Luke 2: 16-21 – Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God (Audio Bible, Spoken Word)
16 And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.
17 And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.
18 And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.
19 But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.
20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.
21 And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called JESUS, which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb.
We discover in these verses of the Bible two distinct and complementary impulses which are at work in our relationship with God, exemplified by the shepherds and by Mary.
The shepherds are the first to hear the good news about the birth of Jesus, proclaimed to them by angels, as heaven bows toward Earth, in order to include and redeem the Earth. It was to a shepherd, Abraham, that God gave his promise to save mankind. In Jesus’ time, the shepherds were marginal people, disrespected by mainstream society because they lived with the animals for which they cared. The incarnation, the key event in the history of mankind and our salvation, takes place in a sense very quietly indeed – though the shepherds experiencing the presence of the army of angels might have thought otherwise! God’s love so often comes to us on the periphery and as we least expect it to be made manifest in our lives.
The shepherds are full of joy and are eager to see the Lord. Their sense of God is not passive; rather they respond most actively, in haste, longing to find what has been announced to them. Theirs is a living faith. We may recall how Mary went with haste to see Elizabeth, when Mary had first received news that she was chosen by God to bear Jesus.
The testimony of the shepherds carries great conviction. The shepherds tell of what they have seen and heard and all who hear what they have to say are filled with wonder. The shepherds glorify and praise God. The most improbable people have found in the most improbable place the deliverance all Israel has long prayed and waited for. The people are in awe at the mystery of the Incarnation.
Mary’s response to the visit of the shepherds is of great serenity and gives to us a model of prayer and contemplation. Mary keeps these things, and ponders them in her heart. Here is silence and wisdom. Struck with the enormity of what is happening, Mary centres herself in a quiet space, showing great respect to the Lord and respect for His plans for us, at the heart of which our Lady has found herself.
We are invited through the reading of these verses to imitate both the shepherds and Mary, to rush toward Jesus and give powerful witness to the wonderful news, that God has saved us, and to keep these truths close by us and ponder them in our hearts. There is great energy and prayerful contemplation in balance. We discover that God is with us.
God, our Father,
since you gave mankind a saviour through blessed Mary,
virgin and mother,
grant that we may feel the power of her intercession
when she pleads for us with Jesus Christ, your Son,
the author of life,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
God, for ever and ever.
Saint Augustine addresses the duty of pastors to speak the truth even when that truth provokes resistance, and he warns the flock to distinguish between authoritative teaching and faulty example. He draws on Ezekiel’s imagery of negligent shepherds and on the watchman motif (Ezekiel 3:17–21): a pastor who fails to warn sinners bears responsibility for their ruin; a pastor who speaks the prophetic word but the people ignore it has done his duty [ … ]
The poem is an introspective dialogue in which Herbert contemplates a tension between worldly values and divine realities. The poem opens with an expression of disdain for the superficial trappings of honour, wealth, and beauty. These are dismissed as transient, ‘fair dust’ that, despite their allure, amount to no more than ‘gilded clay’ or ‘fine grass or hay’. This imagery diminishes worldly achievements and possessions, positioning them beneath Herbert’s spiritual footing as something to be trodden upon rather than exalted [ … ]
As they travel on the way to Jerusalem, Jesus throws his disciples into confusion by telling them about the suffering and death he must undergo. The disciples simply do not understand. For centuries, the Jews have awaited the coming of the Messiah, whom they envisaged as a glorious warrior king, not as one who would suffer and die the most ignominious of deaths, on a cross, of all things. A person condemned to die on a cross could not be the Messiah; rather, according to the Old Law, he had to be “cursed by God” (Deuteronomy 21: 22-23). The disciples cannot see the divine plan for our salvation, while the command for all who would be saved to ‘take up his cross and follow me’ must have seemed both strange and terrifying. To reassure his disciples, Jesus allows them to witness his glorious body through the transfiguration [ … ]
