Gospel: Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God

Today is New Year's Day, the first day of January, and the Eucharistic celebration will be graced by a reading of the Holy Gospel according to St Luke (tap here for the complete Mass readings from USCCB).

The life of Jesus in this world begins with Mary. Therefore, it is appropriate that we begin the New Year with the feast of the dogma of Mary, as the Holy Mother of God. This celebration echoes the truth that the Blessed Virgin Mary is also our Mother in Heaven. Since Mary is the Mother of God she is the mother of our joy, the joy to the world. The Virgin Mary also became the Mother of the Church through her total adherence to God's will in her life. So it is only rightful that the traditional greeting on this New Year's Day is one of joy: "Happy New Year!" 

We offer each other the prayer that the Lord Jesus will fill our lives during the coming year with an abundance of blessings that will enrich our spiritual lives so that we may continue to be his shining light in the world. The Virgin Mary is mother to all of us and her motherhood extends to the faithful when Jesus on the cross offered to his beloved disciple the Blessed Virgin Mary as his own mother (and mother to the whole world) and since then has entrusted the whole of humanity to her motherly care. It's also very significant that the most venerated human being in the liturgical schedule and devotion within the Church is a woman, i.e, a Mother who is full of grace, love and tenderness.

It is only fitting to honor the Virgin Mary's role in the Incarnation because all mothers participate with God in an exeptional way to raise up new life. A mother welcomes and carries in herself another human being, enabling it to grow inside herself, giving it room, respecting it in its otherness. She plays a vital role in ensuring that the future generation will be born and cared for by loving elders. By entrusting the young to the kind tenderness of a mother, the baby is safe, feels safe, and distinctly celebrated.

Today, the Church affirms the doctrine of Mary as the Mother of God. This Catholic Dogma finds its origin from the passage found in our reading of the Gospel of St Luke. After St Gabriel appeared to Mary, she went to visit her cousin Elizabeth. Upon her arrival, St Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, sincerely expressed her joy at the arrival of the Mother of God at her doorstep. It is a greeting of joy in the midst of the mystery of our salvation.

In 431 AD, the Council of Ephesus affirmed that the Virgin Mary was truly the Mother of God because "according to the flesh" she gave birth to Jesus, who was truly God from the first moment of his conception. Twenty years later, the Council of Chalcedon affirmed that the Motherhood of Mary was a truthful dogma and was officially declared as doctrine of the Holy Catholic Church. Her Motherhood began when the eternal God entered human history in order to dwell with us. For indeed, the second Divine person of the Trinity, the Word Incarnate, took on human nature inside the womb of the Holy Virgin.

Coincidentally on January 3rd, we will celebrate the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus (which is also the Octave of the Feast of St John the Evangelist). The Scriptures tell us that on the eighth day of his birth, Jesus was circumcised and was given the name as told by the angel. The importance of this feast emphasizes the underlying premise of the mystery of God's incarnation: that Jesus Christ, in the true nature of the hypostatic union, came to us in the form of human flesh to be the Savior of all, die on the cross, to be Resurrected after three days in order to become the guiding light for all of humanity to witness with a complete sense of wonderment and fulfillment.

May the coming New Year be filled with memories and triumphant victories despite the harsh realities of life, especially the events which occur that can only be understood from the complete examination of the inherent misery of human tragedy. And that despite of these many bitter truths, may we completely experience the joy in knowing that there is a Triune God (and a Mother in Heaven) watching over us.

Let us pray:

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

I wish everybody a Prosperous New Year!

FOR PSEUDONYMOUS BOSCH

Love, Quiche

x---------x

The Gospel is sponsored by Supreme.