Candles surrounding Mary and Child, often lit during the season of Christmas

We just heard from the Book of Numbers: Speak to Aaron and his sons and tell them: This is how you shall bless the Israelites and I will bless them…: The LORD bless you and keep you! The LORD let his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you! The LORD look upon you kindly and give you peace! I once met a Jewish scholar who was a descendent of Aaron, in other words he was in the hereditary line of priests going back to Moses’ brother. On the Holy Days every year he was asked to bless the congregation of his synagogue using these very words. And how appropriate it is for us to hear them today on this World Day of Peace. Today, as we begin the new year, the church celebrates this day in honor of the Mother of God, who is also a descendant of Aaron, and who has blessed the world by bringing Jesus Christ into it. It is fitting to honor such a Mother at the beginning of the year. Mothers are necessary for the beginning of our lives and Mary was particularly necessary for the birth of Jesus Christ. The Gospel we heard today is a continuation of the Christmas Gospel, giving us the response of the Shepherds to the good news of Jesus’ birth. They were the very first to know this good news. And we hear these telling words about Mary: Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart.

The very title “Mother of God” is an awesome one indeed, and open to misinterpretation. The church itself went through much turmoil before formally applying this title to Mary, and during that turmoil some Eastern Christians separated themselves from the church. As the Mother of Jesus of Nazareth, Mary is the mother in time and history of the one human person who is also fully God. Since the child to whom she gave birth was and is God as well as man, she is indeed the Mother of God. And because this Jesus Christ is our brother as man, she is our Mother as well. God’s loving and saving entry into human history as Jesus Christ was and is not without complications, because we human beings are imperfect, incomplete beings, although made in God’s image and likeness. For one thing, we are each of us either male or female. God, in whose image we are made, is the fullness of being and is spirit, and he transcends both male and female categories while containing in his being the characteristics of both. Our necessary human ideas and portrayals of God in word and art and liturgy reflect the aspects and perspectives of human beings, and so God is largely apprehended in male terms, especially since Jesus Christ himself was clearly a male. This complexity separates from our limited human consciousness the very real attributes of God which in human terms are often characteristically considered female. Mary does indeed help us transcend this human limitation. While not from before time and not God herself, she is a creature made in God’s image and likeness, perfect in virtue and goodness, that being MOST in God’s image and likeness, full of grace, which means full of God’s life; she is sinless, while being also limited in power. Her human perfection is the cause for her title of the New Eve, the mother to whom God entrusted his Son and through whom He begins to re-create the human race.
Procession for the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of GodIt is safe to say that Mary had to deal with many surprises and setbacks in her human life. The Gospel tells us today, “She kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart.” Her good example is for the benefit of all of us, who cannot know or understand all the details of God’s will, but who must do our best to live in accord with God’s unfolding plans. We too are called to conceive by the Holy Spirit and give birth to something in our lives, our world and in the kingdom of God. We are called to nourish it and guide it to a successful conclusion. As we begin a new year, we have probably thought about some ways that we can do better this year; we have probably thought about some ways we can help build up God’s kingdom both within ourselves and our world. Mary is a model for us in this.

Today in his message on this the World Day of Peace in this Jubilee Year, Pope Francis has asked us this year to focus our building peace using that great petition from the Lord’s prayer: Forgive us our debts as we forgive those who are indebted to us. And while he calls upon the leaders of nations to act to help our fellow human beings, our brothers and sisters who are enmeshed in societies shackled by poverty, he also asks us and all peoples for a firm commitment to respect the dignity of all human life from conception to natural death, so that each person can cherish his or her own life and all people may look with hope to a future of prosperity and happiness for themselves and for their children. Without hope for the future, it becomes very hard for the young to look forward to bringing new lives into the world. There is no peace without justice, no happiness without hope. Looking at the gospel description of the last judgment in Matthew chapter 25, we know that God will ask each of us: What did you do for your brother and sister? The worldwide phenomenon of indifference, to poverty, to famine, to war, to death, which today burdens the lives of so many of our brothers and sisters, requires all of us to do something.

Pope Francis concludes his message today with this prayer: Forgive us our trespasses, Lord, as we forgive those who trespass against us. In this cycle of forgiveness, grant us your peace, the peace that you alone can give to those who let themselves be disarmed in heart, to those who choose in hope to forgive the debts of their brothers and sisters, to those who are unafraid to confess their debt to you, and to those who do not close their ears to the cry of the poor. As we begin the new year, we can each ask ourselves: What would Jesus do? What would Mary do? May this be a happy new year for us and all of God’s people, people of good will.

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Image captured by Br. Joseph Byron, with the early morning sun
illuminating the crucifix in the chapel above the creche.