“We know of those events only because a mother pondered them in her heart and chose to share them with her Son’s disciples.” (Scott Hahn, “Joy to the World”).
The Christmas and New Year season is behind us and we have some months to come before the celebrations of Easter where we will be able to extend our relationships with our families…
I have been reflecting on the relationships of family over the last few days, as I have reflected on the words of the Gospel according to Saint Luke…
“But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.” (Luke 2:19).
And later Saint Luke wrote…
“Then He went down to Nazareth with them and was obedient to them. But His mother treasured all these things in her heart.” (Luke 2:51).
These couple of short sentences may not seem very significant, and yet, I find them startling in their simplicity.
You see, the things that we know about Christ are – in part – things that His disciples were told by His Blessed Mother, and I find this very profound. For God is ALL POWERFUL and this means that He surely had ANY possible way to communicate this information to the disciples of Christ. And yet – Christ did not tell them of the Prophesy of Simeon, and He did not tell them of the days when He was lost and then found in the Temple… Christ – God Himself – left that for His Mother to do after He had died and risen again…
And that makes me think of the significance of such a choice. After all – though Luke was not an apostle who knew Christ during His life – Christ had other apostles who He spent almost all His time with over a period of years during His public ministry. During those years and within that time Christ could have easily told them whatever He wished to know. And yet – He chose not to say anything at all…
Instead, He left that conversation to someone else in His family because He trusted that person and He trusted that relationship - not because they were strong in themselves, but because they completely surrendered their will to His Holy Will…
And it is upon this that I have been reflecting.
Scott Hahn in his book, “Joy to the World” wrote, “Jesus did not come into this world alone. He came into this world by way of a family, and He brought us salvation so that we could share membership in the family of God. That is the very meaning of salvation and the meaning of Christmas: ‘But to all who received Him, who believed in His name, He gave power to become children of God’ (John 1:12) – God’s sons and daughters, members of His family…”
And this makes everything so much clearer to me. Because the events of the first Christmas turned on the decisions of Saint Joseph – husband and father – and Our Lady – a wife and mother.
And in the words of Scott Hahn in his book “Joy to the World”, “We know of those events only because a mother pondered them in her heart and chose to share them with her Son’s disciples.”
For God trusted His family so much that He left them work to do – even after He was no longer with them…
And my greatest prayer is to be able to surrender my Will to His Holy Will so that He can trust me too…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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