On this feast day of Mary, Mother of God, I’d Like to reflect on 3 words from the Gospel. The first is “haste”, the second is “amazed”, and the third is “reflecting”.
First, the shepherds went in haste to Bethlehem and found Mary and Joseph. I think whenever we know God’s purpose for us, or God’s plan for us, there’s a desire in our hearts to do it, and to do it right away. When the shepherds knew the message that was given to them, they went in haste to Bethlehem and found Mary and Joseph. They didn’t delay it, they didn’t take their time. They went with a deliberateness about them. They went in haste to go there. I think it’s important, first of all, that we think about that. Ultimately, God does call us to things in life. When he does call us to them, it is important that we answer, and that we actually respond in haste. That we do it right away.
The one thing we are all called to in this life is a vocation. Our primary vocation is holiness: to know God in this life, to love God in this life, to serve Him in this life and to be with him in the next. I think in this new year, it’s good to reflect on are you living that vocation?, and are you doing so in haste?, are you doing it immediately, right away? Are you living your vocation of holiness?
The second vocation, and some of you may already have your vocation, the vocation we are called to in life, one of the four, is single life, married life, religious life, or priesthood. If you already do know your vocation, if you’re living your vocation, think about that – are you doing it in haste, are you striving to live your vocation as best as you can? If you are married, are you being the best husband or wife you can? If you are a religious nun or brother, are you being the best religious you can be for your community? If you are a single person, and God has called you to the single life, are you truly living that vocation with generosity and giving and serving the rest of the world in a special way that only single people can do? And finally, priesthood: of course, I have to reflect on this all the time – am I being the priest that God called me to be?
If you know your vocation, are you living it? Are you doing it in haste? Are you doing it with a great urgency and importance? If you don’t know your vocation, I think it’s important too to discover your vocation and also to have that sense of urgency about it. Because, when you discover your vocation, your whole life is going to make sense, your whole life is going to have meaning and purpose. You’re going to discover that joy and wonder that God wants for you. In this new year, if you don’t know what your vocation is, and I think the difficulty is people too often jump into one vocation without really discerning it. So, I think the modus operandi is every thinks marriage is what we’re supposed to be, but no, only some people are called to marriage. We know that actually half of marriages end in divorce right now and I really believe it’s because haven’t really discerned their call. Don’t jump into marriage unless you really feel called to it. Think about what God is calling you to, one of those four vocations. Is He calling you to the married life, and if He is, then yes, go in haste towards it. But He may be calling you to single life. I think, so often, people that are called to single life avoid really embracing that vocation and living it and hastily running towards whatever God’s calling them to do in life. Maybe He’s calling you to religious life, to be a sister or a brother. If you know that deep down He’s calling you, don’t wait any longer. Go in haste and run towards this wonderful Christ, this child that is waiting for you. And priesthood, too – I know in my in my own life, I delayed, I waited, waited, waited. When I finally knew I was supposed to do it, I went in haste and there was no turning back. If you don’t know your vocation, ask God right now, “What are you calling me to?” If you already have that sense of Him calling you to a vocation, and you’ve been putting it off, go in haste and answer it now. Mother Teresa always said that we have a vocation within a vocation. If you already know what your vocation is, if you’re married, if you’re a priest, if you’re a sister or a nun, or if you’re single, within that vocation God is calling you to some special purpose in this world. Maybe you know that. I know people that do know it and you do, we go in haste because we want to fulfill that vocation. If you’re not sure what that is, or still kind of discerning that, ask God, “What do you want of me?” “What is my call within the call?” Because, when you discover it, you will go in haste.
This leads us to the second word. So the first word was “haste” – going in haste whenever we know our purpose, the shepherds went in haste and they discovered Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem, and you, when you discover your purpose and you go in haste, you will discover Jesus.
The second word is “amazed.” That when we discover Jesus, we will be amazed. When we’re living in our vocation, we will be amazed. I was with a good family recently from my first parish and they were talking about her new year’s resolution that she wanted to take a moment every single day to be amazed by her husband and in each one of her children. That she actually wanted to stop throughout the day and just look them in the eyes and be amazed with wonder and awe at these miracles that God has placed into her life. I think that was such a beautiful resolution. It’s so important that we take the time to be amazed at what God is doing in our lives, in the people that God has placed into our lives, and the miracles that He’s working in our lives because, if we are living our vocation, if we have gone in haste to discover Bethlehem, Mary and Joseph and Jesus, we will be amazed. In this new year, allow yourself to be amazed.
Finally, the third word is “reflecting”. Mary, when she had heard all of this, and seen all of this, she kept all these things and reflected on them in her heart. That’s the final word I want to talk about and I think it’s also the most difficult one for us because reflecting takes time. It takes silence, and it takes a certain sense of slowing down. I just want you to think about that in the new year, this contemplative type of prayer, this meditative type of prayer. The Catechism says that prayer like this doesn’t just happen, it needs a determined choice of time and duration of the will. We actually need to choose the time and duration to do this. I would just invite you, maybe this will be your new year’s resolution, to take some time every single day just to reflect on what God is doing in your life. I’m going to give you some practical ways to do this in a moment, but I just want you to think about that – First of all, Mary, when she experienced the birth of her son, Jesus, the mother of God into the world, and the shepherds came and everybody was amazed, and I’m sure everybody went away, at some point, Mary kept all these things in her heart, and she reflected on them. It’s important for all of us to reflect on what God is doing in our lives.
If you haven’t made a new year’s resolution yet, I just want to give you a couple of ideas. You don’t have to make a new year’s resolution, but sometimes it’s just wonderful to do it. The first thing I would say is make your resolution first of all to discover your vocation. When you discover your vocation, to make haste, to go towards that vocation with all your heart, your mind and your soul. The second thing is to be amazed at the people in your life, at the wonders of what God is doing in your life. The third thing is to reflect on what God is doing in your life. And I think again, because that third part, reflecting is so hard for us, I just want give you some ideas and examples, and you don’t have to do all of these, but maybe do something.
I think wonderful ways for us to reflect are anytime that we pray in silence. What I think is so amazing, is that when Angel Gabriel first came to Mary, where was she? She was in her room, right there in her room. When the Angel came to Joseph, in the dream, where was he? He was in his bed, in his room. In Scripture we hear, “when you pray, go to your inner room and close the door”. Maybe that could be your resolution: that every day of this year, you go to your room and you close the door and spend some time in reflecting. Now the saints traditionally say that should be a holy hour, that we spend a holy hour with God, but maybe for you that’s not practical, and maybe for you it’s a holy half hour or a holy fifteen minutes, or at least a holy five minutes. Just that you go in to your room and close the door for five minutes. I know some mothers, where the bathroom is their place where they pray. They go into the bathroom and they close the door and they pray. It could also be your car, while you’re driving, just turn off the music for five minutes or ten minutes and reflect. I know one family that they actually make a holy hour together, this is from my last parish. They make a holy hour together as a family, the littlest child- it’s his job to set the timer and they all spend an hour in silence. The whole family does it and they have a family with like seven kids and they’re all able to do it, it’s amazing. But they spend time reflecting.
I think, too, our cell phones, we can get so attached to these, so it might be good just to put your phones away, to turn your phones off. Maybe even overnight. I know one mother, where their phones are all charging in the kitchen, do they don’t take their phones to their inner room, to their bedroom, because it kind of a sacred place. I think Eucharistic Adoration is good too. If you can find a place with Eucharistic Adoration, a place where you can go, and even if there isn’t Eucharist Adoration, where you can just go and pray before the tabernacle, pray in front of the Blessed Sacrament. Maybe make a holy hour once a week and do that. Another wonderful way is the Examen Prayer, so if you haven’t heard of that App, that I have the Examen Prayer App, that’s a wonderful way to reflect. St. Ignatius said it is the most important prayer that we can do every day, the best way we can reflect every day is to pray the Examen Prayer. If you’re not sure about how to pray that, you can either go to the website and do that or you can download the App that I have on the Examen Prayer. I think above all is just to make sure that are answering the call. That we know what God is calling us to in this life, that when we do know the call, that we make haste. That we do it, we run to it with all of our heart, of our mind, out soul. The second thing that we are truly amazed at what God is doing in our life, and finally, that we do take time to reflect.
So on this feast day of Mary, Mother of God, and on this first day of the new year, I just invite you do this. To make a resolution to make haste to your vocation, to be amazed, and to take the time to reflect.