By Fr. Eugene Lobo SJ –
Numbers 6:22-27; Galatians 4:4-7; Luke 2:16-21
Feast of Mary, the Mother of God is a very appropriate way to begin a new year. This celebration reminds us that the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, is also our Heavenly Mother. This is an occasion to renew our devotion to Mary, who is also Mother of the Church because she is our spiritual mother. In 1970, Pope Paul VI instituted the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God to be celebrated on January first. The solemnity shows the relationship of Jesus to Mary. The Church puts the feast of this solemnity on the first day of the New Year to emphasize the importance of Mary’s role in the life of Christ and of the Church. She has a special role and mission given to her by God. As Mother of our Redeemer and of the redeemed, she reigns as Queen at the side of Christ the King. She is a powerful intercessor for all of our needs here on earth. The Church observes this day also as the World Day of Peace and invites us to pray specially for peace in the world.
On the first day of the New Year we celebrate with joy the feast of Mary the Mother of God. At the same time we celebrate the feast of the Holy name of Jesus. The scriptures tell us that on the eighth day Jesus was circumcised and was given the name as told by the angel. The church celebrates this day as the world day of peace and invites us specially to pray for peace in the world. Mary is our model of faith, hope and prayer. By accepting her role as the divine mother she gave to the world the God-man who will be with us to the end of times. In the Gospel the Shepherds communicate to all the good news surrounding the birth of Jesus revealed to them by the angels. It is Mary who treasures them all in her heart. The Gospel also tells us that the Child was given the name that was chosen by God himself.
Today’s special Feast affirms what we Catholics believe that the Blessed Virgin Mary truly is the Mother of God. This Catholic Dogma finds its origin in a Bible passage that is found in the Gospel of Luke 1, 26-38. After the archangel Gabriel had appeared to the Blessed Virgin Mary, she went to visit her cousin Elizabeth. Upon her arrival, Elizabeth said to Mary, “And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me?” Through Elizabeth who was full of the Holy Spirit, it was proclaimed that Mary was truly the Mother of God. This Marion Feast of the Mother of God reaffirms the teachings of the early Church Councils, that Mary was the mother of Jesus who was both God and human.
World Day of Peace, celebrated on January 1 every year, is primarily a Catholic feast day dedicated to universal peace on the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God. The theme of the feast has always been about creating a culture of care. The Pope stresses the need to care and share tolerance for each other, and to create a society that focuses on good moral values and does not yield to the temptation to disregard others. The benefits of a peaceful society have been the emphasis of every year’s World Day of Peace.
World Day of Peace began in 1967 when Pope Paul VI announced that the world needs to be sensitized and oriented for peace and understanding. Inspired by the papal letters “Pacem in Terris” and “Populorum Progressio”, the Pope recommended that the church play a greater role in our search for world peace, and so this day, January 1, was appointed as a holy day to celebrate efforts for world peace. Accordingly the Pope would focus on working toward achieving peace by developing order in four major areas: The relationship of an individual with other human beings, the relationship of an individual with particular states, the relationship of states among states, and the relationship of individuals and states with the worldwide community.
Further, the message tells us that today there are many areas of the world in which forms of restrictions and limitations to religious freedom persist, both where communities of believers are a minority, and where communities of believers are not a minority, and where more sophisticated forms of discrimination and marginalization exist, on the cultural level and in the spheres of public, civil and political activity.
Today the path of peace, which Saint Paul VI called by the new name of integral development, remains sadly distant from the real lives of many men and women and thus from our human family, which is now entirely interconnected. Despite numerous efforts aimed at constructive dialogue between nations, the deafening noise of war and conflict is intensifying. While diseases of pandemic proportions are spreading, the effects of climate change and environmental degradation are worsening, the tragedy of hunger and thirst is increasing, and an economic model based on individualism rather than on solidary sharing continues to prevail.
In every age, peace is both a gift from on high and the fruit of a shared commitment. Indeed, we can speak of an “architecture” of peace, to which different institutions of society contribute, and an “art” of peace that directly involves each one of us. All can work together to build a more peaceful world, starting from the hearts of individuals and relationships in the family, then within society and with the environment, and all the way up to relationships between peoples and nations.
In the First Reading from the Book of Numbers we heard of the Lord’s blessing upon the Israelites. The Lord God is preparing the people of Israel for the journey toward the Promised Land. God has given them every advantage to make the journey to Canaan without any mishap. Occupying the central place throughout their journey is the Ark of the Covenant. Now Israel belongs to God through the covenant on Sinai. They are now given the privilege of pronouncing the name of God over the people which takes the form of a blessing. This blessing, in the form of a prayer, was frequently used by the priests when they blessed the people. The Lord spoke to Moses and asked him to speak to Aaron and his sons, giving them these words of Blessing: ‘The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.’
In today’s Second Reading Paul says that God sent his Son, born of a woman, born a subject of the Law, to redeem the subjects of the Law and to enable us to be adopted as children. The woman who bore Jesus is Mary. Since he is the son of God, she is rightly called Mother of God. Paul tells us that Jesus coming under the natural law has transformed us making us the children of God. No longer slaves and servants but heirs as sons and daughters, and brothers and sisters of Jesus. As Paul says, with Jesus the Son, we now can, like him, address God the Father as “Abba”, a term that implies deep intimacy and affection. The Spirit of God’s Son has entered into our hearts and this Spirit enables us to call God Abba Father. They can now enjoy the freedom of the children of God.
In today’s Gospel Luke describes the simple scene in the stable at Bethlehem. The setting is of a peasant family with a new born child has found hospitality and shelter in a facility shared with farm animals. We see a man, a woman who has just given birth, and a baby Jesus lying in the manger. Truly primitive surroundings and yet this Baby is the Son of God and that young woman is the Mother of God. This is the great mystery of the Incarnation. Theirfirst visitors are the shepherds, a group of poor and despised and marginalized people, indeed persons of low economic status, and the people God came especially to save and liberate. We are not sure whether those shepherds really understood the message given by the angels that a savior is born. But they obey the voice they heard and go in search of the child born to bring peace to the world. We often portray Mary as Queen of Heaven, dressed resplendently in beautiful clothes with crowns, jewels and stars. But I think this Gospel scene is the one that is most striking. It is the one that says the most about what God is doing for us through Jesus and through his Mother. No wonder that Luke says, “Mary treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart”. She had indeed a great deal to ponder about, give a careful thoughtto the message of the shepherds.
No sooner has this most extraordinary event taken place, than things move quickly to return to the ordinary. The Gospel ends with the description of the return of the shepherds to their fields and later goes and tells others what they had seen and all are amazed. The Gospel also tells of the traditional circumcision and the child is given a name as every other Jewish family would do, but here a name chosen by God. This ritual would mark Jesus clearly as a child of Abraham.. She contributes from her own body to the formation of his human body. She is the mother of Jesus. But the Gospel speaks of his Father being God, not Joseph.
This feast of Mary the Mother of God is closely connected to the feast of Christmas and is the most important and oldest of the feasts of Mary. It is based on the source of her privileges: her divine motherhood. Jesus Christ, God’s Son “born of a woman,” came to deliver us from sin and make us children of God. He is also Mary’s Son, and she, his mother, helps bring his blessings to the world. She is “truly the Mother of God and of the Redeemer…not merely passively engaged by God, but freely cooperating in the work of our salvation through faith and obedience.” Mary was not simply a passive instrument in God’s hands; rather she discovered and accepted new dimensions to her motherhood as her life unfolded. This Solemnity of Mary Mother of God falls exactly one week after Christmas, the end of the octave of Christmas. It is fitting to honour Mary as Mother of Jesus, following the birth of Christ. Calling Mary “mother of God” is the highest honour we can give Mary.
Today, we are starting a new day and a New Year with inner knowledge and understanding of the greatness of the Blessed Virgin Mary as the Mother of God. We greet each other with the same blessing as in the first reading of today: “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you his peace. May the peace of the Lord remain within us, our families and communities and bring us the joy and happiness in the year to come. The divine name appears in the Blessing, giving them life and warmth. The graciousness of God may remain with each one of us throughout the New Year.
A saint asked his disciples, ‘Why do we shout in anger? Why do people shout at each other when they are set?’ Disciples thought for a while, one of them said, ‘because we lose our calm, we shout for that.’ “But, why to shout when the other person is just next to you?’ asked the saint.’Isn’t it possible to speak to him or her with a soft voice? Why do you shout at a person when you’re angry?’ Disciples gave some other answers but none satisfied the saint. Finally he explained, ‘When two people are angry at each other, their hearts distance a lot. To cover that distance they must shout to be able to hear each other. The angrier they are, the stronger they will have to shout to hear each other through that great distance.’ Then the saint asked, ‘What happens when two people fall in love? They don’t shout at each other but talk softly, why? Because their hearts are said to be very close to each other. The distance between them is very small…’ The saint continued, ‘When they love each other even more, what happens? They do not speak, only whisper and they get even closer to each other in their love. Finally they even need not whisper, they only look at each other and that’s all. That is how close two people are when they love each other.’