Mary, Mother of God C. January 1, 2010. Our Lady of Grace 5:15, 9:30. Numbers 6:22-27.
Galatians 4: 4-7. Luke 2: 16-21.
Almost from the beginning of the Church, men and woman have
gone off by themselves to live in the desert or in other uninhabited places to
seek God’s kingdom and a holy way of life. Some would say that they were
running away from an evil world. The world in which they lived was
certainly evil. There has always been evil in the world in every
age. At the Last Supper Jesus prayed, “Father, I do not ask that you
take them out of the world. I pray that you keep them from evil.” (John
17:15) The primary reason that the monks and nuns left the bigger society in
which they lived was not to run away from evil – no, they went into the desert
to deal with the evil in their own hearts. Let me say this again, monks
and nuns in the past and today leave the bigger society not to run from it but
to deal with the evil in their own hearts.
Jesus said, “The
What happened to Tiger Woods? He was on the top of the
world in golf, in reputation and financially. He also had a wife and two
children. Sexuality is a great gift. It opens us up to a life-long
relationship called marriage, to family life, and to deep and chaste
relationships with many people. When lust takes over our hearts it makes
us more than a little crazy, often destroying our ability to love deeply and to
be faithful to the key people in our lives. Lust is a great sin, not
because sexuality is bad, but because hearts that go mad in the area of
sexuality end up doing crazy things that upset and destroy their lives.
People around us can tempt us, but only our hearts make the choices that bring
us happiness or ruin in the area of sexuality.
What happened to Tom Petters,
Denny Heckert or Bernie Madoff?
Material things are good. We are blessed with possessions that help us to
lead a good life and allow us to share that good life with others. When
possessions begin to control our hearts so that we are doing harmful, dangerous
and destructive things, then our hearts have become a source of evil, not good
in our lives. Why do people want more money than they could spend in ten
lifetimes? People may make it easy for us to cheat and steal, but only
our hearts make the choices that make us happy or very sad. Petters, Heckert and Madoff will probably spend a total of two hundred years in
jail – if they live that long. In the end it was not the evil world that
made them who they are – it was their own hearts.
One of the strongest teachings of the desert monks and nuns
is that we should never give in to anger. Anger is a poison that can
destroy and infect every aspect of a person’s life. Our desert mothers
and fathers teach that we should never act even out of anger, even out of
justifiable anger. Anger so easily gets out of control and goes beyond
what we see as justifiable. We should indeed confront evil and fight
evil, but always out of love. Love always elevates our hearts and
makes them better. It never destroys and poisons our hearts the way that
anger does.
The monks and nuns teach us that pride very easily leads
toward thinking of ourselves as the center of the universe. While we
should have good self-esteem, our eternal value as human beings rests on God’s
goodness and gifts to us, not on our fascination with ourselves. Hearts
that give thanks and praise to God are healthy, happy hearts. Hearts that
are stuck on themselves eventually find only
unhappiness in their inadequacy.
Several times during the Christmas story the gospel reminds
us that “Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart.”
Mary’s joy and peace came not from a world that was very cruel to her and her
son. Mary’s joy came from the grace and goodness of God that she
constantly invited into her heart.
I suggest that the best New Year’s Resolutions are not about
the world around us or even success in the world. The best New Year’s
Resolutions involve what we chose to cherish in our hearts. Are our
hearts free in the areas of sexuality, material things, pride, anger and other
things? What we cherish in our hearts will shape the New Year more than
anything that happens to us. May we imitate Mary in cherishing good
things in our hearts. Grace-filled hearts are the
doorway to the