Solemnity of the Mother of God, Jan.1, 2010 a New Year

Scripture: Lectionary #18. Numbers 6:22-27. Psalm 67:2-3.5.6.8. Galatians 4:4-7. and Luke 2:16-21: Mary, the Mother of God, leads us into the new year with this celebration commemorating her motherhood of the child Jesus who is both totally human and totally divine. Since he is her child she has a relationship to him that is so unique that we call her in union with the Church, the Mother of God. She is also our Mother and the Mother of the Church. It is a wonderful way to spiritually begin a new year for Mary is our hope, our sweetness, and our life as we learn in one of the evening anthems dedicated to her (the Salve Regina). Through her son Jesus she is related to the Trinity not in any way does this suggest that she is divine or as some erroneously think about our Catholic belief, is she a member of the Trinity! St. Paul, in the earlies thought about her does have her role in the mystery of salvation history which is the work of the Trinity for us. His epistle has a mention of the three persons of the Trinity even in this earlies passage related to her as a woman from whom the messiah would spring. We have learned a lot about his origins from the whole cycle of celebrations in Advent and Christmas; now we turn to the motherhood of Mary as we begin a new chronological year. We too are blessed as the reading from Numbers suggests in that we are graced through our baptism as sons and daughters of God. The greatest of priestly blessings given in the Hebrew Scriptures is our opening reading and it is brought out that we are blessed also with peace. Peace is another theme for this feastday. Mary is blessed because she is the simple and open Jewish woman who said yes to God in every stage of her life and that of her son. She was from Nazareth and probably known as Mary of Nazareth or as the earliest Gospel tells us as the Mother of Jesus who was identified as the "Son of Mary." (Mark 3:31-35). It was through her faith-filled heart that God's grace worked through her and through her response the "Word was made flesh and lived among us." (John 1:14). We pray the priestly blessing of Numbers as we think of this humble, courageous, and truthful woman: "God has shown his face"upon her and we pray that with her the Lord may look upon us and bring us also the peace that she experienced. St. Luke, the Evangelist who gives us the most complete portrait of Mary, continues to help us understand who she is and how she is involved in salvation history. Luke now looks into her innermost being and tells us how she pondered over all the events that are happening since the Annunciation within her. We see her heart of love and how it extends to all of her children because of Jesus who is the Savior of the world. Mary teaches us how to reflect, to ponder over, and to ruminate (Psalm 1) about God's plan of love for us who are all made in the image and likeness of God. Finally, in returning to our Psalm for the day's liturgy we praise what God has worked in and through her: "May the peoples praise you, O God; may all the peoples praise you." And "May the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit be glorified in all places through the Immaculate Virgin Mary. Amen." (next meditation, scroll down) Scripture: Lectionary # 206. I John 2:22-28. Psalm 98: 1.2-3.3-4. John 1:19-28: Truth in Scripture is a foundational reality not an intellectual statement about reality. In Hebrew the word "emeth" is the foundation of God with Israel in a covenant. In John the word for truth is similar and for John is associated with event thus a truthful word is an event. Jesus is not only a speaker of truth but is also the Truth itself in John (John 14:6). Today the reality of God's truth is put before us as Christians. In John's tradition of both Gospel and Epistles it is centered on the Christians commitment to the very person of Jesus who is truth. The Gospel emphasizes this by the theme of placing trust and faith in the very person of Jesus. A Christian who denies that Jesus is not the Son of God and the Anointed one of God is declared a liar. This is very strong language for John and shows that already in his own community there was a schism. Fr. Raymond Brown who discusses this thoroughly in his book called the "Community of the Beloved Disciple" used as the cover of his book two eagles (a symbol for the Evangelist) struggling against each other in midair. He said that the reverse side of the same photo of the eagle was used to get this effect of such a dramatic contest. John was doing everything he could to address the split that had occured and to call those who left the community into question and was challenging those who left to come back. John the Baptist is the one who is emphasized as witnessing to the truth of God's anointed one whom he will discover to be Jesus. That is the truth he was waiting for and witnessed to. Nothing in this prophetic giant was self-centered. He even allowed his disciples to leave his company and becom part of the community of disciples that Jesus was forming. John never assumes honor for himself and declared he was only a voice pointing out the way of the Lord who was coming. He did not curry the favor of anyone who tried to make him a hero or a prophet. Such a pristine and integrated look at who one really is, is also a sound psychological goal for each of us as well as good spirituality. As we said before egoisim is based on a glorified concept of our own "ego" which in an imaginative acronym is said to mean "edging God out." John the Baptist never did this. He edged God in. We are encouraged to remain within our commitments to one another and to our Christian community. We do this by focusing on the reality of the truth of the Incarnation a mystery bound up with the Divine Word of God--God's truth become flesh in the person of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. As John said in his prologue, "This enduring love came through Jesus Christ." The covenants of God are both "Hesed and Emeth" that is both loving-kindness and absolute rock-solid truth in reality. God's words and truth are events that are life-giving within us who have been created in the image and likeness of God. Amen.