Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God January 1, 2021
Fr. Albert St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette
Merry Christmas! We’re still celebrating it you know. The Christmas season lasts until the middle of January – or even to February 2nd if you follow the old calendar. More importantly, today/Friday marks the 8th day, the octave day of the feast of Christ’s birth. As with music, an octave is the same thing in a different register. Christmas is so important, so profound that we spend 8 whole days re-entering into it, celebrating it, and – as Mary did – pondering it in our hearts.
And this octave highlights a particular part of that rather expansive reality of God’s incarnation. Today is called the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God. Many non-Catholics, when they hear that phrase, are immediately concerned that we’ve gone too far. But the timing of this celebration is the key to understanding it correctly. Mary being the Mother of God is a direct correlation of the Incarnation of the Son of God as a man. Jesus is both fully God and fully man. Yet he remains only one person.
It should be abundantly obvious that Mary did not come before God and that she did not “make” God. What she did do, however, was give birth to a person. That person is Jesus, who is both God and Man. So, when we say Mary is the mother of Jesus, it becomes necessary to include the fact that Jesus is God, which makes her the “Mother of God.” The point of this title is to emphasize that Jesus is not divided. As with everything else we say about Mary, it ultimately boils down to what we want to say about Jesus our God and savior.
This mystery is also about God’s love for us. Our first reading is the Levitical blessing given to Aaron during the exodus. It has remained in use from then even to today, where it is one of the blessings we use at the end of Mass. And the way it’s formulated speaks to us of the same motivation God had for honoring Mary in the way that he did.
“The Lord bless you and keep you.” This word “keep” is also translated as “protect” or “watch over.” The Lord uses the same word when he tells Adam to take care of the garden. In other words, part of God’s blessing is that he takes active interest in our growth and well-being. It also implies that his care for us is meant to lead us to produce fruit. By choosing to be born of Mary, God allowed a human being to bring forth the greatest fruit possible, God himself.
“The LORD let his face shine upon you and be gracious to you!” This expression points us to the very human reality we all know, the value of looking a person in the eyes, of being face to face – something sorely missed in isolation. I love seeing babies and getting face to face with them to make them smile. I’m sure few joys in a woman’s life can exceed that of seeing their baby’s face for the first time. God desired not only to look on us in a spiritual way, but to physically take on a face to gaze into ours. Not only that, but he humbled himself to initiate that loving gaze from a position of weakness and vulnerability, from the position of a newborn child looking at his mother for the first time.
This idea of being gracious means showing favor but also implies a level of compassion and mercy. When God appears in the Old Testament, people are afraid and are nearly killed by the power of that appearance. In his compassionate desire to favor us with his presence, he cloaks himself in flesh and lets himself be held by a young Jewish girl in a stable. He even goes so far as to suffer the same rules he put on his people. It was God who told the Jews to circumcise and today we see that he himself first shed his precious blood by being circumcised, that he was humble and compassionate enough to endure this practice with us, at least until his death and resurrection made it no longer necessary.
“The LORD look upon you kindly and give you peace!” The more literal way of translating is to say that God either lifts up or shines his face upon you. Again and again we encounter this idea of the power of God’s face, a face made visible in the incarnation of Jesus Christ, a face at least partly inherited from Mary his mother. It is this loving gaze that grants peace.
And as we enter into this New Year, it is this secret of peace we must put foremost in our hearts and minds. Most people are excited to call the end of 2020 and look with hope to this being a better year, more full of peace and joy than the last. This is a good desire and we have the power to make it happen if we cling to this truth about peace.
Peace does not come from external things like wealth or even internal physical things like health. Peace comes from the face of God. Peace is the fruit of a soul that sees the gaze of God, that receives the Holy Spirit which pours forth from that gaze, and which responds “Abba, Father!” no matter the circumstances. Peace is also the fruit of justice, which is possible only with the help of God.
So, whether this year brings more political stability or not, whether it brings better health or not, it is up to us to resolve here and now to bring more peace into 2021. How? By gazing on the face of God and allowing that gaze to fall on us. In this, we can find no better model and supporter than Mary, the mother of God.
Like Mary, heed the angel who calls you to bear Christ inside yourself: This can be done by receiving communion worthily. Like Mary who rushed to help her cousin Elizabeth, be eager to help those in need. Like Mary who gazed with love on the face of her newborn son, take time to simply gaze with love on God by adoration. Like Mary who was obedient to God and the Law of Moses by circumcising and naming her son Jesus, obey the laws of God given through the Church. Like Mary who “kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart,” you should read scripture and reflect on what God has done and is doing.
As Mary is the mother of God by being the mother of Jesus Christ, so she is our mother because we are the body of Christ. God has blessed us with such a mother, and he will continue to bless those who imitate her and trust in her intercession. Thank God 2020 is over. May God bless us in his mercy by making 2021 a year in which we all grow holier, whether the world around us gets better or not.