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The
beginning of the New Year is, for many people, a time that is ripe for
making resolutions about how these people will commit themselves to
improving their lives.
Most of
these New Year’s resolutions have to do with health and diet. In
fact, fitness centers love when New Year’s Day arrives because it’s
the time of year when fitness centers see their largest increases in
membership. Some resolutions have to do with financial status. At
the previous year’s end, some people make adjustments to the family
budget resolving to commit themselves to cut back on non-necessities
that take a healthy chunk out of disposable income and leave little
cash available to meet other, unforeseen and sometimes more pressing needs.
Other New Year’s resolutions have to do with relationships. Some
people contemplate the quality of their lives during the past year
and, where they believe the quality could be improved, resolve to
commit themselves to overcome the barriers to improved
relationships.
Sadly,
as the New Year unfolds, most people don’t stick with their New
Year’s resolutions!
Why not,
you may be wondering?
One
reason is that, when confronted with the harsh reality concerning
what these resolutions require personally, many people convince
themselves that they don’t have the strength of will or enough
personal discipline to follow through on their resolutions. So,
before long, these people stop visiting the fitness centers,
overspend their budgets, or decide to “let sleeping dogs lie.”
Another
reason many people don’t stick with their New Year’s resolutions is
due to complacency. After all, being complacent is bliss! Isn’t it
more comfortable sticking to the status quo than it is to engage
fully in self-change, even necessary self-change? Who of us really
wants to get out of bed early on a cold morning and traipse over to
a fitness center to work out before the sun even rises? Doesn’t spending
an extra hour in a warm bed make much better sense? Who of us
really wants to give up all of those conveniences, you know, those
little things we know we don’t really need but which make our lives
so much more pleasant? Doesn’t “splurging” a little “here and
there” on a little of “this do-dad and that do-jiggy” make much more sense than
always having to say
“No” to oneself?
And, when confronted with having to straighten out a relationship by
apologizing and amending our ways, who among us is really enjoys
sucking up pride and eating humble pie? Isn’t it much easier just
to avoid opening old wounds?
Personal
cost and complacency are two pretty powerful reasons that explain
why many people don’t keep their New Year’s resolutions for very
long.
But,
there’s yet a third reason. It falls under the category “Lack of
Commitment.” People who fit into this category ought just to
be honest and name themselves “Mr. (or Mrs.) Great Idea...But No Follow Through.”
While
many of us may enjoy toying with the idea of improving our overall
health, financial condition, or relationships—each of which is a
very good idea—the fact is that, as the days, weeks, and months of
the New Year quickly pass us by, our Regis Philbin’s “Who Wants
to Be a Millionaire?” absolutely final decision is that these things really
aren’t really worth the effort we now realize each
really requires. So, come early March, the same thing happens
this New Year that happened the last New Year and the previous New
Year as well and was the case in most New Years past. Almost all of
us become complacent because we’re really not all
that committed to our resolutions!
“Be it
done unto me according to your word,” Mary resolved to the angel,
Gabriel, when he announced that God would conceive His only begotten
Son in Mary.
It was a
resolution that
changed not only Mary’s
life but that of all human history as well,
ushering in not a New Year but
a new chapter in all of salvation history.
It’s
easy to downplay the commitment that Mary’s resolution required of
her, in much the same way we downplay the commitment we make when
making our New Year’s
resolutions. Moreover, maybe we downplay Mary’s commitment so
that we don’t have to commit ourselves to our own resolutions.
First,
Mary would have to hope and trust that her husband, Joseph, wouldn’t
divorce her and that her family members wouldn’t disown Mary as
well. Facing the likelihood that she would be divorced and disowned
required a considerable commitment on Mary’s part if she was going
to fulfill her resolution. And so, trusting wholly in God, Mary
unveiled the plain truth to Joseph and to her family members. “Mary
is pregnant. Given human nature, I can understand that,” they
might think. But, when Mary would say, “By God’s will…conceived
through the power of the Holy Spirit”...that would be incomprehensible! Can you imagine any
fiancé or family member buying that explanation?
Second,
following his birth, Mary would have to follow through on raising
God’s only begotten Son.
Now,
let’s face some facts. Most mothers find it difficult enough just
to raise normal and healthy sons. Many other mothers find themselves
terrified of making a mistake in raising their sons! If you don’t
believe me, just ask Dr. Phil or Dr. Laura.
Where,
then, was Mary to turn if she was to avoid making a “really big
mistake” in raising God’s only begotten Son? Who wrote the
manual with those instructions? Who possessed the
requisite knowledge and experience to provide Mary advice about what
she should do? Well, there was nobody. So, to fulfill her
resolution to be the Mother of God required commitment, namely, Mary
had to trust that God would reveal to her what Mary needed to do if
she was to raise the Son of God successfully. That’s it. End of
story. A commitment to trust God, no if’s, and’s, or but’s about
it.
Third,
think about all of the things that teenager sons say to their
mothers that just plain don’t make any sense whatsoever. Wary moms
suddenly feel a burst of energy rising from the pit of their
stomachs and moving into their right forearms as the desire to smack
their sons silly for saying those nonsensical things almost comes to
fruition!
Just the
other day, for example, we heard about an American-born teenage son
of Iraqi immigrant parents who lives in California. A high school
football player who aspires to be a journalist, the teenager used his savings to
pay for a trip to Iraq because he wanted to learn first-hand about
and to report the toll the war was taking on the Iraqi people.
Forget the fact that young fellow couldn’t speak a word of Arabic or that he
disobeyed his parents really big time by not telling them what he
was doing or where he was going. He didn’t
travel just across town or to Las Vegas! He traveled overseas
to a war zone!
What’s a
mother to do?
Mary’s
son once got lost once, too, well sort of “lost,” when he stayed
behind in Jerusalem teaching the rabbis and learned scholars of the
Law in the Temple instead of coming along with his parents as they
headed back to Nazareth after taking part in the census in
capital city of Jerusalem. When they finally found their son and Mary asked Jesus
why he did this, Jesus responded by asking Mary, “Didn’t you know I had
to be about my father’s business?” as if that was explanation
enough. It took real commitment to keep that energy stirring
in the
pit of Mary’s stomach from moving into her right forearm as the
desire to smack Jesus silly for saying that nonsense. Her commitment was to trust that Jesus—the only
begotten Son of God—was indeed doing his Father’s will and
not, shall we say, dishing out a plate of bovine excrement for his
mother to eat.
Then,
there’s the Way of the Cross.
With the
help of her husband, Joseph, it appears that Mary got it right in
raising her son who, by the way, really was the Son of God.
Evidently, Jesus matured into a deeply religious man and was a
pretty smart one, too, one the Jewish people very much respected
because they called him “Rabbi,” meaning, “Teacher.” The real
rabbis and the scholars of the Law, however, didn’t particularly
like what Jesus taught in the Temple on the Sabbath, especially as
it concerned the primacy of fulfilling the spirit of the law. The
people stirred things up a bit with their comments that Jesus taught with “authority” and not like
those others do. Jesus’ popularity with the Jewish people
eventually infuriated the rabbis and scholars of the Law because their power
base in the Jewish community had deep roots in that the people
viewed them as the experts in interpreting the letter of the law.
So, the rabbis and scholars of the law conspired with the High
Priest. In their minds, at least, there was no other way to deal with Jesus.
He had to be put to death.
For
those who have seen Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ,
the Passion was an awful and terrifying experience and not just for Jesus but also
for his mother, Mary. Watching on from the sidelines, Mary was
helpless; nothing she could do would stop the inevitable from
unfolding. It started with the scourging, then carrying the Cross
up to Mount Golgotha, and finally, being crucified. Walking beside
her son all along the Way of the Cross and standing at the foot of
his Cross as Jesus breathed his last took commitment not only to her
son but also commitment to God who entrusted His only begotten Son
to Mary. How could all of this have been part of the “package
deal”?
St.
Luke tells us in today’s gospel that Mary “treasured all these
things and reflected on them in her heart.” While they may have
made no sense at the time, Mary remained committed to God and to
doing God’s will come what may.
Through
it all, Mary stuck with her resolution to be the Mother of God. She
allowed herself and her life to be changed. At each step along the
very long way of fulfilling her resolution, Mary possessed the strength of character to
keep with it, despite the fear she experienced as the challenges, tests, and
the death of her son confronted Mary. Furthermore, Mary wasn’t
complacent as things in her life constantly changed during those years
when her son
matured in grace and wisdom before God and humanity. What seemed
like a good idea—to say
“Yes”
to God’s
invitation to be the Mother of God’s
only begotten Son—Mary
determined the effort would be worth it and she committed herself to it.
She didn’t back down, back out, or regret her decision when things
didn’t work out as perhaps she had hoped. No, her commitment was
entirely uncomplicated: “Be it done unto me according to your
word.” Mary’s
“I do” really meant “I do.” There was no with caveat appended
to her fiat,
“as long as I am happy.”
In the
end, most of our New Year’s resolutions are entirely meaningless
because they are basically selfish, having to do with ourselves
rather than God. Whether we keep those resolutions or don’t
keep them won’t make any difference at
all
in terms either of this world or of God’s eternity.
But, when we resolve to love God and to do God’s will, that will
make a difference…in fact, it will all the difference both in this
world and in God’s
eternity. “I do” really means “I do.”
Let us
not forget, however, that before jumping in headfirst and making a
resolution by which our lives will make all the difference in the
world and in God’s
eternity as well,
we’d best ponder the real life and what
Mary’s
resolution of her to actually be the Mother of God. In Mary, we
will discover the inner, spiritual resources we will need—that
is, if we are going to remain committed—when challenges, tests, and
even death look us square in the eye. |
HOMILY
