It’s traditional for Saturday Masses to be celebrated as memorials of the Blessed Virgin when there isn’t a Marian feast earlier in the week. It’s one of many little things in the Catholic church that I really like a lot. This morning at the abbey was one of those Saturdays for mom. So in honor of that, I’d like to offer an explanatory note about the title: Luke 2:19.
Because I’m a nerd, here it is in the Greek: ἡ δὲ Μαριὰμ πάντα συνετήρει τὰ ῥήματα ταῦτα συμβάλλουσα ἐν τῇ κραδίᾳ αὐτῆς.
The RSV translation renders this verse: “But Mary kept all of these things, pondering them in her heart.”
The verbs are interesting to me. συνετήρει’s range of meaning includes: protect, keep safe, preserve, keep in good condition, remember, treasure up. συμβάλλουσα (technically a participle, don’t hold that against me) can mean think about, consider, or ponder when it’s a transitive verb, but some of the intransitive meanings are illuminating too — discuss, confer; debate.
Mary remembered all these things. She treasured them. She protected them, kept them safe, preserved them. While at the same time she pondered them. I’m really partial to ponder here because it conveys the weightiness of the activity. What does it mean to ponder? I think of it as a quiet sifting of layers. A gentle turning over of the memory.
There is something in those intransitive alternatives that tempts me. They are more active, maybe even agitated, activities. That’s not what Mary is doing here, but it’s sometimes more characteristic of what my interior looks like.
I chose Luke 2:19 as the title of this site because I think it describes the activity perhaps most characteristic of women. We store things up in our hearts — memories, emotions, worries, ideas, and problems — and we ponder them on the good days and thrash about debating them within ourselves on the bad days.
What is it exactly that Mary is keeping in her heart? It’s the news that the shepherds bring on the night of the Nativity that “an Angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear” but then they were instructed not to fear, but rather to rejoice because the Savior was born and lying in a manger, and then they could not help but rejoice because “a multitude of heavenly host” appeared praising God. So these crazy men pick up in the middle of the night and go to Bethlehem to bother this poor woman who has just given birth (in a stable, no less). Everyone else marvels at the shepherds. On one reading, maybe Mary ponders because she has no energy left to do anything else. But on another reading, maybe Mary ponders because she too has had the Angel of the Lord come to her and she has that knowing calmness that comes with intuitions and which allows her to trust that grace is flowing in abundance here.
gloria ad Deum.
Luke 2:19 