Catholic Mother's Day

Vigil of the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God
31 December 2009
St. Lawrence Chapel, University of Kansas
Year for Priests

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Catholics are at Mass again. Well, some Catholics, anyway. Regrettably, there are some Catholics who do not realize the obligation we have to attend Mass 4 times during the 12 days of Christmas. Christmas. Holy Family. New Year’s, and Epiphany. Other Christians, and most Catholics, will go to church 2, perhaps 3 times at most during these 12 days. We as Catholics are actually obliged to go to Mass more often during the Christmas season than we go during the Easter season, even though Easter outranks Christmas in the liturgical calendar. We are here again on a Thursday night, New Year’s Eve. And yes we will be here again on Sunday, in just a couple of days, for Epiphany.

We do go to church as Catholics to enter into the optimism that accompanies the dawning of a new secular year. Even though we more importantly began our liturgical new year on the first Sunday of Advent, there is nothing wrong with our entering into the excitement that the world senses with the on New Year’s Eve. Hope is a human virtue, and many people gather to engender hope at the beginning of a New Year. Our first reading from Numbers describes how Moses is to bless the people, asking the Lord to look with kindness upon them. This is the blessing and the well wishes we share with friends and family on New Year’s. We wish everyone the best, and hope for a prosperous new year. The Holy Father marks the coming of the new year with a message for the World Day of Prayer for Peace, and he especially asks us to pray at the beginning of this new year that the healing of the broken relationship between man and God will make possible the reconciliation between men, nations and religions, and between man and his responsibility to be a good steward of the environment entrusted to him. So raise a glass. Toast the New Year. This is part of the reason that we are here tonight in Church, to ask for a fresh start from God and to look forward in hope to the New Year.

Yet more importantly, we are here tonight to continue to say Merry Christmas. Tonight, more than asking God to bless the passage of time, is another opportunity to deepen our contemplation of the mystery of the eternal entering into time. Because of the Incarnation, time on this earth is commingled with eternity, and thus tonight’s celebration of the Christmas mystery is more important than the dropping of a ball in Times Square. Today is the 8th and final day in the great octave of Christmas. So more important than our saying Happy New Year to each other, is our responsibility to continue saying Merry Christmas to each other, refusing to shortchange the Christmas season. This celebration we must continue and deepen at least until Epiphany, and preferably, to the baptism of the Lord a week later. Just as we had to resist celebrating Christmas early, refusing to let Advent cave into Christmas, so now we must refuse to allow Christmas to collapse early, even as we see Christmas trees and decorations, and prices in the stores, come down as quickly as they went up after Halloween. If nothing else, we must remember that Jesus did not receive his gifts until Epiphany. Now is not the time to take our presents and go home! It is the time to stay with this mystery as long as we can!

As we continue to contemplate the beauty of the Christ child, the Son of God, and what the appearance of this boy on earth means for us, today in the Octave of Christmas we pay special attention to the woman who gave birth to Jesus. Before God decided to show his face to us as a man, He made His plan contingent upon the yes of a woman. This yes, which Mary spoke on behalf of all humanity, made Mary the mother of a God who has no Father. When we celebrate Mary’s yes during the great octave of Christmas, we realize that we cannot celebrate Christmas apart from celebrating Mary. She is the first to receive Jesus. She is the first to see Him. She is the first to follow Him. Before we can ever begin to follow Jesus then, we must be like Mary, and humbly open ourselves in imitation of her generous receptivity. We must be like Mary before we can be like Christ. This is as true for men as it is for women. It is true of humanity. Without God, we are nothing. We must be receptive before we can be fruitful. We must welcome God if we are to ever hope to follow His will. This is the order of redemption that is proper for us.

Today we celebrate Mary under the title of Mother of God. Under this title, New Year’s Day becomes Catholic Mother’s Day. Not that we celebrate the spring Mother’s Day any less, but today is an especially good day for us to thank and to honor our mothers, as we honor Mary. Mary was no mere vehicle of the Incarnation, whom God used for a moment only. No, from the cross Mary receives the vocation to continue as the mother of all disciples. Just as she is the mother of Jesus, so she is the mother of all of us who are adopted in baptism into his family, his brothers and sisters. No one can follow Jesus without finding themselves as dependent upon Mary as Jesus Himself was, from the moment of his conception. Without Mary, there is no Christmas. Without Mary, there is no Jesus. Just as there is no human life on this earth without motherhood, so God willed that there be no eternal life with Him in heaven without the motherhood of Mary. God continues to use the motherhood of Mary to dispense all graces to His people. As we contemplate our dependency upon this motherhood, without which we are nothing, may we remember with great affection the dependency we all have on our earthly mothers, and thank them for the life we have, and for leading us by their love and example, to Mary, our eternal Mother! +m