Homily

Solemnity of Mary, The Holy Mother of God January 1, 2017
Happy New Year to the redeemed in Christ! Renewed in Christ we give thanks because the gift of God’s son fills us with his blessings. Because he has come we can say “Our Father”, not slaves of the world but heirs to his kingdom.
Jesus born of a woman is in the heart of the believer. Jesus fully human and fully divine we call God, and Mary the Mother of God in the mystery of the Trinity. Today among many Christian denominations it is scandalous to call Mary the Mother of God. God is the creator of all without beginning, the uncreated. How can Catholics say she is the mother of an uncreated God? We say it because the uncreated God came to us as a child through Mary. God the son has always been with the Father and the Spirit and now he comes to be with us. To deny Mary as the Mother of God is to deny Jesus as God incarnate, a blasphemy.
This truth was a struggle for the early church believers since his coming and remains hidden behind the veil for some Christian denominations. Some tried to make him half human and half God, others lower than God the Father but higher than humanity, an in between God. Even today there are many who cannot deny the reality of his history on earth and accept him as another great prophet in the world.
The resistance to Mary as Mother of God is the resistance of Jesus as God fully human and fully divine. To be renewed in Jesus is to cast away all doubt that in his coming he forgives our sins, heals the sick, and gives life to the dead. He opens the way to salvation and brings comfort to all our trials in life. Believe and have faith that he is with us and in our repentance he gives us his blessing. It is the blessing to have courage, to trust, to go forth filled with his grace.
Mary was full of grace preserved without sin since her conception to be the perfect vessel for his coming. This week I was listening to a television evangelist who asked the question, “who has cheated death?” He boldly claimed he knew of only one and that is Jesus Christ in the resurrection. We proclaim Jesus suffered death and rose again and is seated at the Father’s right hand. That is our creed but I suspect there is someone else who is next to Him also, Mary. What we believe from Mary’s perfect fiat of love is that she also defied death and was assumed into heaven. Many Protestants don’t have a Mariology belief. For many she is just “the woman” who gave birth to Jesus. Mary’s perfection in Christ conquered death and we can too, that is our hope. Mary is the model of humanity to be perfect as God is perfect. In this we are to avoid sin and the near temptation to sin and be children of the light to the world. When we sin we are to seek forgiveness and reconciliation, and he will “cleanse us from every wrongdoing”. Perfect faith, perfect hope, and perfect love rest in Jesus who came to show us the way.
Even as we celebrate this Christmas season in the church we are reminded of the empty tomb, the purpose of his coming. The sacrifice of the Mass is the sacrifice he still suffers for our sins and his coming again to redeem us. Jesus expiation is “not for our sins only but for those of the whole world”. Just as in times past the forces of evil in the world appear to be gaining strength against the forces of good. The evil one believes in Jesus as a sign of contradiction against his limited powers and every day in the Eucharist he is being overthrown by Jesus sacrifice of the Mass.
As soon as the child Jesus is born the angel warns Joseph to take Mary and the child and flee into Egypt. King Herod in his paranoia and fear understood and believed at least in part in the power of the lowly rising up in revolt against him. He understood that this child was a “sign of contradiction” against his kingdom.
Herod is the embodiment of evil at that time in history. He had no trouble ordering the massacre of those Holy Innocent children who were under two years of age. Why? He had already committed the sin of killing his own children to preserve his power. The next step came easy in killing the children of others.
This is one reason we have become a culture of death. Once a society accepts as good what is evil in the freedom to kill the unborn the next step is easy. The elderly, the mentally ill, the disabled will follow because they are the “other” unlike those in power. Today there are reports on the increase of children being killed in the home and Child Protective Services keep increasing their caseloads of child abuse.
The evil one continues to seek and find new souls who will carry his evil and destruction as we see in Aleppo where there continues to be a massacre of innocents while the world watches from afar. We must pray for the sins of the world. We need more than a conversion of souls we need a cultural revolution against the powers of darkness. We need to return to “In God We Trust”.
Let us learn from the shepherds who found Mary, Joseph and the infant in the manger. They believed and received the light of Jesus and immediately became a vessel of the light and went forth to make known the message. They also returned to glorify and praise God.
On Friday we celebrated the solemnity of the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Jesus sanctifies and establishes the family and the center of faith. Recall that in the Old Testament what carried importance was what tribe the person belonged to, like the tribe of Judah. Jesus comes and makes our families the center of his presence to sanctify others.
Fathers when was the last time you gave your blessing to your children, was it when the priest asked you to at their baptism? Before it was the practice of the parents to give your children a blessing before they left the house in the morning. It was also the practice when someone was dying to have the family come and receive a blessing before the person died. Let us not wait until death is knocking at the door to give our children a blessing. You may be surprised at how it improves behavior because it is a sign of love, acceptance, and encouragement to go forth into the world knowing God loves them and you love them.
Mothers are you a contradiction to the world? The world expects mothers to serve the world’s labor shortage. Many mothers work two jobs, one full time and one part-time while the average number of children per family continues to decline. It is considered “irresponsible” to have many children in these times. We raise children to expect to live their own lives and we don’t want to be a burden to them as we age. It is the mother who is the teacher of learning how to care for others as Mary cared for baby Jesus. In the home the child learns to be helpful, share his time, talent and treasure with his siblings. Mothers have the gift in their voice to be strong yet gentle, firm yet compassionate, an authority and yet a friend. Just ask the children “who’s the boss at home” and most say “mom”.
Jesus came into the world to be a contradiction and bring the fullness of righteous change. He is the change agent to make a better world but he is working through us as he did through the disciples who became Apostles and it begins in the home.
May the Lord bless you, his face shine upon you, be gracious to you, and in his kindness give us his peace. Amen.