01 January. Mary the Holy Mother of God

1st Reading: Numbers 6:22-27

A new-year prayer for God to bless and protect his people

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the Israelites: You shall say to them,
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.
So they shall put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.

2nd Reading: Galatians 4:4-7

The gap between God and mankind is bridged, so we can call God “Abba! Father”

When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God.

Gospel: Luke 2:16-21

The shepherds visit the manger. Later, Jesus is circumcised and named

The shepherds went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.
After eight days had passed, it was time to circumcise the child; and he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

Theotokos

At the Council of Ephesus (431 a.D.), Mary, the mother of Jesus was proclaimed as Mother of God or Theotokos, acknowledging the divinity of her Son, Jesus Christ. Under this noble title she is still honoured by most Christians around the world, and today’s feast invites us to lay our hopes and plans for the new-starting year in her motherly care. We entrust to her our personal concerns and those of our era, with all its conflicts and glaring injustices, the unequal wealth and opportunity, the war in Syria and Iraq; in short, all that troubles peace and fairness in our world at this time.
In spite of everything, we start this new year of 2018 with high hopes, looking to God with a sense of wonder and trust. Somehow we can share in the spirit of Saint Peter on the mountainside, when he said “Lord, it is good for us to be here.” Such wonder and gratitude was typical of Mary, our Mother in the faith, the first devoted believer in Jesus her son. But Mary was also a flesh-and-blood person of her times, a hard-working young woman from Nazareth, cheerful and willing to be of service to others. It is foolish to imagine her as a Christmas-card Madonna, serene and immobile against a golden background with hovering angels. Such an image is simply not true to her life-story as told in the Gospels. The real Mary of Nazareth knew neither riches nor a privileged lifestyle. Nobody has ever lived, suffered and died in greater simplicity, marked by a strong and simple faith.
As she saw herself, Mary was the handmaid of the Lord, trusting in Providence and sustained by the goodness of God. Indeed, she stands out among the Lord’s anawim, the humble hearts who confidently trust that God has everything in hand (Lumen Gentium 55). In the first four Christian centuries, Church writers emphasised Mary’s faith rather than her divine motherhood. As St Augustine put it, “She conceived Jesus in her heart before conceiving him in her womb.” Also venerated as Mother of Good Counsel, Our Lady can be our guide and counsellor in the area of faith. She wants to beget faith in us, to be our Mother in faith. That is why, in the gospel of John, she is present at the beginning and the end of Christ’s public life.
John is the only evangelist to record Mary’s presence at Calvary, by tersely stating, “Near the cross of Jesus stood his Mother” (Jn 19:25). Although the miracles and message of Jesus seemed a delusion to many, his mother stood there faithful to him to his last breath, still believing in God’s power to save. Her faith was not built upon his miracles, but upon childlike trust in the mysterious ways of God our Father. Nor did her role as mother cease then, for with his dying words Jesus gave it a new focus with the instruction: “Behold your son….. Behold your mother.” The mother of Jesus will henceforth be mother to all his disciples, sharing with us her strong and simple faith.

Honouring our Blessed Mother

[J.A. Pagola]
Why does our Latin Church designates the first day of the new year as the feast of Mary, the Mother of God. Ever since the 4th century, our Church, after celebrating the birth of the Savior, has asked a blessing on the new year under the special protection of Mary, Mother of the Saviour and our Mother. It is thought-provoking to see what we’ve made of Marian devotion these couple of decades, when it seems that many have virtually eliminated her from our liturgy and our thoughts. Perhaps this grew from a desire to purify our religious sensibility and have a more solidly bible-based faith, abandoning exaggerated devotions, superficial or wrongheaded customs. We’ve tried to overcome any tendency to idolatrous Mariolatry which would substitute Mary for Christ, seeking our salvation and redemption in her rather than in her Son.
If this led us to situate Mary in the place is properly hers as Mother of Jesus Christ and Mother of the Church, well and good. But has it really turned out in that way? Have we dismissed and forgotten too much? Or have we put her in an obscure corner of our soul along with other things that seem obsolete? The abandonment of devotion to Mary does not enrich our Christian living, but impoverishes it. We may in the past have pushed Mariolatry to excess, but now we run the risk of impoverishing our spirituality, by her almost complete absence from our lives.
Mary is the Mother of Jesus. But the Christ who was born of her womb was destined to grow and incorporate many brothers and sisters, men and women who would one day live by his Word and his Spirit. Today Mary isn’t just the Mother of Jesus. She is the Mother of the whole Christ. She is Mother of all believers. It’s good, at the beginning of this new year, to again raise our eyes to Mary. She will accompany us through the coming days with a mother’s care and tenderness. She will care for our faith and our hope. We should not forget her all year long.

Pondering God’s word

Today, New Year’s day, is a day when many feel drawn to make good resolutions. What better new year’s resolution could we make today than that of adopting Mary’s stance before the grace of God? Today’s feast invites us to share in Mary’s sense of awe and wonder before God’s merciful love, made known to us in Christ, her son. As we look towards the new year, which begins today, we ask Mary to help us to treasure the gospel as she did, so that Christ might come to others through us as he came to us through Mary.
The Gospel shows Mary, our Blessed Lady, marvelling at what has happened in her life, treasuring the events of Christmas, and pondering God’s message in her heart. She is the contemplative woman of faith, who ponders the favours the Almighty has done for her, and through her for all the people. She ponders the message that the shepherds reported. Those simple, humble shepherds had preached the gospel to her, repeating what they had heard from angels, “Today in the town of David, a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.” It is this good news, this gospel, that she treasured in her heart. The same gospel has been handed on to us, and we are invited to treasure it, to ponder on it and to respond to it, as Mary did.
Ag mhachtnamh ar briathar Dé.

Ag machtnamh ar Briathar Dé

Tá Muire, gafa ag dian-mhachtnamh ar imeachtaí iontacha na Nollag, leagtha os ár gcomhar i soiscéal an lae inniu. Ba luachmhar léi imeachtaí na Nollag agus ní raibh i gceist aici ach a cuid féin a dhéanamh des na cuimhní álainn úd. Muire Máthair Dé, Bean rinnfheithimh an chreidimh, a dhéanamh a cuid féin de fhlaithiúlacht an Chruthaitheora in a leith agus A fhlaithiúlacht don cine daonna tré idirghuí a Mháthar. Scrúdaionn sí teachtaireacht na dtréadaithe a roinneadh léi. Dhein na fir umhla, saonnta san an soiscéal a roinnt léi, athinsint ar theachtaireacht na naingeal, “Inniu féin a rugadh Slánaitheoir daoibh — is é Críost an Tiarna é — i gcathair Dháibhí“. Dea-scéal é seo, an soiscéal, a chruinnigh Sí in a croí. Bronnadh an tsoiscéal céann orainn-ne, agus moltar dúinn ár gcuid féin dhéanamh de agus machtnamh a dhéanamh air agus beart a dhéanamh dá réir, dála Mhuire.
(Aistrithe ag an tAth. Uinseann, OCSO)

 
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