What we hold in our hearts...

The mass schedule changed and so I didn't preach on New Year's Day - but here's the homily I had prepared...

 

And Mary kept all these things, 

reflecting on them in her heart…

 

Try to imagine, if you can, all the joys and sorrows

    Mary kept in her heart as the Mother of Jesus…

Of course, all mothers do this.

They store up memories of their children:
   to keep them, hold on to them, to treasure them
      lest they ever be lost.

And not just mothers, but all of us.
We all keep memories in our hearts,
   continuing to reflect on them
        as months and years and decades go by.

I’m wondering on this New Year’s Eve
   what memories of 2024 are you and I

       holding, keeping, storing, in our hearts?

 

Was 2024 a good year or a hard year?
   a happy year or a sad year?
   a year of good health or a year of illness?
   a year of loss or a year of gain?
   a year of conflict or a year of reconciliation?

   a year of progress or a year of stalling?

Did the year just past seem to fly by
   or did it creep along at a snail’s pace?

Our physical hearts have only four chambers
   but our souls’ hearts have many more than four.

What memories have filled the many chambers
   of our hearts over the past year?

Are we holding on to some hurtful memories

   alongside the happy ones?  

 

Have we refreshed our heart’s chambers
   with compassion, mercy, understanding, forgiveness,

      and that sweetest of all gifts:
         peace-finally-made?

 

Or do we come to the year’s end

 holding on to some resentments and grudges?

Is there a chamber in my heart now empty
   because I’ve lost someone  I loved?
Have I locked up that empty place - or left it open,
   inviting consoling, healing memories of my beloved
      to restore and refresh me?

In the past year did my heart expand
   to accommodate everything that came my way?
       peace and pain alike?

Did my heart enlarge to welcome God’s grace

   in the joy that came my way

and his gentle, healing touch

   upon my difficult days?

In 2024 did I turn to the Lord:
   to lean on his strength in my weakness,
   to depend on his counsel in my doubt,
   to seek his wisdom in my confusion,
   to reach for his companionship in my loneliness?

Mary, the Mother of Jesus, the Mother of God

   would come, eventually, to keep in her heart
      not only the joyful recollections 

         of Jesus’ birth and life
   but also the painful memories

      of her Son’s suffering and death.

 

And so it is with us, too.
Our hearts are the treasure chests 

   of all that has shaped us to be the persons we are

      and the persons God still calls us to become.

 

And our hearts are the Lord’s dwelling place
   where he comes to forgive our sins, 

      to heal our wounds, to calm our fears

   and to give us the peace
      that comes only from his heart, from his hand.

 

This New Year’s eve, and tomorrow, New Year’s day

   might be a good time for each of us 

      to take a little stroll

          through the chambers of our hearts
   and, with the Lord’s help, sweep away, empty out, 

     what might be better left behind 

        as a new year begins.

 

And in doing so, we’ll be making room in our hearts

     for all the Lord may offer us in 2025,

        all the blessings, healing, consolation, grace,

         compassion, wisdom and peace

       that is God’s to give – and ours to receive.

 

And what about New Year’s resolutions?

Some of us, given our track record with resolutions,

   might be better off just to resolve

      not to make any new resolutions!

 

Or perhaps we could follow Mary’s example

   and make but one resolution:

      to be mindful of all that’s in our hearts;

      to take great and gentle care, to treasure,

        both the sorrows and the joys that fill our hearts

      remembering that God is with us

         in good times and in bad,

         in sickness and in health,

            all the days of our lives.

 

Every week we come to the Lord’s table 

   and here we keep

      the joyful memories of Christ’s incarnation,

      the sorrowful memories of his suffering and death

      and the glorious memory of his resurrection.

    as every week

        the Lord, born in Bethlehem,

          who gave his life for us on the Cross,

        fills our hearts with his living presence

           in the bread and cup of the Eucharist.

 

Pray that in 2025 we, like Mary,

   will keep in peace and hold in our hearts

all the memories that will be ours

   in the new year of grace.

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