Key to the City

Loving our brothers and sisters

Luke 2:16-21

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.

            I have a big announcement to make!  Are you sitting down?  I have found the key to the city of Fort Smith!  No, Mayor Sandy Sanders didn’t give me an official key to the city; rather, I know now how to unlock the mystery of this town.  The key is this: learn the people’s maiden names!  You see, once you learn maiden names, you quickly realize that everyone is related to everyone else!  That’s why only highly trained people should gossip in this town, otherwise, you learn too late that the person you’re talking TO

is actually related to the person you are talking ABOUT.  I’ve been to several family’s homes who proudly display their family tree –the giant red woods of Northern California have nothing on these family trees!  I always try to make a mental note of the maiden names.  For example, I’ve learned that I don’t talk about the Wewers when I’m with the Meyers or the Reiths.  I should say something nice about the Seiters if I’m talking to the Fitzgeralds.  I never bring up any dirt on the Caldareras when I’m with the Hornungs, or discuss the Donaubauers when I’m with the McNally’s!  It’s too bad I was born in India – you can all talk about me!  Of course, there’s nothing bad to say.  Seriously, though, I do love Fort Smith and learning about our parish family.  We are a very close-knit community; we are not only a spiritual family related by baptism, but many of us are even related by blood.

            Today’s gospel contains one of those lines in the Bible that always makes me stop and reflect because it’s where Mary stops to reflect.  It reads: “And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart.”  You know, I always wonder: what was the content of Mary’s contemplation that day?  Think about it: she had just given birth to a Child who was the Son of God and her own Son, and suddenly all these strangers – shepherds and even kings – were coming to adore him.  I think part of her reflection was a glimpse that these strangers were also somehow her Child’s siblings.  This thought would grow stronger when, many years later Jesus would one day declare: “Who are my brother and sister and mother?  The one who does God’s will is brother and sister to me” (Mk. 3:35).  And it would become piercingly clear when Jesus would say hanging from the Cross: “Woman, behold your son” (Jn. 19:26), meaning look at John.  In other words, Mary began to see that if these shepherds and kings are Jesus’ brothers and sisters, then that would logically make Mary their mother!  Mary was sitting there that cold night in Bethlehem thinking the same thing I did shortly after I arrived in Fort Smith, “Dangit, all these people are related!”  You see, just like we are spiritual brothers and sisters of Jesus, so we are also spiritual sons and daughters of Mary.  The classic phrase in Latin was, “filii in Filio” – sons in the Son.

            This was the spiritual content of Mary’s reflections and this is also the theological content of the feast we celebrate today, Mary, Mother of God.  In other words, precisely because Mary is the Mother of Jesus, she is also our mother, since we’re Jesus’ siblings.  In a certain sense, the key to unlocking the mystery of Fort Smith is also the key to unlocking the City of God, namely, realizing that everyone in the city is related to each other.  So what that practically means is that you can’t gossip about anyone in the City of God, because the one you’re talking TO is related to the one you are talking ABOUT.  Even if the one you’re talking about is me!  But more importantly, this means we’re a close knit community and we love each other, not just because it’s a commandment – because someone told us to – but because Our Mother would be very disappointed in us if we didn’t.

            You see, one and the same key unlocks both the city of Fort Smith and the City of God – and the key is to see how people are related to each other.  In both cities, therefore, just keep your eyes on the women, especially those women who are mothers.  And start learning some maiden names!

Praise be Jesus Christ!