Introduction: Since we celebrate the Feast of Mary the Mother of God on New Year’s Day, may I take this opportunity to wish you all a Happy and Peaceful New Year. I pray that the Lord Jesus and his mother Mary may enrich your lives during the New Year with an abundance of blessings. Today’s Feast of "Mary, Mother of God" is a very appropriate way to begin a new year. This celebration reminds us that the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, is also our Heavenly Mother. Hence our ideal motto for the New Year 2008 should be “Through Mary to Jesus!"
Today’s feast answers the question of why Catholics honor Mary. Non- Christians sometimes believe that we Catholics worship Mary as a goddess who gave birth to our God. They argue that there is no Biblical basis for honoring Mary, and that Catholics worship her and make her equal to God. They fail to understand why we honor Mary by naming churches and institutions after her. They do not understand what we mean by calling her the Mother of God. The truth is that we Catholics do not worship Mary as we worship, adore God. We honor her, respect her, love her and seek her intercession praying, “Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners." We do not, ever, equate her with God nor replace God with her. Rather, we honor her primarily because God honored her by choosing her to become the mother of Jesus, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, when He took on our flesh and became Man.
Exegesis: We learn the great truth that Mary is the Mother of God from St. Luke’s gospel, in the message given by the angel to Mary: “You are going to be the mother of a Son and you will call Him Jesus, and He will be called the Son of the Most High." When the Blessed Virgin Mary visited Elizabeth, after the angel had appeared to her and told her that she would be the mother of Jesus, Elizabeth said, "Why should this great thing happen to me, that my Lord’s mother comes to visit me?” [Lk. 1:43]. The Holy Scriptures teach us that Jesus was both God and man. John writes: "The Word became flesh and lived among us" [Jn. 1:14]. St Paul refers to this event when he writes to the Galatians, “God sent forth His Son, born of a woman”.
The doctrine of the Church: Based on these references in the New Testament and on the traditional belief of the early Church, the Council of Ephesus affirmed in AD 431 that Mary was truly the Mother of God because "according to the flesh" she gave birth to Jesus, who was truly God from the first moment of His conception by Mary. Twenty years later, in AD 451, the Council of Chalcedon affirmed the Motherhood of Mary as a dogma, an official doctrine of the Holy Catholic Church. Since Jesus is God and Mary is his mother, she is the Mother of God, Mother of the Messiah and the Mother of Christ our Divine Savior. We also learn from the Holy Scriptures and Tradition that God filled the mother of His only Son with all celestial graces, freed her at the moment of her conception from original sin, allowed her to play an active role in the redemptive work of Jesus, and finally took her to heaven, body and soul, after her death. As He was dying on the cross, Jesus gave us the precious gift of His own mother to be our heavenly Mother.
Messages: 1) Let us strive to be pure and holy like our heavenly Mother. All mothers want their children to inherit or acquire their good qualities. Our heavenly Mother is no exception. She succeeded in training the Child Jesus, so that He grew in holiness and in “favor before God and man.” Hence our best way of celebrating this feast and honoring our heavenly Mother would be to promise her that we will practice her virtues of faith, obedience, purity and humble service. In this way, we will be trying to become the saintly sons and daughters of our heavenly Mother, the holy Mother of God.
2) Three ways to make the New Year meaningful: a) Something to dream, b) Something to do, and c) Someone to love. “I have a dream’” said Martin Luther King. We should all have a noble plan of action (dream a noble dream) for every day in the New Year. We need to remember the proverb:” Cherish your yesterdays, dream your tomorrows, but live your today." It has been truly said that an idle mind is the devil's workshop. We must not be barren fig trees in God’s vineyard. We must be always engaged, doing good to others and loving our fellow men and women, who are our brothers and sisters in Christ. This becomes easy when we make God the center of our life and realize His presence in all the people around us. Let us light a candle instead of blaming the darkness around us. Just as the moon borrows the sun’s light to illuminate the earth, we must radiate the light of God shining within us.
# 3: A resolution for the New Year: We might resolve to start every morning with a short prayer: “Good morning, Lord. Thank You for extending my life for one more day. Here I am to do Your will, O God.” We might also resolve to say a short prayer, every evening, the last thing we do before we go to sleep: “Lord, I am really sorry for all my sins of the day. Please pardon me. Forgive me, Lord, for saying ‘No’ to your grace several times today. Help me to do better tomorrow, and to say ‘Yes’ to Your love. Thank You for everything. Thank You for helping me to do your will today. Good night, Lord.” And, as we close our eyes, we might say: "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit."
Have a Happy New Year, overflowing with a "Yes" to God our Father, to the Lord Jesus our Brother and to the Holy Spirit our Advocate and our Guide to every good deed. O, our God and our hope, glory to You!
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William Barclay's three ways to make the New Year meaningful: a) Something to dream, b) Something to do, and c) Someone to love. “I have a dream,” said Martin Luther King. We should all have a noble plan of action (dream a noble dream) for every day in the New Year. It has been truly said that an idle mind is the devil's workshop. We must not be barren fig trees in God’s vineyard. We must be always engaged, doing good to others. God must be the center of our love and it must be the realization of God’s presence which makes others lovable. Let us light a candle instead of blaming the darkness around us. Just as the moon borrows the sun’s light to illuminate the earth, we must radiate the light of God within us. We need to remember the proverb: “Cherish your yesterdays; dream your tomorrows; but live your todays."
2) Make one resolution for the New Year and for all the years to come. We might resolve to say a short prayer every morning: "Good morning, Lord. Thank You for extending my life for one more day. Enable me to do your will, O God and anoint me with the power of your Holy Spirit." And, every evening, as the last thing before we go to sleep we could resolve to say: "Good night, Lord. Thank You for all Your blessings. Thank You for helping me to do Your will today and forgive me, Lord, for saying ‘No,’ to Your grace on several occasions today. Help me to do better tomorrow, and to say ‘Yes’ to Your love." Or we could resolve to go to sleep praying: "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit." Have a Happy New Year, overflowing with the "Yes" to God our Father, to the Lord Jesus our Brother andto the Holy Spirit our Advocate and our Guide to every good deed. O our God and our hope, glory to you.”
NEW YEAR AGENDA
1. As the New Year begins, we are reminded of the fact that we are one year closer to
a. The day of our death, or the day the Lord returns
b. That day when we shall stand before the Lord in judgment to hear either i) "Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world"( Mt 25:34), or ii) "Depart from Me, you cursed, to the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels"( Mt 25:41).
2) It is time for an examination of conscience of our life in the past year
(A) Has our relationship with God and Christ improved?A close relationship with God depends upon good communication with Him by listening to Him in regular meditative reading of the Bible and by talking to Him in personal and family prayer.
(B) Has our relationship with our brothers and sisters improved?
1. Has our love for one another IN OUR family increased this year?
2. Are we any closer to one another than we were a year ago?
3. Do we even know who the new members of our parish family are?
© Has our relationship with those in our community improved?
1. As people of God, we have an important responsibility toward the people in the world -
a. To be a positive influence ("You are the salt of the earth")
b. To demonstrate a better way ("You are the light of the world")
2. Have we made any progress this year in developing meaningful relationships with other people in society -
a. So the light of Christ can be seen in our lives?
b. So the gospel of Christ can be communicated to them?
3. Or are we like most "neighbors" in this day and age...
a. Living next to each other, but not really knowing each other?
b. Forgetting or ignoring the lost art of "Southern hospitality"?
(D) Did I use my God-given time and talents for the good of others?
II. NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS
A) Resolve to draw nearer to God and Christ
1. By having a daily reading program of God's living and abiding Word
2. By being diligent in prayer to recharge our spiritual batteries in order to do good
to others.
B) Resolve to draw closer to our brothers and sisters in our community.
1. By making it a point to learn every one's name, connecting each week a couple of names and faces until we learn them all -
2. By inviting a different person or family to our home each month.
3. Or by visiting a different person or family each month.
a. It might not always be convenient to have people in your home.
b. But you can arrange to visit them in their home (if you are alone, take someone
with you).
The Best New Year Gifts:
To your friend - loyalty;
To your enemy - forgiveness;
To your boss - service;
To a child - a good example;
To your parents - gratitude and devotion;
To your mate - love and faithfulness;
To all men and women - love;
To God - your life.