Homily for Solemnity of Mary Mother of God Year B 2018
Numbers 6:22-27; Galatians 4:4-7; Luke 2:16-21
Introduction
We are back in Church again. As I suggested in Sunday's homily, the Catholic train, unlike the secular one, celebrates Christmas by continuing on its journey, making stops at various stations. On Sunday the stop was the Holy Family and today, New Year's Day, it is the station we could call Mary Mother of God.
Today's celebration highlights three interconnected themes:
- First, we mark the eighth and last day of the Christmas Octave
- Second, we celebrate the Motherhood of Mary
- Thirdly, we mark the beginning of a new civil year
And so like the Trinity, we have three themes in this one celebration.
Scripture and Theology and Christian Life
Let us start with the eight days of Christmas. One might ask why we Catholics celebrate Christmas Day for eight days! Is that not overkill?
The gospel passage of today, almost in passing, said something about the eighth day. "When eight days were completed for his circumcision, he was named Jesus, the name given him by the angel before he was conceived in the womb." The eighth day after the birth of a child was important for the Jewish people; it was the day of circumcision and the naming of the child. This number of days may have been practical, to allow the mother to recover from the delivery and perhaps be present at this ritual. Its religious significance, however, was that the birthing period was extended for eight days, highlighting the fact that the birth and integration of a child into the family is not just functional process, but one with religious meaning as well. Perhaps we could see our own baptism of babies as being a comparable ritual.
But there is another reason that we celebrate Christmas for eight days. Only two feasts of the Catholic calendar, Christmas and Easter, can boast of this honour of having an Octave. These two feasts celebrate the two principal events of our salvation, which are, the mystery of the Incarnation at Christmas and the Paschal Mystery at Easter; on these two hinges our salvation depends. If we celebrate Mardi Gras for weeks on end, all the more reason for us to celebrate the central events of our salvation, especially the birth of the Lord, for at least eight days.
Our second theme for today is the motherhood of Mary. The Church chooses to celebrate this eighth day of Christmas with a Solemnity of Mary as Mother of God. Again, you might ask, "why"? Does Mary not have enough feasts in her honour throughout the year, for example, the Assumption, the Immaculate Conception and virtually every Saturday of Ordinary Time? It goes without saying that the motherhood of Mary is a natural fit for the Christmas season; we celebrate the birth of the baby Jesus, why not celebrate his mother as well?
But the more controversial question is not about Mary's motherhood of Jesus, but her motherhood of God. If you lived next door to Mary and Joseph in Nazareth and you saw her passing by and you said, "there goes the mother of Jesus," nobody would bat an eyelid. Everybody in Nazareth knew that Mary was the mother of Jesus. Even in the gospels, during the wedding at Cana and at the foot of the cross, Mary is simply called the mother of Jesus.
But if you pointed to Mary and shouted, "there goes the Mother of God," you would be lucky to get away with your life; for according to Jewish understanding, you would be committing blasphemy, suggesting that Jesus, a human being, is God. Even in the early centuries of the Church, some people denied that Mary was the Mother of God. How could Mary, a creature, give birth to God, they asked? Does it mean that she too was eternal? But there is more to the story.
Let me share with you a custom from my home country of Uganda. Mothers are often called, not by their own names or even the names of their husbands, but by names of their children. A mother is often referred to by a phrase that roughly translates as “mother of so-and-so.” My mother, for example, is rarely called by her name "Josephine," but is referred to as “Mama Deo,” after me. Most mothers appreciate this custom, since it emphasizes their role of motherhood. But spare a thought for mothers whose children turn out bad; no woman would like to be referred to as the "mother of so-and-so," the school bully, or the drug dealer.
Fortunately for Mary, she has a son, who gave her honour. Because he is, both God and man, he gives his mother the title of "Mother of God." Today’s gospel passage about the shepherds provides further evidence for our belief. When the angel appeared to them, he told them that down the hill in Bethlehem they would "find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger," one who was both Messiah, that is Saviour and Lord, that is, God. But on going down to Bethlehem what do they find? They find a teenage girl with her somewhat older husband and a nondescript baby lying in a feeding box in a dark and smelly cowshed. They don’t find anything resembling the trappings of a Lord and Messiah: no halos, no heavenly clouds, no singing angels. What an anti-climax!
The shepherds, however, believed the angel’s message that this tiny baby was truly the Messiah, the Saviour of the world, God’s Son. Their faith helped them look beyond the poor accommodations of the baby Jesus and believed that he was God, and his human mother, the Mother of God.
And now to the third theme of today's celebration, the fact that we are beginning a new civil year. Some mark the new year by drinking copious amounts of champagne, others by making resolutions whose life-expectancy is shorter than that of a housefly. Catholics begin the New Year by asking for God's blessings.
The first reading from the Book of Numbers provides the formula that the Lord prescribed for his priests to use whenever they blessed the people:
The LORD bless you and keep you! The LORD let his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you! The LORD look upon you kindly and give you peace!
Surely as we come to the end of one chaotic year, socially and politically, we need these blessings of God, more than ever in the New Year.
But we must be careful when we speak of blessings. What blessings are we seeking in the New Year? There is a tendency among some Christians today, to say, "I am blessed" when they fall into some good luck, when they escape misfortune or just when things are going well. "I am blessed I have a job; I am blessed that I walked out of that car wreck uninjured; I am blessed to have such good children." Unfortunately, this understanding of blessing is narrow and is based on the so-called prosperity gospel, suggesting that those who have fallen on bad luck are not blessed. This theology presents us with a God who is nothing more than a fairy God-mother dishing out material favours to us.
But the blessings of God include much more than material prosperity and in fact are more concerned with spiritual wholesomeness. Just listen to the Beatitudes, in which Jesus teaches us the blessings that we must seek:
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they who mourn . . . . Blessed are the meek . . . . Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness . . . . Blessed are the merciful . . . . Blessed are the clean of heart . . . . Blessed are the peacemakers . . . . Blessed are they who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness . . . Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you [falsely] because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.
Conclusion
And so, on this eighth day of Christmas, we ask Mary, the mother of God and our mother, who was blessed by God with many singular favours, to intercede for us, so that we too may receive, not the things we want, but the true blessings we need from God, especially having life with him now and always.
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