PALM SUNDAY: Is 50:4-7; Phil 2:6-11; Mk 11:1-10 (Procession); Mk 14:1–15:47 (Holy Mass)

Some years ago, a book was written by a noted American historian entitled “When the Cheering Stopped”. It was the story of President Woodrow Wilson and the events leading up to, and following World War I. When that war was over, Wilson, the 28th president of the United States was an international hero. There was a great spirit of optimism abroad, and people actually believed that the last war had been fought, and the world had been made safe for democracy. On his first visit to Paris after the war, Wilson was greeted by cheering mobs. He was actually more popular than France’s own heroes. The same thing was true in England and Italy. The cheering lasted about a year. Then it gradually began to stop. At home, Woodrow Wilson ran into opposition in the United States Senate, and his League of Nations was not ratified. Under the strain of it all, the President’s health began to break. In the next election his party was defeated. So it was that Woodrow Wilson, a man who barely a year or two earlier had been heralded as the new world Messiah, came to the end of his days a broken and defeated man. — It’s a sad story, but one that is not altogether unfamiliar. The ultimate reward for someone who tries to translate ideals into reality is apt to be frustration and defeat. It happened that way to Jesus. When He emerged on the public scene, He was an overnight sensation. On Palm Sunday, leafy palm branches were spread before Him and there were shouts of “Hosanna.” But before it was all over, a tidal wave of manipulated opposition had welled up that brought Jesus to the cross.

With Palm Sunday we begin Holy Week by remembering the Lord’s Passion. The word “Passion,” like the word “love,” is a used and abused term in our day. When we speak of Passion in the case of what Our Lord underwent there’s room for multiple understandings of passion. He shows us passion in all the facets we should live it.

The Suffering Servant in today’s First Reading shows Our Lord put up no struggle and went as a lamb to the slaughter (cf. Is 53:7). (If you get a chance to notice different animals being taken for slaughter you will notice that animals, like pig, would squeal and squeak when taken to slaughter. But a lamb or sheep would go silently to the slaughter).

Passion means suffering. In his Passion we see Isaiah’s parable of the Suffering Servant fulfilled. Passion meant having something done to you, and not necessarily something pleasant.  

In today’s Second Reading Paul reminds us that a passion for others is what drove Our Lord to empty himself by assuming human nature and undergoing the Passion. It was not a passion for honors; he already had them. It was not a passion for gain; as God, he already had everything and needed nothing. It was not a passion to excel; he was the Son of God in eternity before he was born of Mary. It was a passion for his Father and us.

Passion means emotion; in Luke’s account of the Last Supper, Our Lord expresses how ardently he desired to be with his disciples before suffering. The betrayal and abandonment by his disciples and the torture and ridicule he underwent made his passion intense.

Most importantly, Passion means love. People are encouraged today to be passionate about what they do.

The mystery of Christ’s Passion shows us that it is not so much loving what we’re doing as loving those for whom we’re doing it. 

We may not love the cross, but we take up our cross daily for those we love.  Jesus loves us through the Cross and undergoes the Passion to teach us what passion truly is.

As we follow Our Lord, step by step to Calvary, ask him to show us for whom he is suffering: You and me.

May this Holy Week help us to follow Christ passionately for the passion and suffering he endured for us.

 

LENT V [B]: Jer 31:31-34; Heb 5:7-9; Jn 12:20-33

Several years ago Catherine Marshall wrote an article called “When We Dare to Trust God”. She told how she had been bed-bound for six months with a serious lung infection. No amount of medication or prayer helped. She was terribly depressed. One day someone gave her a pamphlet about a woman missionary who had contracted a strange disease. The missionary had been sick for eight years and couldn’t understand why God let this tragedy happen to her. Daily she prayed for health to resume her work. But her prayers were unanswered. One day, in desperation, she cried out to God: “All right I give up. If You want me to be an invalid, that’s Your business!” Within two weeks that missionary was fully recovered. Catherine Marshall was puzzled by that strange story. It didn’t make sense. “Yet” she said, “I couldn’t forget that story.” Then one morning Catherine cried out to God: “God I’m tired of asking you for health. You decide if You want me sick or healthy.” At that moment, Catherine said later, her health began to return. — The story of that missionary woman and the story of Catherine Marshall illustrate what Jesus is talking about in today’s Gospel. “Unless a grain of wheat dies, it cannot bear fruit.” Or to put it another way, unless we die to our own will, we cannot bear fruit for God.

 

During his public ministry, Jesus had made it clear that one condition for being his follower was bearing the cross. "If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross every day and follow me" (Lk 9:23). As his passion draws near, he energetically reiterates this same condition: "Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit."

To be a Christian is to be where Christ is: "Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be." And where is Christ? He is always pouring out his life for others on the cross, giving himself for the good of others through self-forgetful love. The Eucharist is the extension throughout history of Christ's self-sacrifice on Calvary. And so, that's also where we should be: giving our lives for God and our neighbors.

Christ's great commandment was to love others as he has loved us. He taught this lesson by example on the cross, and with words during the Last Supper: "A man can have no greater love than to lay down his life for his friends" (Jn 15:13). St Paul learned this lesson well; he was always talking about the cross. He wrote to the Corinthians: "...the only knowledge I claimed to have was about Jesus, and only about him as the crucified Christ" (1 Cor 2:2). As followers of Christ, we should expect crosses, difficulties, and even, at times, persecution.

To be a true Christian involves not just wearing a crucifix or hanging one on the wall, but bearing the sign of the cross in the very marrow of our lives. All Christians bear the sign of the cross on their souls, even before they experience persecution and suffering in their life. Our souls are actually sealed, stamped, with the sign of Christ in two sacraments that we all receive: baptism and confirmation.

Even if a baptized and confirmed Christian rejects his friendship with Christ later on, dies without repenting, and ends up in hell, he will still bear the seals of baptism and confirmation on his soul. The demons will be able to recognize that he had been a Christian.

In ancient Rome, the soldiers of the Emperor used to receive a permanent, tattoo-like mark on their shoulder.  It was a sign of their special identity and mission - Roman soldiers, even after their time of service was finished, retained many privileges and responsibilities in the Empire. They also carried a special lead seal around their neck, which was used as a kind of passport throughout their travels. When we were baptized, we were marked in our very soul with the sign of Christ - he became our Lord, protector, and Savior, snatching us out of Satan's grasp.

And then, when the bishop made the sign of the cross on our forehead with the sacred chrism at confirmation, we were sealed as Christ's soldiers, with all the privileges and responsibilities that entails. Whether or not we believe in Christ, we will still have to bear crosses.

Life in a fallen world is full of crosses, no matter what. No one is an exception when it comes to suffering and struggling in life. But as Catholics, members of Christ's mystical body, we can find meaning in these crosses. The trick to doing that is to carry them with Christ, instead of trying to carry them alone. The cross that Jesus carried wasn't really his cross. He had never sinned, never had a selfish thought or performed an evil act. The cross that he carried, the sin that he atoned for, was ours. And this is our comfort: we are never alone. In the midst of life's joys, Jesus is at our side. And in the midst of life's crosses, Jesus is also at our side. The cross becomes unbearable and unfruitful only when we forget this. So, the key question is: How can we remember?  How can we avoid the deep frustration and sadness that come from trying to carry our crosses alone? We must become men and women of prayer. Prayer must become as important for our souls as breathing is for our bodies. There is no other way.

Jesus is with us now, because we are gathered in his name. And through the Eucharist he is about to come among us in an even deeper way. As he does, let's pray as the Greek visitors in the gospel prayed: "Father, we would like to see Jesus, so that we never have to carry our crosses alone.

 

LENT I (Gn 9:8-15; I Pt 3:18-22; Mk 1:12-15 )

St Mark tells us in today's Gospel that after Jesus was baptized, but before he began his years of public ministry, the Spirit "drove Jesus out into the desert," where he experienced temptation. Throughout the Bible, the desert is often referred to as a place of testing, where we experience our weakness and dependence on God. Water and food are hard to come by there, and the temperatures and emptiness are oppressive to both the body and the mind. The desert is a place where our illusions of self- sufficiency and comfort fade away. When we are in the desert, either literally or figuratively, we quickly realize that we need God. In other words, the desert is the opposite of the Garden of Eden. In the Garden of Eden our first parents yielded to the temptation. And in the wilderness and on the cross Jesus defeated Satan and his temptation.

The Fathers of the Church explain that Jesus’ temptations after his baptism are described to teach us why we are tempted and to show us how we should conquer temptations. Baptism and Confirmation give us the weapons we need to do battle with Satan. God never tempts people, and never permits them to be tempted beyond their strength. But He does allow them to be tempted. Why? Here are the five reasons given by the Fathers: i) so that we can learn by experience that [with God] we are indeed stronger than the tempter; ii) to prevent us from becoming conceited over having God’s gifts; iii) that the devil may receive proof that we have completely renounced him; iv) that by the struggle we may become even stronger; and v) that we may realize how precious is the grace we have received.

No sooner was the glory of the honour of Baptism was over than there came the battle of the temptations in the life of Jesus. The great lesson it imparts is that we cannot miss temptations. In this life it is impossible to escape the assault of temptations. But, temptations are sent to us not to make us fall; they are sent to strengthen us. They are not meant for our ruin, but for our good. They are meant to be tests from which we emerge better warriors of God.

 As the Union Pacific Railroad was being constructed, an elaborate trestle bridge was built across a large canyon in the West.  Wanting to test the bridge, the builder loaded a train with enough extra cars and equipment to double its normal payload. The train was then driven to the middle of the bridge, where it stayed an entire day. One worker asked, “Are you trying to break this bridge?” “No,” the builder replied, “I’m trying to prove that the bridge won’t break.” — In the same way, the temptations Jesus faced weren’t designed to see if He would sin, but to prove that He wouldn’t. 

Mark says that the Angels were helping him. Jesus was not alone to fight his battle. Neither are we. We are always supported by God, guardian angel and men, when we begin our battle.

While God allows us to experience temptations, He never gives us more of these than we can bear. He will give us means to overcome our sinful habits with His guidance and grace through prayer.

Our temptation is actually a two-part process. First, there is the choice we make at the actual time of the temptation. Second, there is the preparation done before we are tempted. It is our failures in the preparation stage that make it more difficult for us to resist our temptations. Preparing ahead of time provides us the tools and strength to help us overcome the temptations. Some people fall into temptation, but a great many make plans for disaster ahead of time.

“Son,” ordered a father, “Don’t swim in that canal.”  “OK, Dad,” he answered. But he came home carrying a wet bathing suit that evening.  “Where have you been?” demanded the father.  “Swimming in the canal,” answered the boy. “Didn’t I tell you not to swim there?” asked the father.  “Yes, Sir,” answered the boy.  “Why did you?” he asked.  “Well, Dad,” he explained, “I had my bathing suit with me and I couldn’t resist the temptation.”  “Why did you take your bathing suit with you?” he questioned.  “So I’d be prepared to swim, in case I was tempted,” he replied.  — Too many of us expect to sin and do sin. The remedy for such dangerous action is found in Romans 13:14, “But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof.” Whenever we play with temptation, it is easy to drift into great danger.

Let us use Lent as a time to fight daily against the evil within us and around us: Repenting and fighting against temptations and evil is a lifetime’s task. Lent reminds us that we have to take up the fight each day against the evil within us and around us, and never give up. Jesus has given the assurance that the Holy Spirit is with us, empowering us, so that final victory will be ours through Jesus Christ who promised, “I will be with you till the end of times”.

 

OT VI [B]Lev 13:1-2, 44-46; 1 Cor 10:31 – 11:1; Mk 1:40-45

At one time in his life, St. Francis of Assisi had a terrible fear of lepers.  Then one day when he was out for a ride, he heard the warning bell that lepers were required to ring in the Middle Ages.  When a leper emerged from a clump of trees, Francis saw that he was horribly disfigured.  Half of his nose had been eaten away; his hands were stubs without fingers and his lips were oozing white pus.  Instead of giving in to his fears, Francis slid down from his horse, ran forward, embraced the leper, and kissed him.  Francis’ life was never the same after that episode.  He had found a new relationship with God, a new sensitivity to others and a new energy for his ministry.

All three readings of today contain the Christian teaching on the need for social acceptance even when people are different from us. The first reading shows the ancient Jewish attitude toward leprosy and the rules for quarantining lepers. This provides a background for Jesus' healing of a leper.  According to the Mosaic Law leapers had to dress in torn clothes, keep their hair unkempt, and their life became a life-long period of mourning and estrangement.

Mark simply states "A leper came to him and pleaded on his knees." He saw that Jesus was his only hope, so he dared to break the rule forbidding going close to people. "Feeling sorry for him, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him."

The leper had broken a rule; Jesus broke another. No Jew would have ever touched a leper. The mere touch rendered him legally impure. Jesus ignored the law. Then Jesus asked him to go to the priests to be instated into the society.

Man is not meant to be alone; he needs a family, he needs friends, he needs to belong to a community to be really happy. But when sin and selfishness enter man's life, they estrange man from God, they estrange man from his society and they estrange man from himself.

First of all, sin separates us from God.  When Adam ate the forbidden fruit and disobeyed the command of God, he was overtaken by fear; and he fled from the presence of God. He hid himself from the presence of God. When God called him, he said that he was hiding from Him. When Cain killed his brother, Abel God called him. Cain answered that he was hiding from God.

"In 1992, a Los Angeles County parking control officer came upon a brown El Dorado Cadillac illegally parked next to the curb on street-sweeping day.  The officer dutifully wrote out a ticket. Ignoring the man seated at the driver's wheel, the officer reached inside the open car window and placed the $30 citation on the dashboard.

The driver of the car made no excuses. No argument ensued-and with good reason. The driver of the car had been shot in the head ten to twelve hours before but was sitting up, stiff as a board, slumped slightly forward, with blood on his face. He was dead. The officer, preoccupied with ticket-writing, was unaware of anything out of the ordinary. He got back in his car and drove away.

 

Secondly, sin separates us from our brothers.  We read that when Cain slew his brother Abel, he "went on from the presence of the Lord" (Gen. 4:16) and he became a wandering nomad. Sin always drives a man out......out from his friends.

We should not let go any opportunity which will help to patch the strained relations with our brothers. It may demand   humility from our part, just like the leper who declared, "If you want to, you can cure me"; it may be a blow for our ego; it may be shedding the false accolades that we have been claiming.

Thirdly sin estranges us from ourselves.

'He that covers his sin shall not prosper.' (Ps. 32:1; Prov. 28:13)

The particular lesson that we should not miss from today's Gospel is that sin brings loneliness to man, and with loneliness, utter misery.

Jesus calls every one of us to demolish the walls that separate us from each other and to welcome the outcasts and the untouchables of society.   These include homosexuals, AIDS victims, alcoholics, the imprisoned, drug-addicts, and marginalized groups such as the divorced, the unmarried, single mothers, migrant workers, and the mentally ill. God’s loving hand must reach out to them through us.   Jesus wants us to touch their lives. Let us pass beyond the narrow circles of our friends and peers and try to relate to those who may be outside the bounds of propriety.  

This week we also begin Lenten season. During lent, we need to trust in the mercy of a forgiving God who assures us that our sins are forgiven and that we are clean of the leprosy of sin.  No matter how many sins we have committed or how badly we have behaved, we know God forgives us. The only condition required of us is that we ask for forgiveness with a repentant heart.  We need only kneel before him and ask him, “Lord, if you will, you can make me clean” We are sure to hear his words of absolution, “Very well– your sins are forgiven, and you are clean” echoed in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  

 

  

 

OT IV [B] Dt 18:15-20; I Cor 7:32-35; Mk 1:21-28

In the First Reading, we hear of God's promise to Moses that He would raise up for us a prophet. God would put His words in the mouth of the prophet, who shall speak to the people everything that He commands [Dt. 18:18]. These words echo the words of Jesus in the Gospel of John where it says, "... The word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me." [Jn. 14:24, 17:8, 17:14].

Muslims allege that Muhammad was foretold in this first reading, since Muhammad says in Quran 7:157 that he is mentioned in the Old and New Testaments. Muhammad is not mentioned explicitly or implicitly in the Bible.  However Christ Jesus is found in the Quran.  And what it says about Him places Him far above the founder of Islam. Jesus is told as Word of Allah in the Quran while Muhammad is only just a speaker of that word.

If we examine the text of the first reading (A prophet like me will the LORD, your God, raise up for you from among your own brothren), the term “brethren” refers to Israel, not to their Arabian antagonists, enemies of Israel. Why would God raise up for Israel a prophet from their enemies?

The tribe of Levi was told, in the same chapter verse 2, that “they shall have no inheritance among their brethren”. God told them to choose a king “from among your brethren,” not a “foreigner.” Israel has never chosen a non-Jewish king. So from their brethren means an Israelite not an Arabian.

Muhammad came from Ishmael, as Muslims admit, but heirs to the Jewish throne came from Isaac.  The Torah states, “My covenant I will establish with Isaac,” (Gn 17:21). Later, God repeats the same message, “In Isaac your seed shall be called,” (Gn 21:12). If Allah chose Ishmail’s line for promise then why does Quran speak about the Prophets of Israel. The Qur’an teaches that the prophetic line came through Isaac, not Ishmael: Quran 29:27 says:“And We bestowed on him Isaac and Jacob, and We established the Prophethood and the Scripture among his seed”. 

Jesus fulfilled Deuteronomy 18 perfectly.  (1) He came from his Jewish brethren (Gal 4:4).  (2) Dt 18:18 says, “He shall speak to them all that I [God] command Him.” Jesus said, “I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father taught Me, I speak these things” (Jn 8:28; cf. Jn 12:49).  (3) Jesus called himself a “prophet” (Lk 13:33) and the people considered him to be a prophet (Mt 21:11; Luke 7:16; 24:19; Jn 4:19; 6:14; 7:40; 9:17).

Therefore, given the above evidence, it is Jesus, not Muhammad who fulfilled this prophecy in Dt 18. The Jews believe that it was fulfilled in Joshua.

 

Finally, there are other characteristics of the “Prophet” to come that fit only Jesus, not Mohammed, such as, He spoke with God “face to face” and He performed “signs and wonders”.  Muhammad never saw Allah face to face nor did any miracle to testify to prophet-hood.

The text of today also reads: if a prophet presumes to speak in my name an oracle that I have not commanded him to speak, or speaks in the name of other gods, he shall die.’” Muhammad himself admitted that he was once influenced by Satan and prophesied wrong things about Allah, which he said was inspired by Satan. So according to this passage (Dt.18) Muhammad deserves to die. Because he spoke in the name of God wrong things.

 

Again there is another passage which Muslims say is a prediction in the bible about Muhammad. Jesus says: "And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor know Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.  But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you."

Muslims say Muhammad is the Helper Jesus mentions here. But this helper Jesus mentions he says we cannot see or know. Muhammad was seen and known by the Arabs. Muhammad did not teach what Jesus taught.

 

Today's Gospel tells us that when Jesus taught in Capernaum, the people were astounded at His teachings because He taught with authority, not as the scribes. Here, the authority of Jesus is compared to a rabbi who has the power to impose a decision with a binding authority.

Jesus’ authority comes from the acceptance of his very mission. It is seen throughout the New Testament where He overthrows the rule of Satan, the Prince of this world, by establishing the Kingdom of God on earth. Satan was afraid of Jesus but Muhammad was afraid of Satan all his life.

The Gospels give the accounts of Jesus’ open defeat of the devil. Jesus defeated the devil in the desert where he was tempted. Jesus defeated the devil through out his life. Like a powerful commander Jesus went on dislodging his enemy from all his positions; from the souls of men, from the sick people, and from the people who were mentally suffering. The final battle was won on the cross, when Jesus made his final submission.

Jesus’ victory over the evil must be completed in each one of us. This is our mission. Each one of us has to fight. Peter says: Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. But with Jesus’ power and in his name we can defeat him.  Victory is assured only to those who fight courageously. Jesus has provided us with the most powerful weapon to defeat the evil. A weapon that has been tested and used for centuries – “Resist evil with good”. Jesus has given us the authority to do it. We require only the courage to begin the journey.

 

 

OT II [B] 1 Samuel 3:3-10, 19; 1 Cor 6:13-20; John 1:35-42

All of us here today want to know and follow God's will for our lives. Some more and some less, but all of us share, at least to some degree, that fundamental desire; it's one of the reasons we have come to Mass. This desire is in itself a sign of God's presence in our souls, a sign that he is guiding us. Many of our brothers and sisters in Christ have received the same baptism and Catholic formation that we have, and yet, they don’t come to Mass anymore. They no longer desire to follow Christ. But somehow God has kept alive in our hearts that prayer uttered so beautifully in today's Psalm: "Here I am, O Lord, I come to do your will."

We should be deeply grateful that God has kept that desire burning. But, on the other hand, how can we discover what God's will is? Today, God is reminding us of one of His most favorite methods of communicating his will: through human messengers.

The young prophet Samuel had been chosen to lead and instruct God's people and to anoint the first two Kings of ancient Israel. But when God first started to speak to Samuel's heart, the future spiritual hero didn't even know how to recognize his voice. Eli, his spiritual guide and a priest of God, had to teach him.

John and Andrew had been chosen by God to become two of the twelve pillars of the Church, the Apostles. And yet, Jesus walked right by them on the bank of the River Jordan, and they didn't even recognize him. John the Baptist had to point him out, twice, before they got the message and decided to follow their calling.

Many times, God speaks through human messengers. And sometimes God chooses us to be messengers of God for others. Ever since our baptism, we have all had the mission, the opportunity and responsibility, to be God's ambassadors, his loudspeakers in this fallen world through our words, deeds, and example.

God is trying to reach someone in our circle of friends, relatives, and acquaintances through each of us, just as he did with Eli and Andrew; he has a message for them. Have we been good loudspeakers lately, or have we been unplugged somehow?

John the Baptist pointed out Christ to his own disciples to acknowledge him as the lamb of God and to bear witness to him in an active enterprise. Knowing Jesus is a matter of experience. One could know the Catechism of the Catholic Church, all 700 pages of it, by heart, and still not know Jesus. Bearing witness to Christ, then, demands that we should have personal and first-hand experience of Jesus.  1. We get this personal experience of Jesus in our daily lives – through the meditative reading and study of the Bible, through personal and family prayers, and through the Sacraments, especially by participation in the Eucharistic celebration. 2. Once we have experienced the personal presence of Jesus in our daily lives, we will start sharing with others the Good News of the love, peace, justice, tolerance, mercy, and forgiveness that Jesus preached.

Two men, who had been business partners for over twenty years, met one Sunday morning as they were leaving a restaurant. One of them asked, "Where are you going this morning?" "I'm going to play golf. What about you?" The first man responded rather apologetically, "I'm going to church." The other man said, "Why don't you give up that church stuff?" The first man asked, "What do you mean?" His partner said: "Well, we have been partners for twenty years. We have worked together, attended board meetings together, and had lunch together, and all of these twenty years you have never asked me about going to church. You have never invited me to go with you. Obviously, it doesn't mean that much to you."

To be effective messengers of God we need to allow ourselves to be guided by God. How deeply do I really want God to guide my life? On any given day, how much do I pay attention to what God is trying to say to me?

God wants us to be eager to hear his voice in our lives, just as Samuel was in today's First Reading. We need constantly to make Samuel's prayer our own: "Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening." This is the attitude we need to adopt: to constantly listen, to actively pay attention, to God. Adopting that attitude requires a conscious decision. Most of us have probably made that decision at some point in our lives, maybe at a retreat or after a good confession. But unless we renew it periodically, it will get dusty and dull.

Why not renew it today, during this Mass, when Christ, through the sacrifice of the Eucharist, will be renewing his decision to give his life for us and for our salvation?

God speaks in so many ways, through so many messengers! We just need to tune in.  God likes to use messengers, especially messengers who stay focused on the message. Let’s ask for the grace to have the attitude of sharing our faith with those who need Christ and invite them to come and see him.

 

MARY MOTHER OF GOD

Num. 6:22-7; Gal. 4:4-7; Lk. 2:16-21

Welcome to today's celebration of the Feast of Mary. Today's Feast of "Mary, Mother of God" is very appropriate to start a new year. This celebration echoes that the Blessed Virgin Mary, who is the Mother of God, is also our Heavenly Mother.

Today, I would like to retrace the origin of this very special Feast. We base our faith in this dogma on the words of Elizabeth who was the cousin of Mary. 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, "And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me?" [Lk. 1:43] Through Elizabeth who was full of the Holy Spirit, it was acclaimed that Mary had been chosen to be the Mother of God.

In the fourth century, a priest named Arius claimed that Jesus as the Son of God was created by God. This would mean that Jesus was an amazing creature, but not God, so it was a denial of his divinity. The idea took hold, and Arianism became popular in the Eastern and Western Roman empire. 

Opponents such as St. Athanasius, who was exiled multiple times for his belief, said that would be a return to polytheism, since Jesus in the Arianist view was not God, but was still worshipped alongside God the Father.

In 431 A.D. the Council of Ephesus affirmed 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. Twenty years later, in 451 A.D. at the Council of Chalcedon, it was affirmed that the Motherhood of Mary was a truthful dogma and an official doctrine of the Holy Catholic Church. The Feast of the Mother of God affirms that Mary was the mother of Jesus who was both God and human. The Holy Scriptures teaches us through the Gospel of John that Jesus was both God and human. "The Word became flesh and lived among us." [Jn. 1:14]

Mary chose to be the mother of God, with her unconditional faith, submission and hope. When the Angel announced the   news that she had been chosen to be the mother of God, her response was: “Behold, I am the hand maid of the Lord. Let it be done to me according to your word."

She was well aware of the consequences of being found with a baby before marriage. She had witnessed the punishment given for infidelity. Still when the word of God made demands on her she did not think about the worries that "tomorrow" might bring. This is a great lesson for us. We, often, live in the worries of the future. Our life is engulfed by the regrets of the past and the unknown worries of the future. After all today is the tomorrow we worried about yesterday.  As we are setting foot to the New Year, our mother stands beside us, encouraging us to be optimistic in life.

In today's Gospel she teaches us one of the most important virtues of all: wisdom. St Luke tells us how Mary responded to the wonderful things that God was doing in and around her: "Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart."

Just as Mary's womb was open to receiving God's living Word at the moment of Christ's Incarnation, so her heart was constantly open to receiving God’s ongoing words and messages as he continued to speak through the events of her life. This capacity and habit of reflecting in our heart on God's action in our lives is both a sign and a source of wisdom. And we can never become mature, courageous, and joyful followers of Christ unless we develop it.

 

Mary was Jesus’ mother in the flesh, and she is our mother in grace. And just as we learn from our natural mothers how to be good human beings, so we learn from Mary how to become mature Christians. She is the living school where we learn every virtue that leads to happiness and holiness.

As a new year begins we remember this moment of salvation history as the beginning of a new phase of Mary’s relationship with God.  Inspired by her example let’s strive to begin this new year as a year of a more profound love for Christ; in that way, it will indeed be a happy new year.