I earlier posted a homily for the solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. However, as I often do, I go back, re-edit, and change things, this time really writing a brand new homily that incorporates some elements from the other homily. This is the homily I will be giving on January 1.
Today, we celebrate Mary as the Mother of God as we welcome in the
new year of 2012. Mary is always an
important part of our Catholic faith and Catholic consciousness, and even more
so this time of the year. We not only
hear a lot about Mary during our Advent and Christmas celebrations in her
connection to Christ’s birth, but in the past month, we also had the solemnity
of the Immaculate Conception on Dec 8 and Our Lady of Guadalupe on Dec 12, in
addition to solemnity that we celebrate today. Even though Mary has a unique
role in our history of salvation and in the story of Jesus in the Gospels, Protestants
and Catholics alike often can have misconceptions about Mary’s role in our
Catholic faith. As a priest, when people
ask me about our Catholic faith, especially when I go visit the inmates in
prison, many of the questions often revolve around Mary and her role in our
faith. So, I thought I would structure
my homily around some questions we are often asked about Mary.
To begin with, we might ask ourselves: Why exactly would we
celebrate a solemnity of Mary as the Mother of God? This title does not come directly from
Scripture, but it evolved in the early Church and was defined as a dogma of our
Catholic faith at the Council of Ephesus in the year 431. It is important to
note that Mary was defined as “the Mother of God” rather than “the Mother of
Jesus” because it was a part of the discussion the early Church fathers had
about the divinity and humanity of Jesus.
The Church did not want to give the impression that his divinity and
humanity are two independent components of his being. By referring to Mary as
the Mother of God, the Church confirms that Jesus is one person that is at the
same time fully human and fully divine.
And through the title “Mother of God” we come to a deeper understand of
Jesus, since it is always important for us to remember that Mary does not
direct honor and glory to herself, but rather Mary’s role in our faith is to
always point us in the direction of Jesus, to help us in our journey of
discipleship in him.
One of my favorite Catholic writers, the Benedictine Sister Joan
Chittister, tells this amusing story.
There once was an elderly man who came to the shrine of Mary, Mother of
God to pray there each day. Jesus
himself heard the prayers of this devout believer, and wanted to show him a
sign that blessings would certainly come to him. So, Jesus as the Christ child appear to this
man right above the altar of this beautiful shrine in place of the statue of
Mary that was normally there. Seeing the
Christ child in front of him instead of Mary, the old man was irritated, and
cried out: “Go away, little boy. I am
here to talk to your mama.” This
illustrates the devotion that we Catholics traditionally have to Mary, how we
can so naturally relate to the motherly love, how we see her not only as Jesus’
mother, the Mother of God, but our mother, the mother of our Church. So we might ask: Is it ok to pray to
Mary? I think a better way to describe
it is to say that we pray through Mary and with Mary. We don’t worship Mary as God, we don’t see
her as an equal to God, but rather as an intercessor who prayers for us and
with us, who strengthens our faith and who nurtures us with her motherly
love.
So, how to we see Mary today’s as modern Catholics? How do we see her as a model of faith for us
today? Mary has always been a part of
our faith story, our faith history, but she has been seen and interpreted in
different ways as our Catholic faith has developed throughout our human
history. At times, she has been held up
as a model of a believer who was docile and passive, submissive and
unquestioning. Yet, even in today's short
Gospel passage, as we hear how the shepherds visit Mary and Jesus in the
manger, how Mary pondered all that she heard from the shepherds in her heart,
we hear how Mary takes a very proactive, strong deeply spiritual way. She does not follow blindly, but thinks,
reflects, ponders, meditates, and makes up her own mind. While she is formed by her faith traditions
and is part of ancient Jewish society, Mary made the decision to accept God’s
will for her in her life. We can
recognize that through her courage and strength of character, she truly becomes
Christ’s first disciple.
As someone who came to
the Catholic faith as an adult, I can honestly say that Mary has played a major
role in helping me grow in my Catholic faith and in bringing me to the
Church. Today, as we welcome in the new
year of 2012, as we celebrate the day where we pray for peace throughout our
world, as we honor Mary as the Mother of God, let us ask Mary for her prayers
and intercessions, to help us, to guide us, to be with us as we journey in
faith.
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