Luke 2:16-21 NRSVue
16So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the child lying in the manger. 17When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child, 18and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them, 19and Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. 20The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just as it had been told them.
21When the eighth day came, it was time to circumcise the child, and he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.
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Reflection on Luke 2:16-21
Inspiration from 2027-01-01 Daily Prayer
Today, the first day of a new year, we reflect on Mary. Strangers are hurrying to see her new baby and telling her great things about him, and we are told that Mary treasures and ponders on these events. These early days of Jesus’ life would be forever ingrained in her heart, and she must have reflected back on this special time many times over the years.
The shepherds who encountered Jesus were also changed by this moment of grace, carrying the good news with them. As we make a fresh start this year, let us take time to listen, to treasure and to ponder. May we bring the grace of this Christmas season back into our daily lives in the coming weeks and beyond.
Further reflection
We start the year, as we start our life, under the protection of a mother. Mary is mother of God - it took the Christian church three hundred years to become clear about this – and our mother too. Sartre imagines Mary meditating in Bethlehem:
/I think that there are rapid, fleeting moments when Mary realises at once that Jesus is her son, her very own baby, and that he is God. She looks at him and thinks: This God is my baby. This divine flesh is my flesh. He is made from me. He has my eyes, and the curve of his mouth is the curve of mine. He is like me. He is God and he is like me./
/No other woman has been lucky enough to have a God for herself alone, a tiny little God whom she can take in her arms and cover with kisses, a warm-bodied God who smiles and breathes, a God that she can touch, who is alive. And it is in these moments that I would paint Mary, if I was a painter, and I would try to capture the air of radiant tenderness and timidity with which she lifts her finger to touch the sweet skin of her baby-God, whose warm weight she feels on her knees, and who smiles./
We are named and loved by God before birth. From the moment of conception we are named in the mind and love of God just as Jesus was. We carry that love through life. In prayer you might repeat your baptismal - or ‘Christian' - name like a mantra, and allow God's choice of you fill that name with thanks, love and commitment. Happy new year!
We are named and loved by God before birth. From the moment of conception we are named in the mind and love of God just as Jesus was. We carry that love through life. In prayer you might repeat your baptismal - or ‘Christian' - name like a mantra, and allow God's choice of you fill that name with thanks, love and commitment. Happy new year!