Today, we celebrate the end of the year 2022 and the beginning of a New Year of 2023. On the first day of the New Year, we always celebrate the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God - Mary, as the Theotokos, the God bearer through whom Jesus came into the world. In Lumen Gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church from the Second Vatican Council, it was declared that God did not employ Mary in a purely passive way, but that she freely cooperated in the work of human salvation through her faith and her obedience. The great Early Church Father St. Irenaeus is quoted in Lumen Gentium, noting: “Being obedient, Mary became the cause of salvation for herself and for the whole human race.” Mary is seen as the new Eve, as St Irenaeus states: “The knot of Eve’s disobedience was untied by Mary’s obedience; what the virgin Eve bound through her unbelief, the Virgin Mary loosened through her faith.” Pope Francis loves the image of Mary as helping us untie that knots that hinder us on our journey of faith. In our relationship with God, when we disobey his will, when we do not listen to him, when we lack trust, when we turn to sin, a kind of knot is created in us. These knots take away our peace and serenity, hope and trust. These knots can become tangled, making it difficult to untie them. Yet, we know nothing is impossible with God and his grace. By saying yes to God, Mary opened the door for God to undo the knot of original sin, that ancient disobedience. Mary, the Mother of God and our Mother, patiently and lovingly brings us to God so that he can untangle the knots in our souls.
Lumen Gentium goes on to say that through Mary’s faith and obedience, she gave birth to the very Son of the Father, not conceived by man, but by the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit. Mary first conceived Jesus in faith and then conceived him in the flesh by freely following God’s will and God’s calling in her life. What took place most singularly in the Blessed Mother also can take place within us in a spiritual sense. When we receive the word of God into our hearts with sincerity and humility, when we put his word into practice in our lives, then God take flesh within us and comes to dwell within us. In this way, Mary as the Mother of God and as the first disciple is not only our greatest example of faith, but she is our Mother who leads us and guides us to Christ. We can bring Jesus to life in a spiritual sense in the same way Mary brought him to life.
We celebrate the beginning of the New Year with Mary as we ask for her prayers and intercessions for our journey, for our nation, and for our families. January 1st marks a World Peace Day, which was established by Pope Paul VI in 1968. The theme this year reflects what we have been through in the world these past couple of years: “No one can be saved alone. Combatting Covid-19 together, embarking together on paths of peace.” The Pope recalls how the Apostle Paul encouraged the Thessalonian community to remain steadfast in their faith. The pope states: “when tragic events seem to overwhelm our lives, we are called to keep our hearts open to hope and to trust in God, who makes himself present, accompanies us with tenderness, sustains us in our weariness and, above all, guides our path.” The pope reminds us that there is the light of faith that shines even in our darkest hour. He concludes his new year’s peace message by stating: “To all men and women of goodwill, I express my prayerful trust that, as artisans of peace, they may work, day by day, to make this a good year!”
As brothers and sisters in Christ, as members of the human family, we are to help each other on our journey, we are to support each other and to provide encouragement to each other, remembering that on our journey of faith, we are never alone. As we celebrate Mary today, may we always invite her to be with us on our journey.
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