Mary Kept All these Things

January 1, 2012

The Octave Day of the Nativity of the Lord

The Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God 2012

By Rev. Joe McCloskey, SJ

The LORD bless you and keep you! The LORD let his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you! The LORD look upon you kindly and give you peace! Numbers 6:24-26

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. Galatians 4:6-7

The shepherds went in haste to Bethlehem and found Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known the message that had been told them about this child. All who heard it were amazed by what had been told them by the shepherds. And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart. Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just as it had been told to them. Luke 2:16-20

Piety
Mary leads us to Christ and Christ leads us back to his Mother. The first Meditation of the Resurrection for many is Christ appearing to his Mother. He came because he loved her so much and wanted her to have the human experience of his joy. Christ shares his joy with his mother by being there. We are all hands on people. She touches the Christ of the Resurrection. Substance is given to his words from the Cross when he gave John to her to be mother even as by the same act he was making her mother of the Church. The Lord commands us to look at Mary as the mother of the Christ life we possess. We are all created to the image and likeness of Christ and in his resurrection he makes Mary the mother of the Christ life in all of us.

Study
When the Spirit of Christ is sent into our hearts, the “Abba, Father!” cry of our hearts is the cry of sonship that is the basis of our relationship to Mary as our Mother and thus the Mother of the Church. Mary has a mother’s love for all of us. It behooves us to claim Mary as our mother too in all the richness of what motherhood means.

Action
Our action should be worship and exultation that with Mary as our Mother, we belong to God even as she does. We are heirs of the kingdom of God and all the ways we celebrate our relationship to Christ has the logic of children saying thanks to their mother for the wonderful thing she has done for us by being mother of God’s Son. Even as Christ belongs in a special way to Mary, she belongs to us as the mother dear.