Solemnity of Mary Mother of God
Cathedral of Mary Our Queen
1.I.2024
Focus on Mary
The Church’s liturgy has reproduced for our eyes of faith a beautiful image of that first Christmas. We’ve adored the Christ-Child in the manager. Marveled at the strong faith of St. Joseph.
Sang the Gloria with the angels. Exulted with the shepherds.
Now, on this first day of the New Year, the Church invites us to focus our eyes of faith on Mary, and on Mary’s greatest and most noble title: The Mother of God. The Child to whom the Virgin Mary gave birth is none other than the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, God’s Eternal Son. Therefore, it is fitting that we acclaim Mary as the Mother of God, as we celebrate her maternity, her motherhood of Jesus.
Not Just at Birth
Like every loving mother, Mary loved her Child throughout his life. Indeed, from the moment the Angel announced to Mary that she was to become the Mother of God, her life was bound up with his life, her destiny was bound up with his. Her motherhood did not end in the stable at Bethlehem, or in the Temple at Jerusalem, after the flight into Egypt. Together with Joseph, Mary took care of Jesus in the home at Nazareth, formed his humanity, helped him prepare for the mission for which he was sent. But her motherhood did not end even there.
Mary followed her Son throughout his public ministry. Sinless from the moment of her conception and utterly faithful to the loving design of God for human salvation, Mary became her Son’s first and best disciple. It was Mary who prompted Jesus to work his first miracle, Mary who listened intently as Jesus preached, for she heard the Word of God and kept it in her heart. It was Mary who followed Jesus all the way to Calvary and shared more fully than anyone else in his passion and death. Mary was with the disciples they awaited the Holy Spirit, was with them when they celebrated Eucharist, and sharing her Son’s destiny was assumed body and soul into heaven. Mary’s Motherhood extended beyond Jesus’ earthly life into the realm of the heavenly kingdom where God is all in all.
If Only We Knew
As he hung upon the Cross, Jesus entrusted Mary to the beloved disciple John. “Behold your mother,” Jesus said to him, and thus Mary became our Mother. Mary is our Mother in the order of grace, and this is not merely an honorific title but something very real. For Mary loves us deeply and wants only see Christ brought to birth in our souls. For every need we have, whether material or spiritual, Mary is interceding for us the way a loving mother pleads for her sons and daughters.
If only we knew how much Mary loves us! If only we know that the Mother of God wants nothing more than that we participate fully in the divine life of her Son, that we find in him that fullness of love and life no one else can give us.
New Year’s Resolution
One way to discover Mary’s love for us is to pray the Rosary regularly. St. John Paul II said that praying the Rosary is like seeing Christ through Mary’s eyes. As in the Rosary we trace the great events that gave us new life in Christ, we sense Mary’s nearness to us, her love for us, her readiness to help us. We’ve may have made many New Year’s Resolutions, but I would like to suggest that we make only one: to pray the Rosary every day. It’s a fifteen minute investment of our time that pays huge dividends! And it is path to discovering how much Mary loves us and how much more her divine Son loves us, for as St. Paul says: “He loves me and he gave his life for me!”
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.
Amen!