In our Catholic faith, we have so many different titles for our Mother Mary. Some of these titles describe the different attributes that Mary has: Morning Star, Queen of the Prophets, Vessel of Honor, Queen of the Angels, and Mirror of Justice. Some of these titles are related to different devotions and apparitions of the Blessed Mother: Our Lady of the Pillar, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Our Lady of the Rosary, and Our Lady the Snows. On her feast day of January 1, we celebrate and honor Mary in a special way as the Mother of God. This is the first and most important title that we ascribe to Mary. It describes the place Mary has in our lives and describes the loving and genuine devotion we have to our Mother.
Christian historian Jaroslav Pelikan states that Mary has inspired more people than any other woman who has ever lived. Rose Kennedy, the matriarch of the Kennedy family and a very devout Catholic, reflected upon all the tragedies she endured throughout her lifetime, stating that she constantly found inspiration and consolation in our Blessed Mother, who never lost her faith in God or her faith in her Son even when she saw Jesus crucified and reviled. Indeed, one of the most essential lessons that Mary teaches us is her willingness to accept her suffering and to learn from it. From the very beginning, when Mary was told about Jesus’ upcoming birth by the Angel, she opened herself up to God with the response of “yes” and she prepared herself for whatever was to come according to God’s will, even if she did not always understand. It is easy to agree to something like this, but difficult to live this out faithfully throughout one’s life. Yet, Mary went through her sufferings and agony, remaining faithful to God. Her strength and courage helps her move through the struggles of her life by relying on God’s mercy and on the help and support of her family and loved ones. Through the pain of seeing her son suffer, through the agony of not understanding how her life and the life of her son unfolded, Mary took all those experiences into her heart and pondered them. On last Sunday’s feast of the Holy Family, with the young Jesus lost for 3 days and separated from his parents, with the message from the Angel conveyed by the shepherds to Mary in today’s Gospel, Mary took all these things into her heart and reflected on them. Sometimes, our lives and struggles can seem overwhelming. When this happens, we are to be like Mary and reflect on them in our hearts. I remember when I had a parishioner who had gone through the tragic death of her son, Sister Paulinus, a Sister of Mercy and a very good friend of this lady, told her that her experiences mirrored those of Mary, of how Mary grieved for her son and pondered her sorrows in her heart, maintaining her faith and her love for God.
As we celebrate a new year today and close out the old year of 2018, I would like to close our homily today with one of the great hymns that has been written about Mary. When I took a course on Mary and her role in the Church, we had to write a paper at the end of the course analyzing an aspect of Marian theology. Our professor suggested that I choose the Marian hymn AVE MARIS STELLA (Hail Star of Sea), which was written in Latin around the 8th or 9th centuries; it has often been attributed to St Bernhard of Clairvaux. It was a particularly favorite hymn for monks to chant during the prayers of the liturgy of the hours during the Middle Ages. Here are some of the verses of that hymn that demonstrates the love, respect, and honor the faithful of the Church have had for Mary, the Mother of God throughout the ages:
Hail, bright star of the ocean,
God's own Mother blest,
Ever sinless Virgin,
Gate of heavenly rest.
Taking that sweet Ave
Which from Gabriel came,
Peace confirm within us,
Changing Eva's name.
Break the captives' fetters,
Light on blindness pour,
All our ills expelling,
Every bliss implore.
Show thyself a Mother;
May the Word Divine,
Born for us thy Infant,
Hear our prayers through thine.
Virgin all excelling,
Mildest of the mild,
Freed from guilt, preserve us,
Pure and undefiled.
Keep our life all spotless,
Make our way secure,
Till we find in Jesus,
Joy forevermore.
Through the highest heaven
To the Almighty Three,
Father, Son and Spirit,
One same glory be. Amen.
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