Beginning 2025 With Hope

Fr Antony Christy, SDB –

Mater Dei, Gaudium Spei & Pax Dei!
January 1, 2025: Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God
Numbers 6:22-27; Galatians 4: 4-7; Luke 2:16-21

It is a beautiful day, a blessed day and a bountiful day when the Lord deign to grant us a fresh new year, and specially a year of jubilee, to be lived with the joy of hope (Gaudium spei)! May this new year 2025, be filled with hope, that comes from the unceasing presence of God with us! In the gracious Will of God, we begin this year with our Blessed Mother, who is honoured today with the title, ‘Mother of God’! Before we come to focus on that central theme of the day – Mary, Mother of God, we have a few other scintillating points of attention from the Word today! In fact, we have, in all, five points of inspiration and instruction from the Lord, at the beginning of this year.

Focus no.1: Blessing

The Lord not only blesses with a new year, but packs it up with blessings too! How do we understand God’s blessing? Certainly, today we come to the feet of the Lord, with remorse and regret for the instances of negligence and experiences of failure in the past year, with anxiety of newer plans we have for the fresh year and with a sense of need for supernatural assistance to make this year a fruitful and joyful journey. The Lord knows our mind and hence we have the Word today, presenting to us the words of blessing – the protection from God, the light of guidance from God and the merciful gift of peace from the Lord. What stands out is the last verse from that passage we read from the book of Numbers which defines what a blessing truly should be: “calling down the name of the Lord on someone or something”! That goes well with the reminder from the Gospel – that today is the eighth day from the birth of our Saviour, who was given the name Jesus – the name above every other name, the name we are invited to call down upon each other today. We shall be celebrating a feast proper of this name in a couple of days, but the reminder today is the blessing we have in this name!

Focus no.2: Fullness of time

In the second reading today, St. Paul calls our attention to the fullness of time. The question is, who decides the fullness of time? Certainly not we! We cannot see beyond what has gone by and what is… eternity belongs to God and God alone can define the fullness of time. Fullness of time is not about future, it is not about some auspicious moment to be waited for, but the sense of walking in the fullness of the present, with our hands in the hands of the Lord. It refers to every moment of here and now in our life, every moment of God’s guiding presence that can fulfill within us and through us, the eternal design of God for ourselves and for our brothers and sisters through us.

Focus no.3: Children in the Son

St. Paul reminds us that we have been made sons in the Son of God, daughters through the Spirit of the Son sent into our hearts, children in that Son who makes us heirs of the One who created us, called us, spoke to us through the ages and has been constantly relating to us, whether or not we are aware of it. It is not because we deserve it or we have merited it, but because of the covenant that God made with us – that we shall be his people and He shall be our God. It is yet another renewal of the covenant, as we conclude today the octave of Christmas and begin a fresh and new year. What needs to fill our hearts today is that courage and hope – it is in this connection that the jubilee theme we have been given with makes a profound sense: to be pilgrims of hope! That hope which does not delude us, comes from the simple and undeniable fact that we are children of God, children in the Son of God.

Focus no.4: Abba, Father

Children of God, that is what we are made by the Spirit who cries and makes us cry out: Abba Father. This is the guarantee of fullness, the assurance of peace and the joy of hope. When we call God, our Father, we are not only declaring ourselves as children of God, but also that every other child of God is our brother and sister – what else could be a more fitting foundation for peace? That is why giving us the message for the 58th World day of Peace, Pope Francis invites us to reflect on the theme: forgive us our trespasses, grant us your peace! It is in mutual forgiveness and care that we can ensure peace for entire humanity. It is interesting to recall the three concrete lines of action that he proposes: the forgiveness of international debts; the abolition of capital punishment; and setting up a world fund to eradicate hunger and poverty. Those are simply directives to declare that, I am my brother’s keeper, because we are children of the One Father!
Focus no.5: Mary, Mother of God

The Solemnity that we celebrate today, and underlined in the Word today, invites us to thank God for introducing to us Mary, as the Mother of God – this has quite many implications for our faith in its wholeness. Two simple but concrete messages that we can take from this dogma are: we are not merely instruments in the hands of God, or at least God does not consider it that way. We have a specific role to play, with our identity and liberty and our capacity to choose God and God’s will. That is where Mary shines as a Mother, not merely because she gave birth to Jesus, but because she collaborated in the Salvation Plan of the Father.

Secondly, Mary is not only mother of Jesus, but declared mother of God because she persevered till the end – from the annunciation at her home in Nazareth and the manger of Bethlehem to the Cross on Calvary and the Cenacle of Jerusalem… she remained faithful to the call that she received, that is why she becomes the mother of God, the God made flesh and God who saved us in His death and resurrection. Clearly, the message here is how ready we are to persevere in the midst of discouragements and dreariness… a pertinent thought for the beginning of the year.

May our Blessed Mother, the Mother of God, be with us all through this new year, and fill us with hope, that we may make this year truly a pilgrimage of hope, keeping our hope alive and instilling hope in every one we encounter. May God forgive us our trespasses and grant us his peace. May God shine His light upon us and walk with us all through this new year 2025.


Fr Antony Christy is a Salesian Priest from 2005 and has a Masters in Philosophy (specialisation in Religion) and a Masters in Theology (specialisation in Catechetics). He has a Doctorate in Theology with specialisation in Catechetics and youth ministry at Salesian Pontifical University, Rome. Walking with the young towards a World of Peace and dialogue is the passion that fires him

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