Numbers 6:22-27/ Psalm 67/ Galatians 4:4-7/ Luke 2:16-21
Theme: “And Mary Kept all These Things, Pondering…”
On the first of January every year, we celebrate the Solemnity of Mary Mother of God. We also celebrate the World Day of Peace because Mary gave birth to the Prince of Peace. In today’s liturgy, our gaze continues to turn to the great mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God, while with particular emphasis we contemplate the Motherhood of the Virgin Mary. Thus what we celebrate today has a strong focus on Christ through the gaze of Mary.
We all aspire to live in peace but true peace, the peace proclaimed by the Angels on Christmas night, is not merely a human triumph or the fruit of political agreements; it is first and foremost a divine gift to be ceaselessly implored, and at the same time a commitment to be carried forward patiently, always remaining docile to the Lord’s commands.
At the beginning of a new year, we are invited, as it were, to attend the school of Mary, the school of the faithful disciple of the Lord, in order to learn from her to accept in faith and prayer the salvation God desires to pour out upon those who trust in his merciful love. This is a mystery.
The Apostle Paul refers to this mystery of the divine motherhood of Mary, the Theotokos, in his Letter to the Galatians. He says: “When the time had fully come, he writes, “God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law (4:4).
Mary is called the Theotokos. Theotokos is a compound of two Greek words, Θεός (God) and τόκος (parturition or childbirth). Literally, this translates as God-bearer or the one who gives birth to God. The Council of Ephesus decreed in 431 that Mary is Theotokos because her son Jesus is one person who is both God and man, divine and human.
And Mary kept all these things, pondering on them in her heart (Lk 2: 19).The Greek verb used, sumbállousa, that is pondered or treasured literally means “piecing together” and makes us think of a great mystery to be discovered little by little. Although the Child lying in a manger looks like all children in the world, at the same time he is totally different: he is the Son of God, he is God, true God and true man. This mystery — the Incarnation of the Word and the divine Motherhood of Mary — is great and certainly far from easy to understand with the human mind alone.
Dear brothers and sisters, it is only by pondering in the heart, in other words, by piecing together and finding unity in all we experience, that, following Mary, we can penetrate the mystery of a God who was made man out of love and who calls us to follow him on the path of love; a love to be expressed daily by generous service to the brethren.
If peace is the aspiration of every person of good will, for Christ’s disciples it is a permanent mandate that involves all; it is a demanding mission that impels them to announce and witness to the Gospel of Peace, proclaiming that recognition of God’s full truth is an indispensable precondition for the consolidation of the truth of peace. May this awareness continue to grow so that every Christian community becomes the “leaven” of a humanity renewed by love and peace.
This is what the first reading emphasizes when it says: “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord let his face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace” (6:26); may the Lord grant peace to each one of you, to our families and to the whole world.
In his message on the World Day of Peace 2023 entitled: “No One Can be Saved Alone: Combatting Covid-19 Together, Embarking Together on Paths of Peace” Pope Francis intimates that only the peace that comes from a fraternal and disinterested love can help us overcome personal, societal and global crises. “Our greatest and yet most fragile treasure is our shared humanity as brothers and sisters, children of God. None of us can be saved alone.” We must all work towards peace as emphasized by the Pastoral Constitution( Gaudium et Spes) of the Church , which says, among other things, that humanity will not succeed in the establishment of a truly human world for all men over the entire earth, unless everyone devotes himself to the cause of true peace with renewed vigor (n. 77).
In conclusion, the first day of the year is placed under the sign of a woman, Mary. The Evangelist Luke describes her as the silent Virgin who listens constantly to the eternal Word, who lives in the Word of God. Mary treasures in her heart the words that come from God and, piecing them together as in a mosaic, learns to understand them. Let us too, at her school, learn to become attentive and docile disciples of the Lord. With her motherly help, let us commit ourselves to working enthusiastically in the “workshop” of peace, following Christ, the Prince of Peace.