1 January 2019 – solemnity of Mary, Mother of God – Luke 2:16-21

       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.

01/1/2018 – Mary, Mother of God – Luke 2:16-21

    Today, we celebrate Mary as the Mother of God as we welcome in the new year.  Mary is always an important part of our Catholic consciousness, but even more so this time of the year.  We not only hear a lot about Mary during Advent and Christmas in her connection to Christ’s birth, but in the past month, we also had the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception and Our Lady of Guadalupe, in addition to the solemnity that we celebrate today. Even though Mary has a unique role in our history of salvation and in the story of Jesus, Protestants and Catholics alike can have misconceptions about Mary’s role in our Catholic faith.  As a priest, when people ask me about our Catholic faith, many questions often revolve around Mary and her role in our faith. I am structuring my homily around some questions we are 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 431 AD.  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. The title “Mother of God” gives us deeper understanding of Jesus, since we must always remember that Mary does not direct honor and glory to herself, but rather her role in our faith is to always point us in the direction of Jesus. 

     One of my favorite Catholic writers, 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 appeared 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. Rather, Mary is an intercessor who prayers for us and with us, who strengthens our faith and who nurtures us with motherly love. 

       So, how can we see Mary today as modern Catholics?  How can we see her as a model of faith?  Mary has always been a part of our faith story, but she has been 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 what she heard from the shepherds in her heart.  Mary does not follow blindly, but rather thinks, reflects, ponders, meditates, and makes up her own mind. Mary is formed by her Jewish faith traditions, but she makes the decision to accept God’s will for her in her life.  Through Mary’s courage and strength of character, she truly becomes Christ’s first disciple. 

       As someone who came to the Catholic faith as an adult from a Protestant upbringing, 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 2018, 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. 

1/1/2016 – solemnity of Mary, Mother of God – Luke 2:16-21

       Think of all the different titles we have 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 Good Help, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Our Lady of the Rosary, and Our Lady the Snows.   Today 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 the lives of the Christian people.  It describes the loving and genuine devotion we have to our Mother.  We may think about the many ways we have honored Mary in less than a month: the Immaculate Conception on December 8, Our Lady of Guadalupe on December 12, Mary as the Mother of Jesus at Christmas, and now Mary the Mother of God as we celebrate the New Year.

       The famous Christian historian Jaroslav Pelikan states that Mary has been more inspiration to more people than any other woman who has ever lived.  Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy, the matriarch of the Kennedy family and a very devout  Catholic, reflecting upon all the tragedies she endured throughout her lifetime, once stated 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 difficult and essential lessons that Mary teaches us through her example is her willingness to accept her suffering and to learn from it.  From the very beginning, when Mary was told of the upcoming birth of Jesus 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 his will, even if she did not always understand it.  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.  Mary's strength and courage helps her move through the heartbreaks and struggle in 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 she 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 our struggles can seem overwhelming or too burdensome.  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 and maintained her faith and her love for God.

      At the beginning of this homily, I spoke about the different titles that we have for Mary.  In the Year of Mercy that we celebrate this year, I thought of the title of Mother of Mercy that is ascribed to Mary.  Mary is often depicted as the Mother of Mercy in Christian art, sheltering a group of people under her outspread cloak.  As we are called to be merciful like the Father is merciful in this Year of Mercy, it could also be said that we are to emulate the mercy of Mary as well.

       As we honor Mary today in a special way today, bringing the old year of 2015 to a close and inaugurating the new year of 2016, 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 in either the 8^th or 9^th centuries, and 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.