Deacon Mike Meyer / Sunday, January 1, 2023 / Categories: Blog, Homilies Mary, Undoer of Knots Homily for the Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God One of the great frustrations of my childhood was shoelaces. I learned to tie them with great pride at a pretty young age but somehow missed the lessons on how to untie them. I always pulled the wrong string, the one that binds instead of looses, the one that transforms a beautiful bow into a twisted, tangled mess. The more I struggled to untie my laces, the more ensnarled they became until I found myself trapped in my shoe by a tenacious, implacable knot. Exasperated, I’d run to my mother, who quietly and calmly undid the knot and freed my foot from its captor. I couldn’t help but recall this memory as I contemplated today’s Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God, who is, herself, an undoer of knots. Allow me to explain. The Church has long recognized Mary’s selfless role in salvation history as the Mother of God. In fact, the reference to Mary in today’s second reading from Galatians dates as early as 50 AD, less than 20 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection. The celebration of Mary as the Mother of God started in the Eastern Churches in the 4th century and was adopted by the Western Church in the 5th. Many devotions to Mary’s motherly care developed over the centuries, including Mother of Good Counsel, Comforter of the Afflicted, and, a favorite of mine, Mary, Undoer of Knots. The concept of Mary untying knots originated with St. Irenaeus of Lyons, who described how the knot of Eve’s disobedience was loosened by Mary’s obedience; what Eve had bound through unbelief, Mary set free through faith.[1] A painting of the same title by Johann Schmidtner in 1700 prompted a devotion to Mary, Undoer of Knots in Germany. That devotion spread to Latin America some 300 years later when an Argentinian priest named Jorge Mario Bergoglio received a copy of the painting on a Christmas card and commissioned a replica for a church in Buenos Aires. Mary, Undoer of Knots solidified its place as a global devotion to the Blessed Mother when that young priest became Pope Francis in 2013. “Thus, Mary has become the undoer of knots for many Christians. She has helped them to undo the knots of the most varied sort in their personal lives, knots in human relationships, knots in their own soul, and not least knots caused by entanglement in sin and guilt.”[2] How does she do this? Through contemplative obedience to God’s will. After the shepherds made known the message of the angel, we hear in today’s Gospel that “Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart” (Luke 2:19). The original Greek for the word “reflecting” indicates that “she ‘pieced together’ in her heart all the events that were happening to her; she placed every individual element, every word, every event, within the whole and confronted it, cherished it, recognizing that it all came from the will of God.”[3] Through prayerful contemplation, Mary pondered the things she didn’t fully understand instead of fearing them. And in this pondering, this piecing together, she discerned God’s will, accepted it as her own, and obeyed. Through contemplative obedience, Mary found God’s peace dwelling within her, the peace God bestows upon the Israelites in our first reading, the peace that unties the knots of fear and confusion, the peace that gave her the faith-filled confidence to trust God and obey. I’d like to take a deeper look at the Annunciation because it makes Mary’s contemplative obedience and the power of the peace it brings most evident. Upon learning that she would bear the Son of the Most High, the evangelist tells us that Mary’s “greatly troubled” (Luke 1:29), she’s anxious, she’s tied up in knots. But Mary listens intently to the angel’s message, she contemplates it, and gives herself over to God’s will. The peace of Christ within her eases her anxiety, and Mary says “yes;” she obeys. And through that “yes,” Mary entered an intimate relationship with God grounded in the eternal peace that comes with abiding faith—the very faith that brought her great joy at the Annunciation, sustained her at the foot of the cross, and led her to the glory of the resurrection. Mary helps undo the knots in our lives, too, by always leading us to her Son, the Prince of Peace, through her intercession and her example. Mary’s journey is our journey. Like Mary, “we encounter patches of light, but we also encounter stretches in which God seems absent, when his silence weighs on our hearts and his will does not correspond with ours.”[4] Yet, the more we piece together God’s movements in our lives, put our trust in him, and welcome his will as our own, the more we’ll be able to undo the knots that ensnare us and live in the peace of Christ, like Mary did. You know, today’s Solemnity doesn’t only honor Mary as the Mother of God; it celebrates her as our Mother, too. Just as Jesus commended the beloved disciple to Mary from the cross, he entrusted us to her motherly care as well. Lord knows that we can use all the help we can get, and the beginning of a New Year is a great time to run to our Mother to help us undo the knots that frustrate and entrap us. When find ourselves tied up in a twisted, tangled mess, seek Mary’s intervention. When we’re confused and afraid and don’t know which string to pull, follow Mary’s example of contemplative obedience to God’s will. Mother Mary is always available to us, ready to help us undo the knots in every aspect of our lives. She’s always there to lead us to her Son, Jesus Christ, who came into the world through her to guide our feet into the way of peace. I’m pretty sure that if I brought my knotted shoelaces to my mother today, she’d offer a few choice words about what I could do with them, after she stopped laughing. Well, I always have Mary. While I’ve never laid my knotted shoelaces at her feet, that’s Jessica’s job now, I turn to Mother Mary often for her help in undoing the knots in my life. So as a New Year’s gift to you, let me share a little prayer that brings me great peace, a prayer penned by Pope Francis to Mary, Undoer of Knots: Mary, Undoer of Knots Pray for us. Through your grace, your intercession, and your example, Deliver us from all evil, our Lady, and untie the knots that Prevent us from being united with God, So that we, free from sin and error, may find Him in all things, May have our hearts placed in Him, and may serve Him always In our brothers and sisters. AMEN Readings: Numbers 6: 22-27; Psalm 67; Galatians 4:4-7; Luke 2:16-21 [1] Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies, III. 22 [2] Walter Kasper, Mercy: The Essence of the Gospel and the Key to Christian Life (New York: Paulist Press, 2014), 213. [3] Benedict XVI, General Audience (19 December 2012). [4] Benedict XVI. The Peaceable Kingdom A Light Shines in the Darkness Print 422 Tags:Homily Mary Mother of God Undoer of Knots Untier of Knots Mary Please login or register to post comments.