During our Advent and Christmas season,
we have had several important celebrations dedicated to the Our Blessed
Mother. We celebrated the Immaculate Conception of Mary
on December 8, Our Lady of Guadalupe on December 12, and today Mary as the
Theotokos - the God-Bearer – the Mother of God. The fact that two of these three celebrations
are Holy Days of Obligation for us says a great deal about Mary’s
role in our life of faith.
Recently, someone asked me: How do we really know
what God is calling us to in our lives?
How do we discern the will of God for us? That's a good question, isn’t it? And the answer isn't so simple or straight-forward. Being devoted to the Eucharist, studying and
meditating on God’s holy word in Scripture, developing a life of prayer and a
manner of listening to God, fully participating in a parish faith community, and having the help and guidance of a spiritual director: all of these
things can help us to discern God’s will for us in our lives. And then we have Mary as an example for us: Mary
as the Mother of God, Mary as our Mother, of how she discerned God’s will for
herself in her life.
It is appropriate that since we are in the middle
of the Christmas season, our Gospel reading today is a part of Jesus' birth
narrative. The angel revealed to the shepherds watching over
their flock that a savior had been born who is Christ and Lord. The shepherds heard the angel singing with
the heavenly host – “Glory to God in the highest.” The shepherds told all of these things to Mary. And what did she do? She pondered these things in her heart. In fact, during a lot of what described about
Mary in Scripture, she is always taking time to reflect and discern and ponder. At the Annunciation, at the moment the Angel
Gabriel announced to Mary the upcoming of Jesus, she responded to God with a “yes”. But throughout the moments of life in which she accompanied her son Jesus: through his presentation as a child in the Temple and his finding as a youth in the Temple, through
his years growing up and his earthly ministry, through his miracles and
healings, and through his painful journey to the cross, we can imagine Mary
taking in all of these things into her heart and continuing to responding with a “yes” to God.
Mary and the saints have always had a big role in
our faith ever since the days of the early Church, but in the last ten
years, we have seen a renaissance of interest in and appreciation for Mary and
the saints, for the models of faith they provide for us and for their prayers
and intercessions that help us on our journey. And for all of us, we need to follow Mary’s
example, not just of reflecting upon the will of God and pondering things in
her heart, but of responding and acting upon that will.
We start a new year today, which is seen as a time of
new beginnings, a time of looking at our lives and making resolutions on how we
want to make changes or improve. Mary is a good guide for us to have as we enter
the new year, to help us make resolutions and promises that will help us on our
journey of faith. And as
Mary is known as the Queen of Peace, it is also appropriate that this is the
day that Pope announces a special prayer for peace to set the tone for the new
year. In fact, back in 1968, Pope Paul VI stated: “The
world must be educated to love Peace, to build it up and defend it." I remember being in St Peter’s Square on January
1, 2011 to hear Pope Benedict’s prayer for peace. That year, Pope Benedict made note of the importance of religious
freedom as an essential foundation for world peace. The Vatican announced this year’s theme for peace
for January 1, 2015: “Slaves no more, but brothers and sisters.” Pope Francis wants to draw attention to the way
the dignity of many is violated throughout the world through the exploitation
of workers or enslavement, through human trafficking, through the plight of the migrant. This year, Pope Francis challenges us to
recognize every person as our brother and sister with a God-given dignity,
proclaiming this is essential to peace.
Mary, Mother of God – we honor you today. And we pray that you always accompany us with
your motherly love and your heart-felt prayers for us. We pray for the New Year of 2015. We pray that you be with us, Mary, every step of the way.
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