Homily
Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God
31 December 2013
Christ the King Parish Topeka
Daily Readings
Here we are at Mass again. Well, at least some of us. Holy Days are more messed up than ever, and too many Catholics have given up on figuring it out or attending. I'll hear some confessions about missing the Holy Day, but not too many. Most Catholics don't realize that to have a good Christmas, which means to really worship the mystery of the Incarnation, and to fully contemplate the beauty of God's love taking on an irresistible form in the baby Jesus, that we are obliged to attend Mass 4 times in the 12 days of Christmas - Christmas, Holy Family, Mary the Mother of God, and Epiphany. We actually go to Mass more - much more - during Christmas than we do during Easter, though Easter outranks Christmas liturgically.
When we talk about our obligation to attend Mass, especially on Holy Days, we are saying that this faith that we possess, especially in the miracle of Christmas, is way too precious to take lightly, or to celebrate individually. We have to keep coming together as a team, as a family, to encounter this mystery together, and to extend and deepen our Christmas celebration, so that the season doesn't collapse and end too quickly. So we are here again, at least some of us, to stick through Christmas together, and we'll be back again Sunday to celebrate Epiphany. Today on the 8th day of Christmas we contemplate Christmas with our Lady - with our dear Mother, the one through whom God decided to begin his 8th day of creation.
There is nothing wrong with our entering tonight as well into the optimism that accompanies the dawning of a new secular year. Our new year began as Catholics in Advent, when we started to look East for the light of Christ to be born in the darkness. Yet the secular New Year is also a day of hope, and of course we should intensely ask God to bless us all with a prosperous new year. It is a great tradition for Catholics to read the Holy Father's World Day of Prayer for Peace message, issued every January 1st, as we pray for an end to the violence and injustice that rips through our world and destroys the hope of so many. We pray through Christ, the Prince of Peace, for a flowering of peace in our world in the new year. There's nothing wrong with raising a glass, in fact I'm quite sure I will do so myself, and to toast the new year. That is part of the reason we are here too.
Yet it's not as important as our gathering to continue to say Merry Christmas! We don't merely ask God to bless the passage of time tonight, but we stand in awe of the mystery of the eternal God entering into time. The Christmas mystery is much more exciting than the dropping of a ball in Times Square. So we give it due attention, and more attention, on this 8th day of the octave of Christmas, as we celebrate the 8th and best day of creation begun with the yes of Mary, the mother of God.
One thing we can say for sure is that none of us is going to have a better Christmas than Mary. Her Christmas is always the best Christmas. Hers is always the perfect Christmas. So we draw as close to Mary as we possibly can, especially today. None of us will have a more intimate experience of receiving Jesus into our hearts, nor contemplating what his birth means and what changes in us when we behold his face, than Mary, our Mother. So she has a special day on the octave of Christmas. She has her own day, when we remember that there is no Christmas without the yes of Mary. We celebrate her as our exemplar, knowing that we are closer to her by nature than we are to Christ For us, then, her children, to have the best Christmas means precisely to draw as close to Mary as we can, because it's impossible to have the best Christmas without sharing in her Christmas. So we turn to her and ask her to intercede for us as we continue to drink in the richness of the Christmas mystery, and especially we seek her motherly intercession and to have her immaculate heart as we receive Jesus in the Eucharist at Christ's Mass!.
Today we celebrate her specifically under the title of Mary, mother of God. Mind you, this is even more than saying Mary is the mother of Jesus. For she is mother not only of Christ's human nature, but mother of his whole person. God himself, and all of God, not just a part of God, entrusts himself to the yes of a human person, to the yes of this beautiful woman. We say something mind-boggling then - that Mary, a human person like us, is mother of a God who is a Father but who has no Father. God, and all of God, could not honor motherhood any more than that, nor make it more sacred. So today's is Catholic mother's day, and a mother's day like no other. We contemplate Christmas with Mary, the mother of God! Good God! It blows me away.
But our Catholic mother's day doesn't end there. No, from the cross, Mary receives the additional vocation of being our mother, the mother of the Church, and the mother of all of adopted into the family of Jesus. Just as none of us entered life in this world except through a mother, so even moreso God chose in the order of redemption that we would all be completely dependent upon the intercession of Mary if we are to receive the greater gift of eternal life. In precise imitation of God we are willing to be completely dependent upon Mary, and to be totally devoted to her, never moreso than at Christmas. So we celebrate Mary as the mother of God, but with no less joy on this real Catholic Mother's Day that Mary is our mother too, and that we will receive the greatest Christmas grace by entrusting ourselves totally to her today. Amen.
Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God
31 December 2013
Christ the King Parish Topeka
Daily Readings
Here we are at Mass again. Well, at least some of us. Holy Days are more messed up than ever, and too many Catholics have given up on figuring it out or attending. I'll hear some confessions about missing the Holy Day, but not too many. Most Catholics don't realize that to have a good Christmas, which means to really worship the mystery of the Incarnation, and to fully contemplate the beauty of God's love taking on an irresistible form in the baby Jesus, that we are obliged to attend Mass 4 times in the 12 days of Christmas - Christmas, Holy Family, Mary the Mother of God, and Epiphany. We actually go to Mass more - much more - during Christmas than we do during Easter, though Easter outranks Christmas liturgically. When we talk about our obligation to attend Mass, especially on Holy Days, we are saying that this faith that we possess, especially in the miracle of Christmas, is way too precious to take lightly, or to celebrate individually. We have to keep coming together as a team, as a family, to encounter this mystery together, and to extend and deepen our Christmas celebration, so that the season doesn't collapse and end too quickly. So we are here again, at least some of us, to stick through Christmas together, and we'll be back again Sunday to celebrate Epiphany. Today on the 8th day of Christmas we contemplate Christmas with our Lady - with our dear Mother, the one through whom God decided to begin his 8th day of creation.
There is nothing wrong with our entering tonight as well into the optimism that accompanies the dawning of a new secular year. Our new year began as Catholics in Advent, when we started to look East for the light of Christ to be born in the darkness. Yet the secular New Year is also a day of hope, and of course we should intensely ask God to bless us all with a prosperous new year. It is a great tradition for Catholics to read the Holy Father's World Day of Prayer for Peace message, issued every January 1st, as we pray for an end to the violence and injustice that rips through our world and destroys the hope of so many. We pray through Christ, the Prince of Peace, for a flowering of peace in our world in the new year. There's nothing wrong with raising a glass, in fact I'm quite sure I will do so myself, and to toast the new year. That is part of the reason we are here too.
Yet it's not as important as our gathering to continue to say Merry Christmas! We don't merely ask God to bless the passage of time tonight, but we stand in awe of the mystery of the eternal God entering into time. The Christmas mystery is much more exciting than the dropping of a ball in Times Square. So we give it due attention, and more attention, on this 8th day of the octave of Christmas, as we celebrate the 8th and best day of creation begun with the yes of Mary, the mother of God.
One thing we can say for sure is that none of us is going to have a better Christmas than Mary. Her Christmas is always the best Christmas. Hers is always the perfect Christmas. So we draw as close to Mary as we possibly can, especially today. None of us will have a more intimate experience of receiving Jesus into our hearts, nor contemplating what his birth means and what changes in us when we behold his face, than Mary, our Mother. So she has a special day on the octave of Christmas. She has her own day, when we remember that there is no Christmas without the yes of Mary. We celebrate her as our exemplar, knowing that we are closer to her by nature than we are to Christ For us, then, her children, to have the best Christmas means precisely to draw as close to Mary as we can, because it's impossible to have the best Christmas without sharing in her Christmas. So we turn to her and ask her to intercede for us as we continue to drink in the richness of the Christmas mystery, and especially we seek her motherly intercession and to have her immaculate heart as we receive Jesus in the Eucharist at Christ's Mass!.
Today we celebrate her specifically under the title of Mary, mother of God. Mind you, this is even more than saying Mary is the mother of Jesus. For she is mother not only of Christ's human nature, but mother of his whole person. God himself, and all of God, not just a part of God, entrusts himself to the yes of a human person, to the yes of this beautiful woman. We say something mind-boggling then - that Mary, a human person like us, is mother of a God who is a Father but who has no Father. God, and all of God, could not honor motherhood any more than that, nor make it more sacred. So today's is Catholic mother's day, and a mother's day like no other. We contemplate Christmas with Mary, the mother of God! Good God! It blows me away.
But our Catholic mother's day doesn't end there. No, from the cross, Mary receives the additional vocation of being our mother, the mother of the Church, and the mother of all of adopted into the family of Jesus. Just as none of us entered life in this world except through a mother, so even moreso God chose in the order of redemption that we would all be completely dependent upon the intercession of Mary if we are to receive the greater gift of eternal life. In precise imitation of God we are willing to be completely dependent upon Mary, and to be totally devoted to her, never moreso than at Christmas. So we celebrate Mary as the mother of God, but with no less joy on this real Catholic Mother's Day that Mary is our mother too, and that we will receive the greatest Christmas grace by entrusting ourselves totally to her today. Amen.
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