A Resolution

Gospel: Luke 2: 16-21

What is said about Mary is said about the Church and all her members.  In today's Gospel we find a phrase that will be repeated again of Mary in the Gospel: "Mary treasured all these things, and pondered them in her heart." Here we have the model of true discipleship.  It is for us a model of being Church, a model of engaging in liturgy, and a model in doing theology, and a model of being a disciple.  

Mary has received the mystery; she has borne it in her being; and she brings it forth into the world  in humility to the poor and to outsiders.  She has witnessed all sorts of things, and she treasures them and ponders them in her heart.  She does not engage others in polemic, nor engage in apologetic or ostentatious liturgical display.  Mary simply treasures them and ponders them.  She honors the mystery with her silence and her presence.  

What Mary has modeled in her life so we must do.  We too have received the mystery and have been invited to bear it and bring it forth into the world to the poor and to outsiders.  We are to encounter all sorts of marvelous things, and to treasure them and ponder them, honoring them with our presence and our silence.  We do not honor the mystery with empire, apologetic, media conglomerates or cottage industries.  We honor it as Mary did.  Let this imitation of her be our New Year's resolution.