Jan.1st , 2012 Sunday homily- Fr.Francis Chirackal CMI, MSW
Numbers 6:22-27 Galatians 4:4-7 Luke 2:16-21
For Readings
http://www.usccb.org/nab/010112.shtml
Today is a day of gratitude and new hopes. The year 2011 left for history leaving lots of God’s blessings to us and 2012 is standing before us with great joys and hopes. All of us are blessed by God to see the year 2012. Every New Year starts with the month of January. As we know the name "January" comes from the Roman god ‘Janus’, the god with two faces, one looking to the past and the other looking to the future.
This is indeed a time to look back at the year that has just ended and to look forward to the year ahead of us. How did I spend this one year of my life that has just passed? Did I use it to advance my goals and objectives in life? Did I use it to enhance the purpose of my existence? Could I have done better last year in the way I invested my time between the demands of work, family, friends and society, and the demands of my spiritual life? Through soul searching questions like these we find that a review of the past year naturally leads to setting goals and resolutions for the new year. Here Mary stands as a role model who glorified God through her whole life and became full of grace and Mother of God.
Today’s readings tell us the way God worked in history and our need to grow to the fullness of grace living our lives in this time and space as our holy Mother did. All God’s dealings with the Chosen People of the Old Testament were part of God’s plan of preparation for his greatest act of infinite blessing which was to come in the Incarnation. And the one human being who received the fullness of these promises and blessings was the Virgin Mary when she said , “Be it done unto me according to thy word”. She became the Mother of Jesus who was the Messiah and the Son of God. It was an honor and a dignity which no human imagination could have thought possible. But nothing is impossible to God.
The gospel today presents Mary to us as a model of true life in Christ that all of us always wish for ourselves. When we honor Mary we are in fact and in intention honoring and thanking God for the marvelous gifts and privileges he conferred on one of us. It is true that the holiness of Mary is attributed to the grace of God, but this should not make us forget that she needed to make an effort in order to cooperate with the grace of God. Mary was a woman who valued the word of God, who pondered the word of God in order to discern what God was saying to her at every stage in her life as the handmaid of God.
The Church teaches and all of us believe that Mary is Mother of God and Our Holy Mother. Was Jesus Mary’s only biological son? Many people have this doubt as they get confused with Mt 13:54, which mention the names of the brothers of Jesus. To understand this passage we need to read Mk 15:40 and the beginning of the Letter of St.Jude. These passages remove our doubts and help us to understand that Jesus was the only biological son of Mary and the names mentioned in Mt.13:54 are of Jesus’ cousins. We need have no fear of taking anything from the honor, glory and gratitude we owe to God, when we honor , as our Mother, the Virgin Mary whom He first honored by making her the Mother of His Son. Furthermore the last act of our Savior before dying on the Cross was to make His Mother our Mother, through our representative St.John, to whom He said: “Behold thy mother”.
Today we revere Mary as the Mother of God, and today we revere Mary as our Mother. Today we give special honor to the way God chose to come to us, to redeem us, and to love us not in overpowering awesomeness but in the simplicity of a child being held and nourished on Mary’s lap. It is He who comes to us in the simplicity of a mother’s love in order that we might love God as He wants us to love Him.
When we look upon a mother holding a baby in her lap and nurturing it we see something that we do not otherwise see. In all of its simplicity we see the beauty of unconditional love, love without all of the complications we humans might otherwise attach to it. The Presence of a mother makes the child feel safe and secure. Our attachment to our Holy Mother makes us feel always safe and secure. She protects us with a motherly care from all kinds of evils and dangers.
As we begin a New Year we should reflect on what it now means to be a new human person being always growing in God’s grace every day. Let us begin this year with our Holy Mother in a special way dedicating ourselves to the care of Holy Mother. Let us remain always in God’s grace and experience the joy of God’s presence in our everyday life. God bless you. Happy New Year!!!
Numbers 6:22-27 Galatians 4:4-7 Luke 2:16-21
For Readings
http://www.usccb.org/nab/010112.shtml
Today is a day of gratitude and new hopes. The year 2011 left for history leaving lots of God’s blessings to us and 2012 is standing before us with great joys and hopes. All of us are blessed by God to see the year 2012. Every New Year starts with the month of January. As we know the name "January" comes from the Roman god ‘Janus’, the god with two faces, one looking to the past and the other looking to the future.
This is indeed a time to look back at the year that has just ended and to look forward to the year ahead of us. How did I spend this one year of my life that has just passed? Did I use it to advance my goals and objectives in life? Did I use it to enhance the purpose of my existence? Could I have done better last year in the way I invested my time between the demands of work, family, friends and society, and the demands of my spiritual life? Through soul searching questions like these we find that a review of the past year naturally leads to setting goals and resolutions for the new year. Here Mary stands as a role model who glorified God through her whole life and became full of grace and Mother of God.
Today’s readings tell us the way God worked in history and our need to grow to the fullness of grace living our lives in this time and space as our holy Mother did. All God’s dealings with the Chosen People of the Old Testament were part of God’s plan of preparation for his greatest act of infinite blessing which was to come in the Incarnation. And the one human being who received the fullness of these promises and blessings was the Virgin Mary when she said , “Be it done unto me according to thy word”. She became the Mother of Jesus who was the Messiah and the Son of God. It was an honor and a dignity which no human imagination could have thought possible. But nothing is impossible to God.
The gospel today presents Mary to us as a model of true life in Christ that all of us always wish for ourselves. When we honor Mary we are in fact and in intention honoring and thanking God for the marvelous gifts and privileges he conferred on one of us. It is true that the holiness of Mary is attributed to the grace of God, but this should not make us forget that she needed to make an effort in order to cooperate with the grace of God. Mary was a woman who valued the word of God, who pondered the word of God in order to discern what God was saying to her at every stage in her life as the handmaid of God.
The Church teaches and all of us believe that Mary is Mother of God and Our Holy Mother. Was Jesus Mary’s only biological son? Many people have this doubt as they get confused with Mt 13:54, which mention the names of the brothers of Jesus. To understand this passage we need to read Mk 15:40 and the beginning of the Letter of St.Jude. These passages remove our doubts and help us to understand that Jesus was the only biological son of Mary and the names mentioned in Mt.13:54 are of Jesus’ cousins. We need have no fear of taking anything from the honor, glory and gratitude we owe to God, when we honor , as our Mother, the Virgin Mary whom He first honored by making her the Mother of His Son. Furthermore the last act of our Savior before dying on the Cross was to make His Mother our Mother, through our representative St.John, to whom He said: “Behold thy mother”.
Today we revere Mary as the Mother of God, and today we revere Mary as our Mother. Today we give special honor to the way God chose to come to us, to redeem us, and to love us not in overpowering awesomeness but in the simplicity of a child being held and nourished on Mary’s lap. It is He who comes to us in the simplicity of a mother’s love in order that we might love God as He wants us to love Him.
When we look upon a mother holding a baby in her lap and nurturing it we see something that we do not otherwise see. In all of its simplicity we see the beauty of unconditional love, love without all of the complications we humans might otherwise attach to it. The Presence of a mother makes the child feel safe and secure. Our attachment to our Holy Mother makes us feel always safe and secure. She protects us with a motherly care from all kinds of evils and dangers.
As we begin a New Year we should reflect on what it now means to be a new human person being always growing in God’s grace every day. Let us begin this year with our Holy Mother in a special way dedicating ourselves to the care of Holy Mother. Let us remain always in God’s grace and experience the joy of God’s presence in our everyday life. God bless you. Happy New Year!!!
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