE LIGHT OF THE WORD OF GOD, WE LEARN GOD'S WILL FOR US, AND ENTER INTO THAT DIALOGUE WHICH BRINGS US INTO UNION WITH GOD.

MARY KNEW, AS DID THE GREAT PHILOSOPHER SOCRATES, THAT AN UNEXAMINED LIFE IS NOT WORTH LIVING. SO SHE KEPT ALL THESE THINGS AND REFLECTED ON THEM IN HER HEART. AND SO SHOULD WE.