Homily for the feast of Mary, Mother of God - Year C - Lk. 2:16-21

A Reading from the holy gospel according to  Luke: 

" When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one 
another, «Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, 
which the Lord has made known to us.» And they went with haste, and found 
Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. And when they saw it they 
made known the saying which had been told them concerning this child; and all 
who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary kept all 
these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, 
glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been 
told them. And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was 
called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the 
womb. "

Homily:

On the first day of the year, just like every other New Year's Day, the 
Church consecrates a special solemnity to celebrate Mary, the Mother of God. 
For we believe that Jesus is the Son of God made man. He is at once and 
inseparably fully God and fully man. This is what makes Mary, his Mother 
according to the flesh, the Mother of He who is the Being par excellence, the 
Being who exists by Himself and of Himself: God.

Ever since the Incarnation of the Word of God, all of our world, all of 
creation, the lives of all men and women are changed and transformed. Every 
action in our life can gain a new dimension. Each time that we accomplish a 
simple human act, such as saying "Good morning!" to our neighbor or to 
someone who passes us on the street, we can give to this act a dimension that 
is supernatural, divine, eternal.

Of course, nothing is automatic. It remains a possibility, a faculty that we 
can put to use, a power, as the philosophers would say, or a potentiality 
which is offered to us in order that we might accomplish an act of the 
supernatural order. At its highest point, this potentiality is what allows 
us to become children of God, to be at once a man (or woman) and an adopted 
child of God. This is what Saint John says, when he writes: "To all who 
received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of 
God." (Jn. 1:12)

Thus, the shepherds' simple act of going to Mary and the Child Jesus gave them 
this faculty, this special grace of going to the Lord and Mary in spirit, of 
lifting up their soul and their being to the Kingdom of God where Christ is 
King and the Virgin Mary is Queen.

According to Saint Thomas Aquinas, Doctor of the Church, the perfect life is 
that which unites contemplation and action. Moreover, this was one of the 
reasons why he chose to join the Order of the Friars Preachers when he 
consecrated himself to God. This was also what the shepherds of Bethlehem 
practiced when, after having contemplated and adored in spirit the Child God 
and his blessed Mother, they went back and proclaimed to those they met on 
the way that a Savior was born and that he lay in a manger.

What these shepherds had contemplated was at the very least surprising and 
astonishing: the Lord of Lords, the King of Heaven and earth lay in a 
manger, simple, poor, almost abandoned... What a contrast! And this is what 
they proclaimed in the surrounding area... Hearing them proclaim this "Good 
News" was indeed something about which to be surprised and astonished... 
"All who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them."

In the grotto of Bethlehem, Jesus inaugurated his Passion. Throughout his 
life, Jesus had his eyes fixed upon the Cross of Calvary. For, let us repeat 
it, Jesus is both God and Man. If, as Man, Jesus lived through some pleasant 
and happy moments (and this was the case), however, as God, Christ saw, 
ceaselessly, in the Spirit of the Father - the Spirit who sees at once the 
past and the future - the ultimate instant when he would finally accomplish 
the will of the Father: to redeem with his Blood all of fallen humanity.

Such was the Child the shepherd contemplated. Such was the "Good News" they 
proclaimed in the surrounding area. What God reveals to man is never 
unmixed: it is always composed of both pleasant and unpleasant 
information.... Actually, the information we find unpleasant is not so in 
fact: it is we, whose sight is obscured and blinded by sin, who find it 
unpleasant. "All who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them."

Mary contemplates her son, the Son of God! Mary knows all the Scriptures 
perfectly. She knows that the Messiah would reign over Israel: he is the 
descendant of King David. But she also knows that Christ would be a 
suffering Messiah, one who would be rejected by his People. So, knowing all 
this, she draws all she can from the Heart of God, from her child, whom she 
has just brought into the world. Mary meditates, she prays, she contemplates 
God within her, she listens to the divine Spirit who is now her Spouse, her 
Beloved. She goes to the depths of He who is the very Power of God, she 
draws from this divine energy. For, she will have need of force, power, and 
energy throughout her life. Certainly, Mary is "full of grace" (Lk. 1:28). 
But grace always requires a human correspondence, a response of faith from 
the man or woman to whom grace is given. So, Mary draws from the Heart of 
her Child all the power she needs in order to respond, day after day, to the 
fullness of grace which belongs to her.

Eight days after his birth, the Child of Mary was circumcized and he was given 
the name of Jesus. Eight days after Christmas: today is that day. This is 
why, up until the liturgical reform carried out by the Council of Vatican II, 
we celebrated on this day the Circumcision of our Lord. This did not prevent 
the Liturgy of the Hours from celebrating on this day the Glories of Mary and 
from consecrating to the Mother of God the majority of the Antiphons of the 
canonical Hours.

Mary and Joseph were faithful in doing the will of God with respect to the 
name of the Child who had just been born. Both of them received a command 
from the Angel of the Lord, telling them that the Child was to be called 
"Jesus". (cf. Mt. 1:21 and Lk. 1:31).

May Mary, Joseph, and the shepherds of Bethlehem show us the path we must 
follow in order to faithfully do the will of God! May the Holy Spirit be our 
guide, and may what he asks us to do be our dearest desire! May Jesus be our 
Head on the royal road of the Holy Cross, helping us, through his grace, to 
go from contemplation to action, in order thus to lift up both our soul and 
the entire world to God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit!

Canon Dr. Daniel Meynen

http://meynen.homily-service.net/

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