Homily originally presented January 1, 2019
The Virgin Mary let God’s face shine on us!
The year 2018, just completed, continued to be another year abundant in new life for our Parish family.
Between Deacon Adrian and myself, we baptized over 30 newborn babies!
How wonderful that God allows us creatures to participate in bringing new life to the world in the act of Procreation. And how wonderful too, that so many of our families are open to accepting the new babies that God wants them to have.
When Mothers come to Church after giving birth, I always congratulate them.
Yes, the newborn baby is the center of attention, but the Mother played
a very significant role in getting the baby here ... so she deserves attention too!
Last Tuesday we celebrated the newborn Babe ... Jesus, the Savior of the world.
We rejoiced as faith community and happily sang His praises that day ...
and continued to celebrate His arrival throughout the week!
But, on this day, the last day of the Octave,
we make a point of celebrating Jesus’ Mother … Blessed Mother Mary.
What did she do? Mary said “Yes” to God and so conceived of the Holy Spirit
and bore Jesus in her womb for His 9 months of development.
Today we acclaim the important role she played in bringing salvation to our world.
Who is Mary?
Well, Jesus is God … and if Mary is His Mother …
then Mary ... is the Mother of God!
You know, even with all the nativity sets that are set up in homes and stores and businesses all over the world, there are still some people who have trouble
celebrating and honoring Mary for her role in bringing Jesus into the world.
Some even ask, “Why do you worship Mary?”
To which I hope you respond, “We don’t worship Mary; we honor her!”
What does it mean to honor?
Well, when Jesus accepted the call from His Father to become a man, He accepted the responsibility to obey His Father’s Law given in the 10 Commandments.
St. Paul refers to this in our Second Reading from Galatians saying,
“When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman,
born under the law … so that we might receive adoption as sons.”
Well, the 4th Commandment of God’s law is, “Honor your Father and Mother.”
The Hebrew word for honor is “covotha”, which means “to glorify” …
“to bestow whatever honor and glory you have upon your father and mother.
As God ... Jesus, fulfilled that Law more perfectly than any other human could …
so, Jesus bestowed His glory upon His Divine Father …
and He also bestowed His glory upon His Human Mother ... Mary.
As Christians … all we try to do … is imitate Jesus!
He honors His Mother with His own glory; so we honor her with Christ’s glory.
If the many new Mom’s in our Parish are to be congratulated and honored for being the mother of a child, how much more is Jesus’ mother, Mary, to be honored for being the mother of … the Divine Child … the Second Person of the Trinity!
And, you see, Mary is more than just Jesus’ Mother; she’s our mother too! For it was there at the foot of the Cross that Jesus gave His Mother to the whole world.
And if Mary is indeed our Mother ... then God’s 4th Commandment should be further motivation for us to want to honor her as Jesus did.
There are many ways we honor Mary … with songs, prayers, litanies, novenas and devotions. But perhaps the best way of honoring her would be the Holy Rosary.
Because it’s in this prayer that our focus is on her Son, Jesus.
In the Rosary we meditate on the Joyful, Luminous, Sorrowful and Glorious Mysteries of Jesus’ life ... while we repeatedly pray the Hail Mary prayer.
And in the third sentence of every Hail Mary, we honor Mary by her greatest title.
We pray, “Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death, Amen.”
This is the most esteemed title of Mary, the title … Mother of God!
It’s the title used by all Christians from the earliest days of the Church and definitively declared by the Bishops at the Council of Ephesus in the year 431, when Mary was declared “Theotokis”; the Greek word that means “God-bearer”.
In the year 1931, the Church added this feast to the universal calendar …
and so we celebrate it each year on January 1st, New Years Day.
You know, one of the highlights of a Baptism for me is the time afterward when pictures are taken and the Parents ask, “Father would you like to hold the baby?”
Yes! Yes! Yes! What a joy! What an honor ... to get to hold their baby!
Well, as you contemplate Mary, as the Mother of Baby Jesus, imagine her asking you, “Would you like to hold Him?” “Would you like to hold my Son?”
What would your answer be?
Would you like to hold the Baby Jesus?
I’ll never forget how 2 yr. old Lily Clare picked up Baby Jesus from the Manger on Christmas Eve … how she held Him tight to her chest … for a long time …
and cried ... when she finally had to put Him down!
You see, we’re programed to want to hold God … and He gives us that privilege even before Heaven … each and every time we receive Holy Communion!
Jesus is there ... veiled under the appearance of Bread and Wine …
for us to take into our bodies and welcome into our souls.
The Eucharist is not a little statue of Jesus … it’s really Him … His true presence!
So are you ready to hold Baby Jesus? You know, at the hospital,
they ask you to wash your hands before you hold a newborn baby.
In a similar way, the Catholic Church asks you to wash your souls
before you receive Baby Jesus.
Being clean makes sense in the hospital ... and it makes sense in Church.
The way we wash our souls is in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
This is the process that readies us to be able to hold Baby Jesus.
In our First reading from the Book of Numbers, God promised that He would,
“let His face shine upon you.”
And He did just that when, in the fullness of time, He sent His only-begotten Son to be born as a human being and become visible to us. Yes, it was through Jesus’ mother, Mary, that we actually got to see God’s face … shine upon us.
As we begin this New Year, let’s happily sing Mary’s praises
and say yes to her constant invitation, “Would you like to hold my son?”
Let’s go regularly to embrace Jesus … receiving Him in Holy Communion, worshipping Him in Eucharistic adoration, receiving His Mercy in Confession, and reaching out to Him in our daily prayers … especially the Rosary.
Yes, God truly has smiled upon us in sending us His Son! For through Jesus’ great work of Redemption, we can be baptized and adopted into His Family ...
with God as our Father, Jesus as our Brother ... and Mary as our Mother!
Let’s never cease to worship God ... and honor Mary ... the Mother of God.
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