It's another beautiful Saturday morning, and we love Saturdays for a number of reasons. I think personally, it's the Passover Old Testament ramifications of the day of rest and how that transitioned into the day of the Lord being Sunday.
I think most of all, it's because it's the day we dedicate to our splendid and incredible and Most Holy Mother Mary. Every Saturday, we honour our Blessed Mother Mary.
In today's first reading from Saint Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians, we hear him say to the Church in Thessalonica this beautiful phrase of encouragement; “We urge you, brothers and sisters, to progress even more and to aspire to live a tranquil life, to mind your own affairs, and to work with your own hands.”
Saint Paul is talking about how we can live in a world of a lot of noise and distractions and things that alienate us from God. We chatter and we discuss things and we talk and talk and talk and sometimes that turns into gossip. These are sins that we're trying to avoid.
Saint Paul is saying, “… rather, you live a tranquil life. Look after yourself. Mind your own business…” , so to speak, “… Try to live in more silence and more of a spirit of contemplation,” right?
And no one teaches us best about contemplation more than our Blessed Mother Mary. You know, Saint Augustine once said of Mary's silence that “… She conceived in Her heart before She conceived in Her womb.”
Her silence is the sign of Her interiority – Pondering and treasuring the Word of God to Her. In Her heart, She marveled over the beautiful things God was doing in Her life, and through Her all the beautiful things God was doing for each and every one of us, by bringing forth Jesus into the world under Her maternal care.
Saint Ambrose notes that Mary is presented in the Gospels as modest and reserved, “not forward in speech, but rich in deeds.”
Not forward in speech, but rich in deeds. Right. In fact, there’s very little that She says in Scripture: Behold the handmaid of the Lord; Son why have you done this, your father and I have been anxiously looking for you. The Magnificat. Do as He tells you.
Those are Her last words in the scriptures. “Do as he tells you”. And that's what She's always indicated throughout time, throughout the rest of Her earthly journey, She encouraged the apostles with these words and anyone She encountered. But, even in Her apparitions, when God so deigned out of his mercy to send Her to the world when She's appeared to children all over the world, Her one message is: do what Jesus tells you. No wiser words, no better counsel, nothing which will help us more in this life and bring us to the next – to do as Jesus tells us.
Notice in Fatima the great sign that everybody was waiting for to prove that She was sent by God. The sign was the sun! She pointed to the sun, which is, of course, a symbol of the Son of God. Right? He is the “Sun”. Our Blessed Mother? the symbol of our Blessed Mother is the moon, which reflects the light of the sun. Right? What did She do at Fatima? She points through the clouds and they part and they reveal the splendid sun which moves in the sky, and then it descends upon them. They thought it was the end of the world, but then it reverts into its original place. That's very meaningful, very symbolic of Jesus, who came down from heaven, right? The Son of God, who descended from heaven. But then after his death, his passion, out of great love for us, he ascended. He reverted back into the original glory that he had with the Father and the Holy Spirit from all eternity.
My dear brothers and sisters, let us ponder these beautiful things in our hearts.
And when the Lord speaks to us in our own lives, let us keep silence.
Let us spend time in his presence, not speaking so many words, but trying to open our hearts and the ears of our hearts so that we can allow the Lord to speak to us for he wishes to convey to us something very important always: that he loves us – That you are his daughter, his precious beloved daughter. That you are his treasured son. And for you, he has done all things.
Our lady Queen of peace, grant that we may be given peace in our own hearts, in our own families, and in our world. Amen.
Add comment
Comments