We are just a few hours into the new year 2016. What will
2016 bring? Great successes? Humiliating failures? Unexpected happiness? Sudden
loss? Dramatic change? More of the same? Illness, suffering, and death? We wish
everyone a “Happy New Year” but in all honesty, none of us knows what this new
year will bring. And as we venture into that unknown, the Church gives us on
this first day of the civil calendar, a feast in honor of Our Lady, Mary the
Mother of God. And the big question is ”why—why connect Mary with new year’s day?”
And the simple answer is because Mary shows us how to live in this new year in
a way that, no matter what happens to us, it will be a truly blessed year.
So I propose three lessons Mary can teach us for 2016.
First, we see in Mary, a woman who lived in a unique way, by
faith. Faith was her guide. So she is a model of faith for each one of us.
While still in her teens, Mary was asked by God to do something no one else in
history had ever been asked to do. As
she ventured into an unknown future, faith was her guide. Though her future
would be filled with suffering, confusion, anxiety; though so much of her
future would be out of her control, faith was her guide.
By faith, I do not mean optimism that everyone will simply
live happily ever after. Not everyone
will win the lottery this year. Rather, as people of faith, we commit to
following God’s holy will, his commandments, in good times and in bad, in
sickness and in health. Even when we don’t understand WHY we are undergoing
such challenging times, we cling to God, we follow his commandments.
So Mary, who hears the word of God, ponders it in her
hearts, and obeys God in all things, is our model of faith this year.
Secondly: Mary shows us how to remain open to God’s
grace. Her faith was lived in a such a
way that her life remained open to all strength, grace, and wisdom, God wished
to give her for the journey. The great
theologian St. Thomas Aquinas said, “whatever is received is received according
to the mode of the receiver.” In other words, you cannot receive a gift, if you
are not open to receiving it. Mary was
full of grace because she remained fully open to God at all times.
There are so many favors, so many gifts, so much grace God
wishes to give us during this new year, but we he will not force us to receive
these gifts. So we need to welcome God
into all the areas of our life. Think of these areas like rooms of a house.
We need to welcome God into family rooms: the places where
we gather with family and friends, welcoming God into our friendships and
family relationships, talking about our faith with these people. Mary and her cousin Elizabeth talked with
each other about what God was doing in their lives. We too, must welcome God
into these relationships.
We need to welcome God into our studies: opening our minds
to him by studying the Scriptures, studying the catechism, studying the
faith. Mary pondered God’s word and his
works, so this year commit to opening and reading those Bibles every day. God
wishes to engrave His Word on your hearts through study.
We need to welcome God into our recreation rooms: ensuring
that our entertainment is of a godly sort.
We need to welcome God into our kitchens: ensuring that we
do not give ourselves over to overeating drunkenness, and gluttony.
Finally, we need to welcome God into our basements and
attics and storage closets, the hidden places of our hearts. Maybe there are some good things, good
habits, which need to be brought out of storage, and given away in
selflessness. Maybe there is some
clutter that we need to get rid, some bad habits, that we finally need to let
go of this year.
Mary teaches us that when we open our lives to God,
welcoming God into every area of our life, our lives become charged and changed
by God’s presence.
A third and final lesson from Mary for this new Year, is
what she shows us by her motherhood. Because of her faith, because of her
openness to God, she was able to be a great mother to Jesus. The Church celebrates Mary today as Mother of
Jesus. God made himself dependent on Mary’s love when he chose to be born as
her Son. He subjected himself to be born
of her, to be nursed by her, fed by her, and cleaned by her, he learned to walk
from her and talk from her and pray from her.
Jesus made himself dependent upon Mary’s motherhood, and that’s the
great lesson for us this year.
In 2016, subject yourself, like Jesus, to her motherhood.
Call your mother every day. Turn to her in prayer constantly. Go to her with your sorrows and joys. If you
do not know how to pray the rosary, learn as soon as you can this year, and
pray the rosary often.
From Rome this morning, Pope Francis said, “At the beginning
of a new year, the Church invites us to contemplate Mary’s divine maternity as
an icon of peace. In her, the ancient
promise finds fulfilment. She appears to us as a vessel filled to the brim with
the memory of Jesus, as the Seat of Wisdom to whom we can have recourse to
understand his teaching aright. Today
Mary makes it possible for us to grasp the meaning of events which affect us
personally, events which also affect our families, our countries and the entire
world. Where philosophical reason and
political negotiation cannot reach, there the power of faith, which brings the
grace of Christ’s Gospel, can reach, opening ever new pathways.”
If we want 2016 to be brighter than last year, we need to
turn to our Mother. For the Lord not only chose Mary as His mother, but gave
her as Mother to all of us. Call upon
our mother frequently and with great devotion this year, and 2016 truly will be
a happy, blessed year, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
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