8th December

Written by Mark Hackney

In the Bleak Midwinter

‘But only His mother in her maiden bliss worshipped the beloved with a kiss.’

I love this carol.

Whilst I can’t empathise fully with a mother’s kiss to her baby, I can appreciate the beautiful intimacy of that humble scene where “A stable-place sufficed.”

Of course, whilst we don’t worship Mary, we do elevate her as the mother, and loving carer, of our Lord. And, I’m mindful of Mary’s life of devotion and service - with her ever-watchful eye of a mother. In Holy Scriptures, Mary’s life, like a golden thread, spins around that of Jesus:

An Archangel speaks words of wonder to a poor, teenage Jewish woman. This woman, a virgin but with child, visits her aged cousin, Elizabeth, also with child, and, fizzing and whirling, with the Holy Spirit, they sing songs of joy. Mary carries the Messiah, Elizabeth his herald.

The baby is born in a rude stable, “angels Fall down before”; the cosmos shines a light ... and the interest of the wise is piqued.

There’s Mary and Joseph’s visit to Jerusalem, the child held aloft in the Temple forecourts, and the miracle at Cana where Mary advises the servants about Jesus.

Mary must have followed Jesus’ ministry with wonder and the pride only a parent can know. Yes, her heart will be broken: John’s Gospel has her at the crucifixion. We well might imagine her looking-up, under a purple sky at that middle cross, her hair, now flaked with grey, blowing in the gale.

Yet, we also wonder, for the Gospels do not tell, at Mary’s heart joyfully leaping to witness Jesus’ resurrection life. Certainly, Acts 1:14 has Mary at the heart of the infant Church, mothering and nurturing the Church as she did the infant Jesus himself.

Mary inspires us in our following of Jesus, and we can inhale deeply the closing lines of our carol in the utter determination that “what I can, I give Him. Give him my heart.”