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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"
Mary as our Mother"
Dear brothers and
sisters, we thank the almighty God who has accompanied us up to this day. The
liturgy of January 1 deals with three important things and interrelated
themes: The new Year; Mary Mother of
God, and World Day of Prayers for Peace and the new Year. If you can
recall what had happened last night, many of us met the New Year with a bang.
So many fireworks were freed in the sky just to meet the New Year. Instead of doing the same, let us begin by
thanking God for another year through prayer. Prayer is not only saying prayers
like the Lord's prayer, Hail Mary, Rosary and the others, but prayer also means
meditating and contemplating in silence the mystery of God's love for each one
of us. Just like what Mary did in today's gospel of what she heard from the
shepherds, she kept all these things, pondering them in her heart. Today's
gospel tells us that the name " Jesus" was given to her Son. Jesus
means ' Yahweh is salvation.' The only reason to come into the world was to
bring salvation. The only person in the whole world whom we could entrust
ourselves at the beginning of this year
is Jesus who became man for our salvation.
Mary, Mother of God. It is fitting and wise that the Church should choose January 1st as the day on which to celebrate the feast of Mary, the Mother of God. It is because I personally believe that this special feast is very appropriate for the start of a new day, a new month, a new year. The feast echoes the fact that Blessed Virgin Mary, who is the Mother of God, is also our Heavenly Mother. This feast echoes, " Through Mary to Jesus!" It also echoes God's divine progressive plan of salvation through the Virgin Mary.
Let us have a glance
about the origin of this feast. While not all Christians accept that Mary is
the Mother of God, we Catholics believe it to be so. We base our faith in this dogma on the words
of St. Elizabeth, the cousin of Mary. When the blessed virgin Mary visited
Elizabeth after the angel had appeared to her and told her that she would be
the Mother of Jesus, Elizabeth said, " and why has this happened to me,
that the mother of my Lord comes to me?' ( Luke 1:43). Through Elizabeth who
was full of the Holy Spirit, it was claimed that Mary was the Mother of God.
In 431 AD, the council
of Ephesus affirmed that Mary was truly Mother of God because ' according to
flesh' she gave birth to Jesus, who was
truly God from the first moment of His conception. The words that they used to
affirm this truth are: " We confess, then, our Lord Jesus Christ, the only
begotten Son of God, perfect God and perfect man of a rational soul and a body,
begotten before all ages from the Father
in His Godhead, the same in the last days for us and for our salvation, born of
Mary the virgin, according to His humanity one and the same consubstantial with
the Father in Godhead and consubstantial with us in humanity, for a union of
two natures took place. Therefore, we confess one Christ, one Son, one Lord.
According to this understanding of the unconfused union, we confess the Holy
Virgin to be the Mother of God because God the Word took flesh and became Man
from His very conception united to Himself the temple He took from her.
Twenty year later, in
451 AD at the Council of Chalcedon, it was affirmed that the Motherhood of Mary
was a truthful dogma and an official doctrine of the Holy Catholic Church. The
council based its proclamation o the truth that , ' the birth of the flesh
reveals human nature;( while) the birth from a virgin is a proof of divine
power."
World Day of Prayer for
Peace. Many of us enter this New Year with a lot of anxieties. There are continuous uncertainties concerning
World peace and there remains the escalating threat of terrorism etc. Peace is
not just the absence of war and conflict. It indicates the fullness of God's
gifts and blessings and the tranquility of the human heart. Saint Augustine has
a beautiful definition of peace. According to him, peace means, " serenity
of the mind when we exaggerate our fears, when we worry too much. Somebody once
said that 80% of the things we worry about never happens and 15% of the
misfortunes we worry about don't take place as seriously as expected. And
because we fret and worry so much, we fail to achieve peace of mind.
We lose simplicity of
the hearts if we let our emotions run
wild. We get angry, we get envious and others. Our negative thoughts get the
better part of us. Simplicity of heart simplify our wants and our needs.
Tranquility of the
souls is lost if we have a life which is spiritually messy. This happens when
there is sin in our lives and we are full of guilt. A happy and a Blessed New
Year to all of us. Through it all, let us remember the words of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Guadalupe, Mexico:
" I am here, I'm your mother. Do not fear I am near!"
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Chapisha Maoni