Purposeful pondering

But, while some of this may be useful if this review prompted reflection with a view to taking corrective action, most times it is merely a reliving of what was tragic at the time in a farcical mode as a way of distancing ourselves from the event.

As Christians, when we remember we are invited to engage in something quite different.

We remember, we put the pieces, the elements of the event back together in a way that allows the event to form something new and hopeful for our lives as we move forward.

We can do this because God is always reminding us, “See, I am doing a new thing, even now it breaks forth. Can you not see it?” (Cf.

Isaiah 43:19) In this way of looking, we are trying to see the pattern that God is weaving out of the varied strands of our lives so that all will have meaning. Of course to do this requires us to let go of our prejudices and half-baked assumptions and to assume in humility the attitude of a disciple, a learner, a follower.

The feasts which mark this weekend can provide us with the appropriate attitudes--the beginning of a new civil year into which we step without knowing what awaits us there, but with hope that we will be able to make something meaningful out of whatever time is allotted to us; The World Day of Peace, which will force us to acknowledge that all our schemes and plans have failed miserably to bring peace, even within our own hearts, and that important world bodies do not appear to have the formula either. But every year, we mark this day in hope that somehow peace will bless us this round. And for us Catholics, we celebrate the motherhood of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Here we can find the secret of untangling the knotted skein of our lives.

Mary is the model of purposeful pondering, in her heart, not on social media where we compound ignorance by sheer repetition, but in silence and genuine questioning of the action of God in her life.

This requires silence, inner and outer, a real acceptance of our not knowing the answers, and humility to wait on God to point the way towards an answer.

Unfortunately, none of these attitudes and virtues are part of the culture into which we are immersed, but as followers of Jesus Christ and as people who want to contribute to the civilising of our societies, we have a responsibility to resolve to cultivate this habit of remembering so that the deep fractures of our world can come to healing and wholeness, holiness and humaneness.