The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today, the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, invite us to be grateful as children of God as we live in relationship with Jesus, human and Divine.
Ancient Connection
The reading from the Book of Numbers is the Priestly Benediction.
* [6:26] Peace: the Hebrew word Shalom includes the idea of happiness, good health, prosperity, friendship, and general well-being. To use this term as a greeting was to pray for all these things upon the one greeted.1
Psalm 67 declares that the Nations are called to praise God.
* [Psalm 67] A petition for a bountiful harvest (Ps 67:7), made in the awareness that Israel’s prosperity will persuade the nations to worship its God.2
The reading from the Letter of Paul to the Galatians identifies us as God’s Free Children in Christ who pray ‘Abba! Father!’
* [4:1–7] What Paul has argued in Gal 3:26–29 is now elaborated in terms of the Christian as the heir (Gal 4:1, 7; cf. Gal 3:18, 29) freed from control by others. Again, as in Gal 3:2–5, the proof that Christians are children of God is the gift of the Spirit of Christ relating them intimately to God.3
The Gospel of Luke describes the Visit of the Shepherds and the Circumcision when Jesus Is Named.
* [2:21] Just as John before him had been incorporated into the people of Israel through his circumcision, so too this child (see note on Lk 1:57–66).4
Luis Rodriguez, S.J. comments that Mary’s greatness does not lie primarily in what she did, but rather in what she allowed God to do with and in her, in her total availability to God’s desire for her.
It is her inner attitude that is exemplary for us more importantly than what resulted from that attitude. What is truly great in Mary is that, being as human as we are, she remained always available to what God was asking of her, without clinging to her not being equal to God. We risk missing this point in extolling Mary.5
Don Schwager quotes “By Christ's faith, hope, and love we are purified,” by Bede the Venerable, 672-735 A.D.
"He therefore received in the flesh the circumcision decreed by the law, although he appeared in the flesh absolutely without any blemish of pollution. He who came in the likeness of sinful flesh (Romans 8:3) - not in sinful flesh - did not turn away from the remedy by which sinful flesh was ordinarily made clean. Similarly, not because of necessity but for the sake of example, he also submitted to the water of baptism, by which he wanted the people of the new law of grace to be washed from the stain of sins... "The reason 'the child who was born to us, the son who was given to us ' (Isaiah 9:6), received the name Jesus (that is, 'Savior') does not need explanation in order to be understood by us, but we need eager and vigilant zeal so that we too may be saved by sharing in his name. Indeed, we read how the angel interprets the name of Jesus: 'He will save his people from their sins' (Matthew 1:21). And without a doubt we believe and hope that the one who saves us from sins is not failing to save us also from the corruptions which happen because of sins, and from death itself, as the psalmist testifies when he says, 'Who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases' (Psalm 103:3). Indeed, with the pardoning of all of our iniquities, all our diseases will be completely healed when, with the appearance of the glory of the resurrection, our last enemy, death, will be destroyed... We read that circumcision was done with knives made of rock (Joshua 5:2), and the rock was Christ (1 Corinthians 10:4). And by Christ's faith, hope and love the hearts of the good are purified not only in baptism but furthermore in every devout action. This daily circumcision of ours (that is, the continual cleansing of our heart) does not cease from always celebrating the sacrament of the eighth day. (excerpt from HOMILIES ON THE GOSPELS 1.11)6
The Word Among Us Meditation on Luke 2:16-21 comments that not all of us have mothers, spiritual or otherwise, to guide us in our faith. But we all have Mary, the perfect spiritual mother. Through her prayers of intercession, she continues to care for us.
Through her example in Scripture and her messages in places like Lourdes and Fatima, she continues to teach us how to reflect on the word of God. And through her motherly love, she is always ready to embrace us and draw us closer to her Son. Truly, she is blessed among women—and we are blessed to have her! “Jesus, thank you for sharing your mother with us. Holy Mary, pray for us. May this be a year of blessing and growth for all your children!”7
Friar Jude Winkler reflects on the blessing the Lord spoke to Moses. Jesus, status as a Jew is passed to Him from Mary. Our relation to God as Abba, reveals our ability to unite our Father to our deepest aspirations. Friar Jude reminds us how Mary reflects her Child and his mission as “Yahweh saves”.
Dorian Llywelyn SJ explores the enduring significance of this ancient feast, The Solemnity of the Mother of God, the title of which ‘contains the whole mystery of the Incarnation.’ Experts date Rylands 470 to the middle of the third century AD. This tiny papyrus is of great importance for understanding how early Christians regarded the Virgin Mary. It allows us to surmise reasonably that by 250 or so, Christians in Egypt had already been venerating the mother of Jesus for some time and seeking her protection. The historian and theologian Jaroslav Pelikan explained Theotokos – the Greek word we translate as ‘Mother of God’ – as meaning ‘the one who gave birth to the one who was God.’ Where Jesus had asked ‘who do people say I am?’, succeeding centuries were driven by the question ‘what do we say he is?’
The phrase ‘Mother of God’ and the Solemnity that the Catholic world celebrates on New Year’s Day appears at first glance to say little beyond the fact that Mary was the mother of Jesus. Yet in the same way that Mary’s womb ‘contained the God whom the universe cannot contain‘, as the Orthodox liturgical texts for Christmas say, her title ‘Mother of God’ contains whole worlds of meaning. The paradox of the Incarnation is, as a medieval English carol says, ‘heaven and earth in little space.’ Simply put, to call Mary ‘Mother of God’ states that her Son was divine. To say that Mary was a ‘birth-giver’ says that the divine Son was ‘born of a woman’ (Gal 4:4) and thus fully human. The phrase is a summary of the foundational belief that the ‘Word became flesh and pitched his tent amongst us’ (John 1:14). St John of Damascus, writing in the first half of the eighth century and summing up the teaching of the earlier Church Fathers, says that the title Theotokos ‘contains the whole mystery of the Incarnation.’8
As we enter the new year, Richard Rohr, OFM, invites us to pray with the CAC staff and community with the words used to open the seventh and final CONSPIRE conference this past September.
In a world of fault lines and fractures,
we stand in a place where opposites come together,
awaiting the birth of what is to come.
If you are doubting, welcome.
If you are healing, welcome.
If you are angry at injustice, welcome.
We await a new genesis,
one more beginning in a series of starts,
trailing backwards in time to the very first day.
If you are afraid, welcome.
If you are joyful, welcome.
If you are longing to belong, welcome.
God’s generous rhythm of life, death, resurrection,
moving in and through all things,
the very breath and source of the cosmos itself.
Our pathways converge and continue,
each one of us a catalyst for loving action.
We, a community of saints.
Conspire.
Breathe with us.9
At the start of a New Year, we reflect on our relationship with the divinity and humanity of Jesus as we express gratitude to God addressed as “Abba”.
References
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