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1.Numbers
6:22-27
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2. Galatians
4:4-7
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Gospel: Luke
2:16-21
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"
Let us make our new year's resolutions with our Mother Mary"
We have before us the
name of the beginning month of the year called January, the name January comes from the Roman god Janus,
the god with two faces, one looking to the past and the other looking to the
future. This indeed is the time to look back at the year that has just ended
and to look forward to the new year ahead of us. This question can be put
before each one of us that how did I spend this one year of my life that has
just passed? Did I use it to advance my goals and objectives in life? Did I use
it to enhance the purpose of my existence? What things did I achieve last year
and what did I fail to achieve? We must set goals and make resolutions as a
necessary conclusion to our review of the past year. Moreover, we need to review our lives from year to year
because, as Socrates says, the unexamined life is not worth living.
When you try to look at
today's news paper you realize that they are full individual and collective new
year resolutions. Most of those, however, are not resolutions at all but only
wishes. What a difference between a resolution and a wish? A wish identifies a
goal one wants to reach, a resolution specifies the steps one will take to
reach it. A wish says this is where I want to be , I want to belong, a
resolution says this is the road I will take, this is what I will do to get
there. The wishful person says " I want to pass my exams this year"
and the resolved person says, " I will devote and extra hour to my studies
everyday in order to pass my exams." The wishful person says " I will
have more peace and love in my family this year", and the resolved person
says " I will spend more time with my family at table instead of rushing
off to the TV, so we get to know and understand ourselves better." The
wishful person says " I will live a life of union with God this year"
and the resolved person says " I will set aside this time everyday to pray
and hear God's word." The difference between wishing and resolving is: are
we prepared to do what it takes to make our dreams come true, are we prepared
to pay the price?
Coming into our readings
today, the gospel presents Mary to us as a model of the new life in Christ that
all of us wish for ourselves in the new year. Our mother Mary being an example
for us was prepared to do something to realize this goal. What did she do? from
the scriptures we read that the
shepherds, when they went to adore the child Jesus in the manger, told all that
the angels had said to them. " But Mary treasured all these words and
pondered them in her heart."( Lk2:19). Again after the boy Jesus was found
in the Temple, we are told that, " His
mother treasured all these things in her heart"( Lk2:51). Mary was a
woman who valued the word of God, who treasured it and made time to meditate
and ponder it. It is very true that the holiness of Mary is attributed to the grace of God, however this should not
make us forget that she needed to make
an effort in order to cooperate with the grace of God. She pondered the word of
God in order to discern what God was saying to her at every stage in her life
as the handmaid of God.
The two examples above
of Mary pondering the word of God, namely after the visit of the shepherds and
after the finding in the temple, show that Mary found the word of God both in
divine revelation ( the angels' words to the shepherds) and in her own experiences(
her encounter with her son in the temple). Likewise, God speaks to us today
through divine revelation( e.g the Bible, the teaching, and preaching of the
Church) as well as through our personal experiences, if only we made time to
reflect on them as our mother Mary did.
With the word of
encouragement, whatever the situation in which we find ourselves- a hardship, a
disappointment, a decision to make- God has a solution, an answer that is right
for us. We tell God about it in prayer but we also listen to what God has to
tell us about it. Prayer is a conversation with God but sometimes all we do is
to pick up our cell phones, read out the list of our problems to God and drop
the phone without listening to hear what God has to say to us. Let us today resolve
to listen more to the voice of God, to treasure God's word and ponder it in our
hearts. Then shall we be able to realize our new year resolution of a new life
in union with God.
0 Response to "HOMILY ON THE SOLEMNITY OF MARY MOTHER OF GOD"
Chapisha Maoni