“She kept all these words and pondered them in her heart.”

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“She kept all these words and pondered them in her heart.”

(January 6, 2024)

 In the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 2, the author narrated the birth of Jesus. Several events were mentioned like the decree of Caesar Augustus for a census in the empire that prompted Mary and Joseph to journey back to Bethlehem from Egypt; the birth of Jesus in a stable and laid on a manger; the shepherds who came to visit after having been told by an Angel that the savior was born. Luke writes in 2:19: “But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.  

The narrative continues with the presentation at the temple with Samuel’s prayer, blessing, and exultation; the prophet Anna who thanked God upon seeing the baby Jesus who she prophesied as the One who will bring the redemption of Jerusalem; Jesus grew up as a young boy and later found in the temple discoursing with the rabbis; Mary sort of reprimanding the little boy Jesus for causing stress and anxiety to his parents who thought that he was lost; then, Jesus obediently going with His parents to Nazareth. All these events Mary, the mother of Jesus, “treasured all these things in her heart.” (Luke 2:51)

These narratives were all about the ordinary events in the life of the young Jesus that we only hear during the Christmas season. If I may say so (here I seek pardon from the Bible scholars), these events mentioned were not as “popular” events in the life of Jesus as far as the Bible stories are told. Maybe because they were very ordinary vis-à-vis the narratives of the passion, death and resurrection of Christ.

What strikes me most about these is that despite the seeming ordinariness of these events mentioned about the early life of the Holy Family, the Gospel author twice mentioned that Mary “treasured all these things in her heart.” The double-mention shows that they were significant even though they happened as part of the early stage of Jesus’ life that seemed to be ordinary and insignificant.

In our everyday life, a lot of things happen and most of them are just ordinary things that we routinely undertake. We wake up in the morning, prepare ourselves for the day (shower, brush our teeth, shave, comb hair, make-up), have breakfast and coffee, walk to school, attend to academic life, drive or ride to work, office tasks, work demands being met, lunch, breaktime, chit-chats with workmates, go home, dinner, relax a bit, sleep. The next day, the same routine. Sometimes we take a break from these routines with a day in the movie, dinner and drinks with friends and significant someone, “mall-ing” or strolling with our children, and others. Again, though they are “breaks” from our weeklong routines, we oftentimes really don’t remember them at all for long.

Yet, when break-ups and fights in relationships with a significant someone or with any member of our family or some friends, we sulk and feel like it’s the end of our world. We feel hopeless and depressed. We become sad. We treat those breakups and heartaches as the most important thing in our life that all other responsibilities in our daily life are affected one way or the other.


This made me reflect on what are the things that I “treasure and kept” in my heart. What are the events in my life that I take time to ponder? 

Sure, unexpected and unwelcomed events like death, accidents, serious health issues, are not ordinary things in life and it is just normal that we take them with great attention and envelop our hear and mind with deep emotions and concerns. If they take much of our attention, it is very understandable because they are not part of our ordinary life routine. In fact, they disturb the peace and ordinariness of our life. These are moments that we “take to heart and ponder.”

Take those aside, we look at our ordinary life routine. How do we take them? Do we ever take time to thank God for the new day as we wake up and do about our daily tasks and undertakings? Have we taken to heart to whisper a prayer of gratitude to God for the safety of the day past and the assurance of his guarding us in our sleep during the night? Do we make an effort to do our best during those ordinary events in our daily life?

Overall, as a reflection-question, are we like Mary who treasures all these things, though ordinary, in our life and ponder them in our hearts?

God bless us all. God Loves Us.

 


Acknowledgments: 

·        http://catholicinbrooklyn.blogspot.com/2013/12/pope-francis-blessed-mother-and-lesson.html

·        https://medium.com/@thelightinggale/but-mary-treasured-up-all-these-things-and-pondered-them-in-her-heart-luke-2-19-45e996e0a292

·        https://6thlevelconsulting.com/time-to-ponder/

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