Holy Family

27 December [Holy Family] Lk 2:41-52 Homily - Fr. Aelred After the visit of the shepherds to the manger St. Luke tells us that ‘Mary treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart’. And at the end of today’s Gospel Luke again says, ‘Mary stored up all these things in her heart’. Mary kept the memory of these events in her heart with a view of discerning the hidden meaning behind the marvellous happenings that she was caught up in. Mary didn’t immediately fully understand the meaning of what was happening to her and what God was asking of her. But that’s how it always is. Profound lived experience always begins with some perplexity. We don’t know at the time what is happening to us. It’s only afterwards, perhaps long afterwards, that our eyes are opened and we begin to understand. Hence, the importance of reflection. More than once we read the Gospels that Mary was perplexed. So what did she do? She pondered, reflected and prayed, seeking to understand what was happening to her and her Son. Mary comes across in the Gospels as a silent, reflective person who all her life pondered and prayed over how God dealt with her. It sometimes happens with us that we have an experience but miss the meaning of it because we don’t reflect on it. But with reflection, we can derive precious insights from our experiences. It’s easy to recall pleasant experiences, but not so easy to recall painful ones. We are tempted to suppress our painful memories. Even so, they can still influence us, lying beneath the surface. In fact, they can be the root cause of a lot of poison in our lives. So we need to recall our painful experiences too: it’s how we recall them that matters. They can provide the raw material from which we derive understanding, compassion and wisdom. When Jesus got lost in Jerusalem it was a painful and anxious time for Mary. Yet she stored the memory in her heart, and by so doing, learned from it. There are unreflective people who seem to learn little from experience. But for others experience is the real fruit of much pondering. Parents need a lot of wisdom. What Mary learned from her praying and pondering she passed on to her child, who St. Luke tells us, ‘increased in wisdom, in stature, and in favour with God and men’. Jesus was taught, nourished, and formed by a wise woman who loved God with all her heart and soul.