HOMILY FOR THE SOLEMNITY OF MARY, MOTHER OF GOD
Rev. Fr. Ezekoka Peter Onyekachi
Reading 1: Numbers 6:22-27
Responsorial: Psalm 66:2
Reading 2: Galatians 4:4-7
Gospel: Luke 2:16-21
When God willed to come to us in time and space as both fully man and fully God, He came to us through Mary. And now, as we step into the New Year, we in our humanity go to Him through Mary. Our blessed Mother Mary becomes the primary channel of our journey to God, just as she was the Ultimate channel of God’s journey into the world at the Incarnation. We celebrate Mary, herself conceived without original sin, as the woman who conceived and gave birth to Jesus. This means that the human flesh of Jesus was obtained directly from Mary. As the faith informs us, Jesus is a divine Person, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. In Him is one Person with two natures - human nature and the divine nature. Thus we can confidently assert that the full humanity and the full divinity of Jesus Christ are inseparable, non-divisible, as they are eternally united in the one divine Person, Jesus Christ.
That said, we can deduce an easily perceptible syllogism from the two following propositions.
As
1. Christ is a divine Person (and therefore, God), while His human and divine natures are inseparably united, and as
2. Mary is the mother of Jesus, the woman through whom He obtained His human nature [God sent his Son, born of a woman (cf. Second Reading; Gal. 4:4-7)]
then it follows that
3. Mary is the Mother of God, since the two natures of Jesus cannot be separated or bisected or divided up; and while the Christ is a fully divine Person, He is simultaneously fully human.
This is the Solemnity that we celebrate today: that Mary is the Mother of God. It is entirely correct to venerate Mary as the Mother of God - but this apt title does not in any way imply that Mary is the source of the existence of the Second divine Person Who has existed consubstantially with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit from all eternity. Our Lady’s title, Theotokos (the ‘God-bearer’, the ‘bearer of God’), underlines that she is the Mother of God incarnate – the mother of the Christ both fully man and fully divine, the woman who is the great example to us all of how we should submit ourselves, offer ourselves totally, to God’s will.
And so, we must begin with her. We begin with Mary, because her example teaches us the virtues of patience and calmness. How come? Because by looking at her example, we can see that we are safely in God’s hands. We begin with Mary, because through her we find the route to salvation. The start of each New Year ought to remind us that a new era of salvation opened for us when God Himself stepped from eternity into time and space and took on full humanity. We begin with our Blessed Mother, because in going continually to her, we find the assurance of walking along the right path in life without stumbling.
The Gospel Reading (Luke 2:16-21) told the story of the birth of Jesus and the visitation by the shepherds, who had come to confirm the message that the angels had given them concerning the birth of the Messiah. The shepherds found Mary and Joseph, and the Baby lying in a manger. As for Mary, she treasured in her heart all these amazing occurrences, and she gave them deep thought. Luke’s narrative attempts to show Mary’s reaction to the extraordinary experiences that accompanied Jesus’ birth, growth to adulthood, and ultimately to His earthly ministry. Luke used this same statement (in Luke 2:52) when he was writing about Mary’s reaction after finding Jesus in the Temple, the place of sacrifice. How quiet and peaceful the heart of Mary was. The humility and peaceful aura of Mary attracted God’s grace and blessings. On earth, she was a Mother to reckon with - never garrulous, but, rather, contemplative, with a total abandonment to the divine will.
The gospel passage pictures Mary as having a humble and trustful heart. The happenings in and around her at that time, and the speed at which the sequence of events was happening, must have been almost overwhelming for her. From the message of the Angel Gabriel, followed by her visit to Elizabeth, the reaction of Joseph in accepting her pregnancy when he was not the father, the exhaustion of giving birth far from home, the lack of medical assistance, the need to wrap her baby in rags and place him in a manger instead of a cradle, and finally the visit of some scruffy outcasts of society with an incredible story about the manifestation of angels. These events seem to have been just too much for her to speak about at the time. We know that she took her time to come to terms with them as she pondered them in her heart. Sometimes, just like Mary, we too retreat into a quiet corner and find ourselves pondering silently, alone with our thoughts, when things in life get complicated. To live healthily, both spiritually and physically, it is absolutely essential to make time to be quiet, to take time out of our busy schedules, to reserve for ourselves some periods for contemplation and reflection. And doesn’t the New Year, with our New Year resolutions in the forefront of our minds, offer us a great opportunity to step up to achieve this with great joy, hope and love!
Through the life, obedience and decision-making of Mary, the whole world was able to welcome the Saviour of mankind. Through her, we are blessed … blessed to face the troubling moments of human life as well as the joys. As our Mother, the Queen of Heaven at the right hand of Jesus to intercede for us, she cares for us and warns us if we are about to cause ourselves harm. Her maternal care, and the blessings that come with her warm embrace, can be clearly understood in the light of the blessings that God gave to the household of Aaron through Moses in the First Reading (Numbers 6:22-27). It is a three-fold blessing: the Lord bless you and keep you; may He let his face shine upon you and be gracious to you, and may he be kind to you and give you peace. In the spirit of the New Year, we really ought to claim these blessings for ourselves, our friends, our families and our fellow parishioners. May we, through these blessings, become ever more firmly rooted in the Faith, and become truly rich in the Holy Spirit: rich in joy, rich in hope, rich in love, rich in service and rich in all things good. Happy New Year to you! May I wish you all the best for 2020, whatever challenges it may bring. God bless you.
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