She “asked herself what this greeting could mean” (Lk 1:29)
Mary, a woman of contemplation
4th Sunday of Advent – Year B
As a priest it is not easy to separate your academic interests, your faith-life, and your ministry. At least I don’t find it that easy. In my current academic research for a PhD, I am studying the effect of Christian contemplative practice on recovery from addictive behaviour. Past few weeks I have been analysing the journal entries and interviews of some of the participants in the intervention-study that I conducted a few months back. The method of contemplation that I used is called ‘Jesus Prayer’ – it originated among the desert fathers and mothers in the 4th centuryEgypt, and is still very popular in the Greek and Russian Orthodox churches. It simply consists of repeating the prayer from the gospels: “Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner” (Mt 20:30; Mk 10:47; Lk 18:38). Prayer beads can be used, and the repetition of the sentence can be combined with breathing. I find a pattern in the interviews with the participants. There is a triple movement happening to those who contemplate: there is a journey towards God as He becomes more real to them; there is a journey inward to the self in terms of awareness and humility; and there is a journey towards others often desiring to forgive and reach out in compassion. What is amazing is that this deep awareness happens spontaneously without any sermon or theologising. It is transformative.
Mary, the woman of contemplation
The gospel text of this fourth Sunday of advent invites us to focus on Mary, how she began her preparations for the first Christmas. When she heard from the angel those powerful words: “The Lord is with you”, she was deeply disturbed by these words and “asked herself what this greeting could mean” (Lk 1:29)? In this text and elsewhere, evangelist Luke presents Mary as a woman of contemplation. When the shepherds came to see the baby lying in the manger, they reported what they had been told by the angels about the baby. Everyone was astonished. “As for Mary, she treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart” (Lk 2:19). When Joseph and Mary took the baby to be presented in the temple, Simeon and Anna had their own news about the baby, “the child’s father and mother were wondering at the things that were being said about him” (Lk 2:33). When the 12-year old boy Jesus was found among the teachers in the temple listening to them and asking them questions, his reaction to his worried parents was very surprising. But “his mother stored up all these things in her heart” (Lk 2:51).
The oft repeated word in the description of Mary’s wondering and pondering is the heart. Contemplation is different from vocal prayers; it is basically silent. Contemplation is different from ‘mental prayer’ or even meditation, in that contemplation is a prayer of the heart. In contemplation there is a movement from the head – the thinking unit, to the heart – the feeling centre. Contemporary neurobiology suggests that besides the brain and the spine, there are at least two spots where there is a concentration of network of neurons: near the heart and closer to the large intestines. Therefore, it is not by chance that we identify the heart and the gut as centres of a deeper form of knowing. This knowing is at an affective level, it is intuitive, it is awareness, and it is transformative.
The Gospel of Luke invites us to imitate Mary in her attitude of listening to the movement of God by pondering in our hearts the anomalous situations of life. The gospel text of today seems to suggest that the best way of preparing ourselves for Christmas is to contemplate like Mary the meaning of “the Lord is with you” – the God-with-us. The outcome of this contemplation could be threefold.
Threefold contemplation
Contemplation is a movement towards God. Mary’s contemplation, we can suppose, is marked by a transition from her own belief and experience of the Lord-God (Yahweh) to the wonder and belief in the God-Man (Jesus). Almost everything about her son invites her to contemplation because he is a man, flesh of her flesh, and yet He is not just a man; “He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High” (Lk 1:32). In our own contemplation we realise how God is real, yet beyond all rational knowing. He is here and now.
Contemplation is a movement towards the self. Mary asked herself what the greeting of the angel could mean (Lk 1:29). This contemplation leads her to dialogue with the angel, rather than ask for proofs (as Zachariah did in Lk 1:18). And eventually she acknowledges herself as the humble handmaid (Lk 1:38). Contemplation brings forth humility. This humility enables us to open up ourselves to the loving plan of God. In the parable of the Lost Son, Luke describes the point of conversion of the elder son as a moment of contemplation: “But when he came to himself, he said …. I will arise and go to my father” (Lk 15:17-18, RSV).
Contemplation is a movement towards others in compassion. The two classical stories of Mary reaching out to others: toElizabeth(Lk 1:39-56) and to the wedding party inCana(Jn 2:1-11), are acts of love. Yet there are not mere humanistic acts of kindness. In both the stories she shares the Good News – she introduces Jesus as the Son of God. This is typical when our own reaching out is an overflow of contemplation. We bring God to others.
Contemplation and keeping the Word
Is this not at the core of our Christian integration: the self, God and others? It seems to me that this integration is best mediated through contemplation. There are two other indirect references to the mother of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke. These two passages summarise our reflection very well. There is the story of Jesus being told that his mother and brothers were standing outside wanting to see him, and he replies: “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and put it into practice” (Lk 8: 20-21). On another occasion, “It happened that as he was speaking, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said, ‘Blessed the womb that bore you and the breasts that fed you!’ But Jesus replied, ‘More blessed still are those who hear the word of God and keep it!’” (Lk 11: 27-28). In both these responses, Jesus seems to acknowledge that Mary is blessed because her own belief in God is not based on rationalising on his word but on contemplating and put it into practice. And by extension, we too could be blessed if we could contemplate his word and put it into practice. Practice flows from contemplation. And the word of God here could be the movements in our own hearts, because we are created in the image of God. This movement becomes real when we can pay attention to the experiences of daily life – intrapersonal and those mediated by the community. This process is enlightened by the Scriptures (the written word of God); and our enduring focus is on Jesus himself (the Word-made-flesh). In short, practising the word of God becomes spontaneous when that word is first pondered in the heart. Let this Holy Season invite us to contemplation.