Lk 2:41-52
Dear Friends.
It is important to cast off the plastic-statue image of Mary to discover her true beauty in the many trials in her life. She was not walking through life with a pre-arranged script. For her, as for us, life is a long, searching struggle passing through the confusion and brokenness of reality.
One of my favorite authors offered a great insight into the humanity of Mary in his description the family at Nazareth.
In the beginning there was the isolation of an overwhelmed pregnant teenager and a betrothed man who felt rejected. The birth of the child was encompassed in poverty and political intrigue. At the presentation the mother received the warning of great suffering to come. The family became political refugees in a foreign country. On their return, they were uprooted again because of fear and insecurity. The young teenager drove the parents to desperation as he began to clarify his identity in the Temple. The mother was confused by her son’s apparent indifference at Cana. Then she continued to be befuddled as his activities were in such conflict with the traditions of the village and family. He even held others as his true mother. Then he was rejected and executed in the height of his popularity. She was handed over to someone outside the family at the moment of his excruciating death.
Truly, Mary had no idea what the angel’s message had in store for her. On the other hand, most families cope with these kinds of disruptions totally unexpected turmoil. It is a demanding to walk the journey in faithful love within the confines of a broken and sinful humanity.
Love demands that the family be both the source of identity and the source of independence. This holds the seeds of the “road to Jerusalem” for all family members.
Mary surely did not comprehend the full consequences of her “Be it done unto me according to your word” (Lk1:38). Yet, she lived life with the continuing openness to the mystery of God’s presence in life. For Mary, as for us, that loving presence starts and is supported by our relations in family. We need to believe and trust that God uses the power of the intimate relations within the family in all their human frailty to be a birthplace of life and love. By its very nature, the family in all its complexities is the font of the deepest love and the most consuming wounds. It is a special place to encounter God continuing to take flesh in our midst. Only love opens it up to be origin of true life and joy.
Today is not a day to bemoan all the difficulties and burdens of family life. Rather, this feast challenges each family to be open to the ever-new horizons that are the gift of family life. Whether it is the first diaper or the first day in the nursing home, it is a mystery that only opens to its true beauty with love and self-sacrifice. Mary understood the depth of this wonder no matter what her circumstances. She again is our model of the true disciple in her simplicity of truly human life lived in love and self-giving.
