Mary Mother of God 2017

Mary, Mother of God

Nm 6:22-27 |Gal 4:4-7 | Lk 2:16-21

         

  “When the giant trees fall” is a beautiful short story written in the background of a historical event that happened in India. It is a story of a mother and her child who happened to be in a Catholic convent to save their life from a communal riot. In October 1984, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two of her soldiers who were the follower of a religion called Sikh. The main characters- the mother and her son belong to this community and the violent people are behind them to end their life. The mother and the child somehow get into a convent. The story begins there. Though, the historical background is so cruel and sad, the story brings out the joyous& creative side of our life.           

           The mother superior of the convent decided to give shelter to the mother and her innocent child in their cloister. The convent is filled with old nuns who have never expressed the joy and hope in their face. Everyone seems to be so gloomy and there was no life left there in the convent. They existed for the sake of existing.

            Now, what happens when a kid comes into a place? Of course, it looks around for a while, give everyone around a scary look. Once the child is comfortable in the new place, it starts to explore everything. The child is exploring the reality around; but we, adults would call that activity, that noble activity- messing up. Within the short span of time, the face of the convent is changed. The silence is broke, the nuns started to run after the kid everywhere. There was laughter, joy, fun and of course, life.

            We are still in the octave of Christmas and our joy is today coupled with the solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. This is also the day that we remember with joy and gratitude how Mary and her Divine Son Jesus, like the child and his mother in our story, transformed a hopeless, joyless and sinful world into a place of joy and happiness.

          What is the traditional belief about the feast? The feast answers the question, “Why do Catholics honor Mary?” Non-Christians sometimes believe that we, Catholics worship Mary as a goddess who gave birth to our God.  Non-Catholic Christians argue that there is no Biblical basis for honoring Mary and that Catholics worship her and make her equal to God. They fail to understand why we honor Mary and name Churches and institutions after her.  They do not understand what we mean by calling her the Mother of God. The truth is that Catholics do not worship Mary as we worship, adore, God.  We honor her, respect her, love her and seek her intercession, praying, “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners."  We do not, ever, equate her with God nor replace God with her. Rather, we honor her, primarily because God honored her by choosing her to become the Mother of Jesus.

        I think it is very ideal to celebrate the beginning of a new year by celebrating the feast of Mother Mary. In 1967, Pope Paul VI instituted the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. In his encyclical on devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, he wrote, "This celebration, assigned to Jan. 1 in conformity with the ancient liturgy of the city of Rome, is meant to commemorate the part played by Mary in this mystery of salvation. It is meant also to exalt the singular dignity which this mystery brings to the holy Mother …through whom we were found worthy …to receive the Author of life.” The solemnity shows the relationship of Jesus to Mary. It’s a perfect example of how we should venerate Mary under all of her titles and is a good foundation for our understanding of Mary’s place in Christology. The Church puts the feast of this solemnity on the first day of the New Year to emphasize the importance of Mary’s role in the life of Christ and of the Church. We commemorate the various saints on different days of the year, but Mary is the most prominent of them all. She has a special role and mission given to her by God. She is a powerful intercessor for all of our needs here on earth. In celebrating her special feast day, we acknowledge this great gift for the Church and world; we call on her to be actively involved in our daily life; we imitate her virtuous life as a great inspiration; and we cooperate with all the graces we get through her.

             William Barclay, a professor of Divinity and a biblical scholar from Scotland, speaks about three ways to make New Year meaningful. He says, there should be something to dream, something to do and someone to love. As a community of believer at Holy family, we as a community should have something to dream- a dream about a still more active and vibrant  community; secondly, our community should engage more in our society for common needs and finally we should say ourselves I am not alone; I am part of a family and a community.

        I began this reflection with a story of a mother and a son. So ends with a conversation of a dad and son.

A boy asked his father, "Dad, if three frogs were sitting on a limb that hangs over a pool, and one frog decided to jump off into the pool, how many frogs would be left on the limb?"

The dad replied, "Two."

"No," the son replied. “Here is the question again: There are three frogs and one decided to jump, how many are left?"

The dad said, "Oh, I get the point! If one decided to jump, the others would too. So there are none left."

The boy said, "No dad, the answer is three. The frog only DECIDED to jump."  

Does that sound like our last year’s resolutions? Great inspiration and great resolutions, but oftentimes we only decide, and months later we are still on the same limb of doing nothing.

May You a Graceful New year

Amen.

Reference: http://cbci.in/Sunday-Reflections.aspx