Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God

 This feast day, the Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God, is not a celebration marking the end of a year and the beginning of a new one.

Although the New Year has become an occasion to make New Year’s resolutions like exercising more, going on a diet and losing weight, overcoming a vice habit like smoking and drinking this feast day, The Solemnity the Mother of God, is not an opportunity to pray for the grace to follow through with those promises because let’s face it…most of us don’t live up to those resolutions and they are pretty much forgotten by Valentine’s Day.  Already, the exercise bike that I bought myself for Christmas has become a pretty convenient shirt rack!

So, if this feast is not about saying goodbye to the old year, ringing in the New Year and praying for success with our resolutions then why are we here in this church?

The answer is quite simple it’s still Christmas Day!

Yes, it’s still December 25th.  This feast marks the end of the Octave of Christmas…it has been eight days since we celebrated the birth of Jesus.  Each day since the 25th has been celebrated in our liturgies as if it were Christmas Day.  We continue to sing the Christmas hymns, the Gloria is sung at the beginning of our masses as we remember the birth of our Salvation in the person of Jesus Christ.

Now we conclude this octave, this eight day celebration, by honoring the Mother of our Salvation, Mary.

Although I pointed out at the beginning that this feast and New Year’s occur at the same time and they are unrelated to each other they don’t have to be mutually exclusive.  Most of the New Year’s resolutions and goals that we set for ourselves may fail but there are two in particular that we can set that should last the whole new year and beyond.  These goals can be found right in the gospel that we just heard a few moments ago.

And Mary kept all these things,
reflecting on them in her heart.
Then the shepherds returned,
glorifying and praising God
for all they had heard and seen, 
just as it had been told to them.

What were these things that Mary was reflecting on?  She was so overwhelmed with the love and attention people were giving her newborn son that all she could was bow her head and pray to thank the God who made it all happen.  The same God who had chosen her nine months prior to be the Mother of God.

Who were those people?  They were poor shepherds waiting for their God to come and save them.  The finally found him coming to them as a helpless baby, lying in a manger.  Poor just like them.  They were so amazed and overwhelmed with joy they could only go out to tell the whole world…glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen!

Imitating Mary and the shepherds should be the only two resolutions we make this year and every year.

We imitate Mary by taking time each day for reflection and making room for her son to live in our hearts.  Asking Him to use our hearts, our hands and our voices to build his Kingdom hereon earth.

We imitate the shepherds by overcoming our fears and to share the Good News with others that our Savior lives and he can do marvelous things for lives that have been locked by sin, sickness and despair.

Let us be a people who take the time to reflect on the presence of Christ in our lives and in our hearts and invite others to share  in our love for God every day this new year and every day of our lives!

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