NEW YEAR’S DAY – THE SOLEMNITY OF MARY, MOTHER OF GOD

Happy New Year!

There is a story about an unfortunate guy who called his girlfriend to wish her a Happy New Year.  He got her voicemail with the following recorded message, “I’m not available right now, but thank you for calling. I am making some changes this New Year.  Please leave a message after the beep.  If I do not return your call, you are one of the changes.”

My great nephew and great niece, who enjoy skiing and snowboarding, had never seen the popular 1975 movie, The Other Side of the Mountain, so we watched it together the other night.

The film is based on the real-life story of an 18-year-old American downhill ski champion, Jill Kinmont. 

In 1955, she was expected to easily make the U.S. Ski Team for the 1956 Winter Olympics.  However, during a high-speed giant slalom race in Utah, she took a serious and near-fatal fall, severely damaging her spinal cord.   The incident left her paralyzed from the neck down.

After months and months of painful rehabilitation, she was finally able to move her right arm.  Someone called her boyfriend and told him a miracle happened. He came immediately with high expectations and great anticipation to view the miracle for himself.

When he arrived, Jill moved her arm to a bowl of potato chips that was on her lap and lodged a chip in between two immovable fingers.

Her boyfriend just stared at her and then asked, “When are you going to show me the miracle?   I thought the miracle was that you were going to walk.  Is that it? You can pick up a potato chip?”

At that moment, he was blinded by his high expectations.  What for Jill was a triumphant achievement, picking up a potato chip without breaking it, was a huge disappointment to her boyfriend. 

She experienced the miraculous.  He missed it.

In our busy schedules, the miraculous is often missed:

• Walking on water is a miracle, but so is the walk.
• Seasonal changes are miracles, but so is every single day.
• Life itself is a miracle, but so is just taking a deep breath.
• Love and forgiveness are miracles that we give, and we receive.
• God's creation is a miracle, even if we don't take time to appreciate the world around us.

In the verses right before the start of today's gospel, the shepherds are visited by the angels.  They are told of the birth of Christ and decide to go to Bethlehem to see the Lord of Lords and King of Kings lying in a manger. Who knows what the shepherds expected to see? 

In today’s gospel, we read that, “The shepherds went in haste to Bethlehem and found Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the manger.”  What they found was an infant who certainly looked ordinary.  But they knew from the angels that this baby was a miracle, and they believed.  They experienced the miraculous and the ordinary.

Mary, like all mothers, miraculously gave birth to a baby boy.  But Mary's infant is also totally divine.  How does she believe that her son is the Lord of Lords and King of Kings?

The answer is found in today's gospel, “And Mary kept all of these things, reflecting on them in her heart.”   What things did Mary reflect on in her heart:

• Miraculous events such as the angelic Annunciation.
• Ordinary events such as the birth of her child in a stable.
• Joyous events such as the shepherds and kings coming to visit her newborn child.
• Painful events, such as the warning from Simeon that a sword would pierce her heart.

It takes time to reflect, to ponder and to be silent as we meditate on the miraculous events in our lives.  Your meditation can be as simple as asking yourself at the end of each day:

Where did I find Christ today?

How did I fail to behave like Christ today?

Today is the start of a New Year.  Rather than making a lengthy list of resolutions, resolve instead to ask yourself these two questions at the end of every day this year.

Have a Blessed and Happy New Year!