Benedict the theologian is versing us in the sole maxim history acknowledges: the only way to understand history is to question it. In this light, he helpfully resets the Christmas stories, back into their larger, resurrection frame: if this man rose from the dead, if death and sin have truly been conquered in his life, then we must know the origins of that life. We need to hear and to ponder. He asks:
[H]ow did Matthew and Luke come to know the story that they recount? What are their sources? As Joachim Gnilka rightly says, it is a evidently a matter of family traditions. Luke indicates from time to time that Mary, the Mother of Jesus, is herself one of his sources, especially when he says in 2:31 that “his mother kept all these things in her heart” (cf. Also 2:19). Only she could report the event of the annunciation, for which there were no human witnesses.
Naturally modern “critical” exegesis will tend to dismiss such connections as naive. But why should there not have been a tradition of this kind, preserved in the most intimate circle and theologically elaborated at the same time? Why should Luke have invented the statement about Mary keeping the words and events in her heart, if there were no concrete grounds for saying so? Why should he have spoken of her “pondering” over the words (Lk 2:19; cf. 1:29) if nothing was known of this? (16)
Ah, if only 1st Cent historians had written to satisfy 21st Century historians. I am sure that the historians of today are meeting all the requirements of 25th Century historians.
Luke may well have had access to Mary herself – no-one knows when she died (the apostolic writings only ever refer to her alive) and there is at least one tradition that she lived for more than 10 years after the crucifixion. And if he did not have access to Mary herself, then it is clear that he had access to many people who had known her personally.
Whatever the case, Pope Benedict is correct that the scriptures emphasise the importance of Mary remembering the things that had happened early in Jesus’ life and passing these things on to others later.