The Virgin Mary let God’s face shine on us!
Homily preached January 1, 2022
by Monsignor Michael Deering
One of the phone calls I most like to get is the announcement of the birth of a baby.
Over the past many months, I’ve received several calls advising me that a new baby boy or baby girl has been born.
Typically when I get the call from the Dad or some other family member, they’ll announce the event and then use the expression, “mother and baby are doing fine!”
It’s a customary way of letting us know that everything turned out ok with the birth ... “mother and baby are doing fine!”
This is a very important and meaningful statement because certainly ...
both the baby and the mother played a part in the birth process and so there’s always a concern for both … we want to know how both of them are doing
You see, it’s not all about the baby … the Mother was a key player too.
And this certainly applies to the Birth that we just celebrated last Friday,
the Birth that took place 2021 years ago, the Birth of the God-man, Jesus Christ.
By God’s design, the arrival of His Son took place as a Nativity … as the birth of a Baby from a Mother. St. Paul announces this in our Second Reading saying,
“When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman.”
Fortunately for all of us, even though they were in a manger ...
Mother and Baby were doing fine!
Last week, we took time to celebrate the Baby, Jesus, in a joyful and worthy way
Today, we take time to celebrate the Mother, Mary, in a joyful and worthy way.
Both played an important part in bringing new life to the world!
You know it’s customary to offer congratulations to the woman
who has just given birth to a baby.
It seems only right that she be applauded for all that she has just accomplished in carrying her child within her for 9 months and then going through the birth process. So we certainly offer congratulations to the Mom!
Well, that’s exactly what we do on this Feast Day today …
we offer congratulations to Mary ... on being the Mother of Jesus.
You know, even with all the nativity sets that get set up in homes and stores and businesses all over the world, there are still many people who have trouble giving honor to Mary for her role in bringing Jesus into the world...for her role as Mother.
Who is Jesus? He is God … the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity.
That makes His Mother, Mary ... pretty special indeed!
And so we Catholics have no problem lavishing our congratulations upon Mary,
praising her and acclaiming her as ... the Mother of God.
Some people have trouble with calling Mary … the Mother of God.
But it’s really a very accurate designation.
We simply ask: Is Jesus God? The answer is yes.
And we ask: Is Mary His Mother? The answer is yes.
Good … then Mary is the Mother of God!
Some people ask, “Well, why do you give so much attention and praise to Mary?”
I usually ask them to say her title and let the words roll slowly off their lips.
“Mary … the Mother of God!”
Now tell me, can anyone else anywhere claim that title? No!
That puts Mary is in a class all by herself! By God’s design, Mary was chosen from among all women to be the Mother of God’s Only Begotten Son!
Why do we afford such honor to Mary?
You know when Christ accepted the call from His Father to become a man,
He accepted the responsibility to obey the Law, the Moral Law summarized in the Ten Commandments. St. Paul refers to this in our Second Reading from Galatians. writing, “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.”
The 4th Commandment of God’s law is, “Honor your Father and Mother.”
In the original Hebrew language, the word “covotha” meant “to glorify” …
“to bestow whatever honor and glory you have upon your father and mother.
Christ fulfilled that Law more perfectly than any human being:
First by bestowing His glory upon the Heavenly Father ...
and by taking his own Divine Glory and honoring His Mother, Mary, with it.
So you see, Christ honored His Mother … and all we do is imitate Christ!
He honors His Mother with His own glory; we honor her with Christ’s glory.
So you see, if every woman is 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 Savior of all mankind!
And you know what, Mary is more than 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.
Mary is Mother to us all! So, by God’s design ... Mary has a very big family!
And if Mary is indeed our Mother, then God’s 4th Commandment applies to us
in her regard and is further motivation for us to want to honor and glorify her.
There are many ways that we honor Mary with prayers, litanies, novenas and devotions. But her favorite form of honor appears to be the Holy Rosary. Because it’s in this prayer that we actually contemplate the mysteries of her Son, Jesus.
In praying the rosary we meditate on the Joyful, Luminous, Sorrowful & Glorious Mysteries of Our Lord’s life ... while we repeatedly pray the Hail Mary prayer.
And it’s in the third sentence of the Hail Mary prayer that we honor Mary
by her greatest title ... praying: “Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death, Amen.”
This is the most important truth about Mary, the fact that she is the Mother of God! While this understanding was present from the earliest days of the Church, it was definitively declared by the Bishops at the Council of Ephesus in the year 431 that Mary is “Theotokis”; which is the Greek word that means “God-bearer”.
Then, exactly 1500 years later, in the year 1931,
the Church added this feast that we celebrate today to the universal calendar.
While initially celebrated on October 11th, Pope Paul VI changed the date in the early 1970’s to January 1st, New Years Day throughout the worldwide Church.
You know, a great honor that Mothers afford their family and friends ...
is when they ask those visiting, “Would you like to hold the baby?”
How wonderful to get to hold a newborn baby … all 7 pounds of them!
Well imagine Mary, the Mother of Jesus, asking you,
“Would you like to hold my Baby?”
What would your answer be?
Well, in a very real way, you get to hold Jesus each and every time you receive Holy Communion! Jesus is truly there, veiled under the appearance of Bread and Wine.
Yes, Jesus allows us to hold Him ... in our bodies ... in Holy Communion!
In the Holy Eucharist, He comes to be with us in the most intimate way in the world. He let’s us hold Him ... inside ourselves.
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 the Baby Jesus.
Being clean makes sense in the hospital ... and it makes sense in a 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 the Baby Jesus.
In our First reading from the Book of Numbers, God told Moses to tell Aaron, his High Priest, to bless the people saying, “The Lord let His face shine upon you.”
And God did just that when He finally sent His only-begotten Son to be born into our world and live among us as a man. How did He do it? It was through
Jesus’ mother, Mary, that we got to actually see God’s face shine upon us.
As we begin this New Year, let’s happily sing Mary’s praises and let’s contemplate her constant invitation, “Would you like to hold my baby?”
“Would you like to hold my Son?"
And let’s go regularly to hold Jesus … receiving Him in Holy Communion.
And let’s thank and praise the Mother who delivered Him to us ...
Mary, the Mother of God!
God truly has smiled upon us! He sent His Son Jesus to be our brother,
and He’s given us Mary, pure and holy, to be our Mother.
Let’s rejoice in the fact that by Baptism ... we are in such a holy household …
with God as our Father, Jesus as our Brother and Mary as our Mother.
And let’s regularly call out:
Holy Mary, Mother of God, and our Mother too,
pray for us sinners ... now ...
and at the hour of our death.
Amen.
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