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Last Sunday’s reading and today’s gives us great images of Mary and what we need to try to imitate in her life. Today we heard: And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart. Let me read you the translation of that sentence from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible and the New Jerusalem Bible, But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. I want to focus on the word “pondered.” That is the same word we heard this past weekend after Jesus gets lost in the Temple and Mary ponders what he said in her heart. Pondered. That is what Mary did when she stood under the cross and watched Jesus die, it is what we do when we are unable to offer words of consolation to someone who has suffered the loss of a loved one, and it is what we should do at all those times when we just struggle to love.
We usually think of “ponder” as meaning “to think deep thoughts.” But in Aramaic, which is the language that Jesus, Mary and Joseph spoke, it means something like “holding and transforming tension.” Ponder, in the biblical sense, really has that sense of transforming tension so as not to give it back in kind, knowing that whatever we don’t transform we will transmit.
Think of the image of Mary that we see in the bible, particularly under the cross when she pondered all that had happened to her son, her only son. She stood, silently, seemingly doing nothing and absorbed the anger, the violence, the hatred, and did not give it back. She held the tension and transformed it. Pondering is to act like a water purifier. You take in everything, hold the impurities inside and give back pure, clean water. This is what Mary does under the cross and what Jesus does in his passion and crucifixion. He took in hatred, but gave back love; took in curses, but gave back blessing; took in violence, but gave back forgiveness.
The opposite of ponder is amazement. In the gospels, we see a number of instances where Jesus does or says something that catches people by surprise. The evangelists then tell us: "And they were amazed." Almost immediately, Jesus says: "Don't be amazed!" He has a deep suspicion of amazement. What is amazement? We are amazed (in the biblical sense) when we simply let energy flow through us as a wire conducts an electrical current; when we simply take in the energy of the group around us and, without holding, carrying, or transforming it in any way, act on it and let it flow through us. When I'm amazed (as opposed to pondering) I give back in kind: If someone comes up to me and says: "I like you!" my spontaneous response will be: "And I like you too!" Conversely, if someone comes up to me and says, “You really irritate me!" my response, whether I say it or just think it, will also be in kind: "And you irritate me!" When I react in this way, I simply let energy, usually negative energy, flow through me, like a conduit, a wire. When people are amazed they simply shake their heads and give back exactly what they received. To ponder is to stand begging for God's insight and strength when things overwhelm us.
Our challenge in 2016 will be to ponder more and be less amazed. Take in all that the world feeds to us, hold it inside and transform it. Don’t simply in amazement give back to the world what you receive, instead transform it. There is so much hatred and unhappiness around, let each one of us be an agent of change, pondering the hatred and transforming it to love. Start little, when an unkind word is said or you hear gossip, don’t respond in kind. Hold it in, transform it, give back something pure instead of the hatred. If you only have 1 New Years resolution let it be to ponder more and be less amazed. May you have a wonderful, transforming 2016!
We usually think of “ponder” as meaning “to think deep thoughts.” But in Aramaic, which is the language that Jesus, Mary and Joseph spoke, it means something like “holding and transforming tension.” Ponder, in the biblical sense, really has that sense of transforming tension so as not to give it back in kind, knowing that whatever we don’t transform we will transmit.
Think of the image of Mary that we see in the bible, particularly under the cross when she pondered all that had happened to her son, her only son. She stood, silently, seemingly doing nothing and absorbed the anger, the violence, the hatred, and did not give it back. She held the tension and transformed it. Pondering is to act like a water purifier. You take in everything, hold the impurities inside and give back pure, clean water. This is what Mary does under the cross and what Jesus does in his passion and crucifixion. He took in hatred, but gave back love; took in curses, but gave back blessing; took in violence, but gave back forgiveness.
The opposite of ponder is amazement. In the gospels, we see a number of instances where Jesus does or says something that catches people by surprise. The evangelists then tell us: "And they were amazed." Almost immediately, Jesus says: "Don't be amazed!" He has a deep suspicion of amazement. What is amazement? We are amazed (in the biblical sense) when we simply let energy flow through us as a wire conducts an electrical current; when we simply take in the energy of the group around us and, without holding, carrying, or transforming it in any way, act on it and let it flow through us. When I'm amazed (as opposed to pondering) I give back in kind: If someone comes up to me and says: "I like you!" my spontaneous response will be: "And I like you too!" Conversely, if someone comes up to me and says, “You really irritate me!" my response, whether I say it or just think it, will also be in kind: "And you irritate me!" When I react in this way, I simply let energy, usually negative energy, flow through me, like a conduit, a wire. When people are amazed they simply shake their heads and give back exactly what they received. To ponder is to stand begging for God's insight and strength when things overwhelm us.
Our challenge in 2016 will be to ponder more and be less amazed. Take in all that the world feeds to us, hold it inside and transform it. Don’t simply in amazement give back to the world what you receive, instead transform it. There is so much hatred and unhappiness around, let each one of us be an agent of change, pondering the hatred and transforming it to love. Start little, when an unkind word is said or you hear gossip, don’t respond in kind. Hold it in, transform it, give back something pure instead of the hatred. If you only have 1 New Years resolution let it be to ponder more and be less amazed. May you have a wonderful, transforming 2016!