Homily for New Year's Eve/Day

Barbara Brown Taylor notices a change of perspective with Christmas. See how Luke describes it in today’s Gospel: “The shepherds went in haste to Bethlehem  and found Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the manger." (Luke 2:16) “Everyone in the story is looking down, at a baby they could all see. The light had moved. It was coming from below, not above.”

I have Mass at Holy Name in Birmingham on December 31 @ 4:00 pm.

frjoedailey@gmail.com

Transcript

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke. 
The shepherds went in haste to Bethlehem, and found Mary and Joseph, and the infant, lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known the message that had been told them about this child. All who heard it were amazed by what had been told them by the shepherds. 
And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart. Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just as it had been told to them. 
When eight days were completed for his circumcision, he was named Jesus, the name given him by the angel, before he was conceived in the womb. 
The Gospel of the Lord. 

In the Christian imagination, God lives on high. The heavens are telling the glory of God, the psalmist proclaims. Shepherds, keeping watch over their flocks by night, see a multitude of heavenly hosts, praising God with song. Wise men from the east scan the heavens, and follow a star they see at its rising. 
St. Stephen, the first Christian martyr, is remembered on December the 26th, the day after Christmas. As he was being stoned, Luke writes, "Stephen gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God." 
We look up, not down, for God. Heaven is the place to look for guidance, wisdom, and solace. No one stretches their arms down when they pray, we lift them up. In religious art, we often see the saints portrayed with their eyes looking up at something no one else could see. Their cheeks are bright with reflected light. 
Barbara Brown Taylor notices a change of perspective, though, with Christmas. See how Luke describes it in today's Gospel. The shepherds went in haste to Bethlehem, and found Mary and Joseph and the infant lying in the manger. Everyone in the story is looking down. At a baby they could see. The light had moved, it was coming from below, and not above. 
Much of the religion of ancient Israel was a priestly religion of presence, and one of the central images of God's communication in the scriptures is that of the shining face. As we heard today in the priestly blessing of Numbers, chapter 6, "The Lord let his face shine upon you. In the radiant light of God's face shining upon us, we too will shine." 
In the second century, Saint Irenaeus wrote, "A living human being is the very glory of God." We never see Mary in a more human light than we do in today's Gospel from Saint Luke, when we are told, "And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart." 
Here, Mary is fundamentally and fully human because she's praying. She's engaged in one of the higher forms of prayer. Mary is meditating. Father Terrence Klein writes that we are never more human, never more open and disposed to the presence of God than when we meditate upon the events of our own lives. And this is precisely what Mary does. Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart. 
Mary is recalling in memory the events of her life, to review them in the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. How are we to learn what God is doing, what God wants of us, without the grace, the gift of second sight? Mary kept all these things, not just some of them. Whether painful or pleasant, both are part of the life we have lived. 
This is the core of what Saint Ignatius of Loyola called the daily examine of conscience. What has God done in my life? Where was God? Do I see God more fully when I look back in prayer? 
God is always showing up in the places people least expect God to be. When the Jews are carried off to exile in Babylon, they may have been expecting God to tell them to resist getting too comfortable in such a God-forsaken place. 
Instead, God decrees in the words of Jeremiah chapter 29 verse 5 to 7, "Build houses and live in them. Plant gardens and eat what they produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters. Take wives for your sons and give your daughters and marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters. Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf. For in its welfare you will find your welfare." They will be blessed even in the land of their enemies. The holy ground that matters most is the ground beneath your feet. 
Thomas Merton insists our task is to seek and find Christ in our world as it is and not as it might be. The fact that the world is other than it might be does not alter the truth that Christ is present in it and that his plan has been neither frustrated nor changed. Indeed, all will be done according to his will. 
The Jewish New Year, as you probably know, is called Rosh Hashanah. Rabbi Rami Shapiro writes, "Rosh" in Hebrew is "head"; Shana is "changing"; Rosh Hashanah is "head-changing day"; you can't have a new year with an old head. 
This is the first thing the adult Christ proclaims, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Repentance is a translation of the Greek word metanoia, which literally means going beyond the mind. The root of the word is that you have to change your mind. You have to think differently about things. You have to break old patterns. You can't have a new year with an old head. 
Barbara Brown Taylor writes in conclusion, "Whatever more his birth story means, it means an end to any estrangement from the divine above and the divine below. The light goes both ways. Heaven and nature sing."