NEW YEAR - MARY, MOTHER OF GOD - YEAR B

JANUARY 01 - NEW YEAR - YEAR B: Mary Mother of God
(Num 6:22-27; Gal 4:4-7; Luke 2:16-21)

Theme: Let us safeguard well in our hearts the grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ

Reflection:

General introduction of the day

- Today, the Church asks us to celebrate three important feasts: Mary, Mother of God; The New Year; and The World Peace Day. In this way we are full of continuous joy of the Christian life and vocation.
- Mary, Mother of God: the Church has proclaimed, the ever virgin mother of Jesus who is both fully divine and fully human, as the mother of God. Therefore, when Mary has given her final consent of 'being a servant of the Lord' she has already become the part of the redemptive design of God and when she has given birth to Jesus and thus becoming his mother she has become also the mother of God her creator himself. We celebrate this maternity of Mary today.
- The New Year: we have yet another year of the grace of the Lord. We are in the central point from which we move back to the memories of the year just passed away and from which we look forward to the hope of the year just started. Memories of the past always serve us as the 'events of experience and learning' (past year) and thus we have 'ample of possibility' (present year) ahead to really live and to make our life worthy-livable. We celebrate this moment of entering into New Year today.
- The World Peace Day: Peace is the 'single word and common task' of the world's nations today. 'We want peace', 'let us work for the peaceful society', 'let us construct a world with peace and justice' are the 'daily cries' of the people. Very happy to hear this news. But peace is not a word but an action. It's not just a prayer for peace but there is need of everyone's responsibility to work for it. Let us pray for the peace, yes, indeed, it is the gift of the Lord and but we have to also 'work' for the peace with our kind words and with our merciful acts, yes, indeed, it is our human task. We celebrate this world peace day today.

Particular introduction of the day

- Celebration of Eternity in time and space:
- We are here today to celebrate the eternity of Christian life and salvation. It seems little strange in this context of our feast. But it is apt and true. Today we celebrate 'The Eighth Day' of the Christmas. Ordinarily speaking there are only seven days a week. We measure our time and our days and months with this. Eighth day of the week usually never appears in our general calendar of time and year. Still the Church makes us to celebrate this eighth day of Christmas and 'also of the Easter'.
- Our Christian faith makes us to celebrate these eight days of feast as 'One and Same Event of Jesus Christ'. By celebrating 'the eighth day' we go 'out of our ordinary measurement of time' and thus 'we move out of our general time'. That means that we go beyond our time and beyond our human measure.
- This going beyond our normal counting of the days and time is at the same time means 'entering into another, unusual, countless and unlimited measurement of time'. It means in a simple word, we enter into eternity; which also means that we enter into the time and space of God himself.
- Thus by celebrating the eighth day of Christmas today we celebrate our Christian mysteries without limit and without end; we are to continuously and tirelessly enter into the joy of celebration of God's Word and Event for us.
- God entered into the time, space and history by the incarnation, so that he could move the same time, space and history into eternity of his own nature and being. Theologically these words may seem to be very strong and incomprehensible to our human mind and we can understand with the simple reason that it is not human doing but God's own will and work.
- The joy of celebration of Jesus' entrance into the world and into our midst (John 1:14) has to be for us 'continuous and lifelong and even beyond' celebration of life and mission of Christian faith.
- In the simple words, we cannot celebrate the midnight or day mass of Christmas on 25th December and say that we have finished our celebration of the great feast. No, we do not have an end to our celebration. We do not have a limit to our joy of Jesus' presence with us. We do not have a need to conclude our feasting of faith and life. Every Christ is born in us and every day he fulfills his work of salvation in us with the power of his Spirit. Any feast for that matter and in a special way two great feasts: Christmas and the Easter because they are the two pillar of our life here on earth and our future life there in heaven.
- Therefore, today we celebrate 'our entrance into eternity'. We are reminded today that we are not people of limited time and space but we are called to live in eternity, means, to live in the Lord. We have to be mindful of this truth every second of our life and only then we will be able to keep up and live up to the worthy of 'being the people of eternity'.

Message of God for us today

- First Reading: Blessing of the Lord
o It is a message of blessing pronounced by God himself to Moses;
o It is a blessing that the priests have to confer to the people of Israel;
o It is a blessing with the same words that God himself commanded to use;
o It is a blessing which contains all the possible requirements of spiritual nourishment for the life:
" It contains the blessing of the Lord: thus, his presence
" It contains the care of the Lord: thus, his power
" It contains the splendor of the Lord: thus, his glory
" It contains the grace of the Lord: thus, his choice
" It contains the peace of the Lord: thus, his gift
o It is a blessing which we too have to make it our own and thus our life itself should become a blessing for us, for our neighbor, for our community, for our society, and for the entire world.
o Therefore, on the first day of the year we shall keep in mind that it is a time to rejoice because we are given a blessing and it is a time to share because we are given a vocation of reaching out this blessing to others. Therefore, on the first day of the year itself, we have a grace on one hand and we also have a task on the other hand.

- Second Reading: Christian dignity of being children of the Lord
o St. Paul reminds us today the 'fact' and the 'fruit' of the coming of the Lord into the world:
" The fact is that the Lord has entered into the time and history 'under the same law' and 'through the natural and worldly means' of being born of a woman (not by the woman because woman is not the cause for the birth but the Spirit of God; and not through the woman because it is not human act that caused the birth but divine intervention).
" The fruit is that we are saved from the law and slavery of the old law and we are made 'children of God' by the working of the sanctifying grace of His Spirit which makes all of us shout and cry out with One Voice and with One Heart: Abba! Father! As the children we are no more slaves for anything of the world and anyone of the world but we become the heirs of his life and being - thus we become the partaker of his eternity.

- Gospel: Example of Mary and the modality of the shepherds:
o In the gospel of today, which is the continuation of the gospel passage of the Christmas, we have two models for our Christian journey: they are, first - Mary and second - the shepherds; for our reflection let us start from the shepherds because they are the ones who are found in the beginning and towards the end of the gospel of today;
o Shepherds: After hearing the good news of the birth of the savior in Bethlehem from an Angel, they started their journey towards the manger to see the baby. In the journey of the shepherds we find four steps that made their experience of joy of the savior full and perfect:
" First step: 'going' (v.16): they have immediately set out to go to reach the place indicated by the angel so that they could see the savior born for them; they could not remain there in the fields because the news is so exciting, so marveling and so powerful that they could not stay 'firm' on their ground but wanted to move to see how and what this baby 'born for them' could be.
" Second step: 'referred' (v.17): they have seen the baby and with the joy of his sight they could not control their emotions and their feelings; they started talking about all that has been said to them by the angel and they tried to describe all the events that have taken place in their venture into finding the savior;
" Third step: 'returning' (v.20): the power of joy is not personal. It makes the one who finds it to go and share it. It does not keep quiet until it is given to somebody else. It is so contagious that all become partakers of it. The same thing happened to the shepherds. They could not control their joy of seeing the baby and talking about him; they immediately returned to spread the good news to others; in other words, they have soon shared their joy of the savior with others. The joy of the Lord makes the person to return to his life and to his work to live it and to share it.
" Fourth step: 'praising and glorifying' (v.20): Joy of the eyes that have seen the wonderful act of God soon has become the song of praise and thanksgiving to God. The shepherds feeling themselves blessed and fortunate to have this experience of 'watching' the baby who has filled them with hope of salvation, kept on offering their hymns of praise to the Lord for his presence amidst them;
" Fifth step: 'our step': now it is our turn to take the model of the shepherds and do the same. First, we have to listen to the good news of salvation and then 'go out' to see the reality of the words proclaimed; the savior is born for us and we have heard the good news and thus we go to the church to see and experience this 'birth of the savior' for us and before our naked eyes. Second, we have to 'talk' and 'speak' all that happened; we can ask ourselves a question here: did I ever speak of the event of incarnation after my Christmas Mass to at least few of my neighbors? Did I spend some time to witness Jesus' birth for me and in front of me? We have to use our tongue and our lips to 'refer' the things of the Lord; if we have an answer for this question, it's well and good; otherwise we have 'revise' who we are and what we are until today. Third, we have to return from the presence of the Lord, after the mass, into the world, into our families and into our life; we are not called only to pray and to sit wondering at the events of the Lord but we are called to 'live' them and to share them with the others. Fourth, we have to give praise and glory to God for all his marvelous acts for our salvation; the experience of the joy that we have received from our participation in the mystery of incarnation makes us to glorify God and to offer our whole life to him; therefore, just watching and listening is not the end of Christian life but 'living, sharing and thanksgiving' is the final step of our life and mission. Let us for this Christmas and the time that follows, learn to 'go' to see the Lord, to 'refer' his words and message, to 'return' to our life with task of sharing our joy and thus, finally offering our lives as a sacrifice of thanksgiving and glory to God.
o Mary who has kept everything in her heart: between the 'coming' with the hope and 'returning' with the joy of the shepherds there is the 'attitude of Mary' which we have to notice and take as an example to continue our wondering of the mysteries of the Lord and specially of his incarnation into the world. "Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart" (Luke 2:19): this is the silent-admiration of Mary with all that is happening in her and around her. Yes, indeed, God's great deeds are in fact talked and proclaimed; but more than that, they are to be 'treasured' and 'pondered' in one's heart;
" Mary Treasured: treasure is something precious and to be safeguarded and kept preserved. Treasuring something is an act by which one 'makes his own' all that he wants to secure; it is an act by which one saves all that he gathers and receives; precious treasure is treasured preciously; about the event of the 'birth of the savior' all those who gathered there around manger were amazed when they the shepherds told them the words of the angels and their finding of the baby and their experience of an inner joy; there are certainly Mary, Joseph and shepherds and there could have been also the near ones who would have gathered; in any case, the shepherds were joyful and exclaimed the wonderful acts of God in their midst; but "Mary, on her part, has kept all these words in her heart". This is the unique and marvelous attitude that Mary has demonstrated before the magnificent joy that God has endowed her with; All have preferred to talk and chat but Mary has preferred to 'treasure' them because she alone knows how precious these words and event are because 'she' has participated in it with her 'amen'.
" Mary pondered them: mystery of God and his interventions are very often incomprehensible to the human limited mind and reason; God entering into the world taking a human form is highly un-intellectual and un-philosophical of the time. God's entering into the world as a poor and disguised baby in the manger is too hard even to those religious and awaiting authority of the time, that is the priests and leaders of the people of Israel, to understand it and that is the reason why they are not able to accept him (John 1:10-11); both reason and faithful waiting failed; both philosophy and so called religiosity have not succeeded in recognizing the mystery of God amidst them; it is only poor and simple shepherds who were able to 'believe' and 'to go' and 'to find' and 'to return with praise and glory' and finally filled their life 'with the joy of the presence of savior amidst them'; it is so complicating and yet it is so simple that the mystery of incarnation is not invited by the elite and literate officials of the time; BUT, the evangelist Luke uses this conjunction to show the difference between those who talked and shared about the joy of the baby savior and those who actually taught us with their silent attitude that the mystery is so deep that we cannot be momentarily joyful; Mary knows how deep is this mystery; she knows that this mystery is not fully manifested; she knows that the same mystery in the process of its revelation will demand total life of the participant; she is the participant of the mystery and so she has to give up all her life and her being for the perfect realization of the mystery; that is the reason why she is still deeply pondering where could this mystery of Jesus leads her and the world to; with all these thoughts in the mind she preferred to ponder them over than speaking about them and thus manifesting momentary joy than complete personal sacrifice and transformation in and for the mystery of God.
" In her Heart: Mary has gone beyond the mind and thought she knows that the mind can falter and thought can doubt the interventions of God; therefore, she has kept everything in her heart; heart is her only place for the indwelling of God's design and will; as one of the Early Fathers of the Church said "Mary has conceived God in her heart before she conceived him in her womb". As soon as she said 'I am the handmaid of the Lord, let it done to me according to your word, she has given birth to the 'redemptive plan' of God and thus carrying in her heart already the eternal project of the Father who wills to send his Son by the power of the Spirit; thus her heart is 'always open and recipient' of the mystery of God and now the mystery of incarnation. Only in the heart it can be safeguarded and preserved well even if the mystery is shattered with the human doubts of the mind and reason; heart/will has always a place to embrace and meditate deeply all that is not incomprehensible; that's the reason why Mary has preferred in keep all thing in her heart; heart is silent and joyful when the events occur either desirable or undesirable; the mind cannot stay firm and the tongue cannot control both the moments either of joy or of sorrow; instead, the heart is always ready to 'ponder' the meaning and value of the things happen in our life; therefore, it is possible only to the heart to comprehend what is happening and to ponder over when it is not comprehensible;
" Like Mary we too are called today to treasure all the wonderful interventions of God in our life on one hand simply rejoicing internally and to treasure as well all that we are not able to understand on the other hand simply placing them in our meditation and thus seeking their context and meaning for us today; let us not be disturbed or too much worried of the thing we don't understand; let us accept that we are humans and we cannot grasp everything of the world with our small mind; and how much difficult it should be with the 'actions' of God; therefore, let us only in complete trust and in confidence wonder over the mysteries of Christian faith; let us preserve them in our heart and ponder over them because every event that happens in our life has a meaning and a purpose for our life and for our Christian journey; let us take Mary, mother of God and of Us, as the example and only in this way we can be 'calm and tranquil' in moments of misunderstanding, incomprehension and of un-recognition.

New Year or yet Another Year?

- Another Year: We never have 'new year' but we only have 'another' year; we often make the concepts and we ourselves do not really understand their meaning; I would prefer to say that we do enter into the year with the first day of every year but we enter not into new year but into another year; there is lot of difference if only we have time to reflect over it; day after day the time passes; year after year the possibility of another year starts; with the term 'new' we often fall into misconception and we enter into false preparations and false celebrations; if we celebrate every year as new year we have to also celebrate every day as new day but why we don't? everything is a matter of time or tickling of the clock; one moment passes another enters; one minute passes another arrives; one week passes another is at our disposal; one month passes another knock our door; one year passes another opens us the possibility of choices; it is not more than this; why we make so much preparation and spend so much of money and organize so much of program? Why finally we neglect and give up our spiritual renewal? Is it not false festivity? Let us celebrate not as a new year but 'another year' which God has kept in our hand opening the possibility of betterment of life.
- Wishes of Better Life instead: We may celebrate New Year, because we are already in the clutches of worldly and false attractions, and even if God himself comes down to stop these we are not ready to do it; so what are my words after all? We exchange wishes of the New Year and these wishes make round today and whole of this month. It is well and fine. Let us only try to understand well what we are celebrating and what are our wishes for; wish can be just a combination of few beautiful words; is it enough? Is it a real and true wish? Where is our heart and mind when we utter these words? Do we really wish it? What does a real wish signify? We have to answer all these questions before we exchange our wish. If we have an answer we are 'worthily' exchange the wishes and not wishes of New Year but of better life. It should not be the wish of pretention but a real wish; real wish is not only saying a few words but 'doing everything possible' to make the wish come true; are we ready to do it? we wish today and from tomorrow we live as though we are strangers; in this situation what could the meaning of our celebration?
- Today is the starting of 'another year of possibility for the better life': we may not have fulfilled all that we wanted fulfill; we may not have reached the goal we wanted to reach; we may not have completed all that we wanted to complete; we may not have come to the human growth and spiritual renewal that we really wished to have; Today is the opening of another possibility; today is the time to enter into another year; today is the appointed or given time and space for us to 'have a betterment of our life'; more than celebration and wasting of time with false imaginations and false prestige, it is a 'time given' to us to 'ponder and work out for the self renewal; it is not our time; we are not in grade of adding even a single moment to our life; it is a time 'provided' for us, provided for us by God as we believers hold, and provided by luck/or some other unknown power as non believers hold; in any case, it is time 'provided', not earned by our human efforts; let us keep this truth in mind before we celebrate 'any form of time' - be it a birth day or feast day or new year. Only then we will really 'enter into the celebration of our life and our mission' on earth, in and for the world. It is not to discourage the celebration but it only for the meaningful celebration that this reflection is aimed;

Conclusion: Better Life with the Presence and Power of Baby Savior Born For Us Today

- We are the children of God and we have to enter into the life and being of God and that is, into eternity; this time is temporal; this time passes away; these celebrations too fade away; night time we celebrate and day time we worry for the life; so simple is the reason; let us not go after pretending life but 'open' life; we live only few years; we have minimum time to live in the world; why do we waste it with misunderstandings, with struggles, with faces of sorrow and with the complaints of life; let us live it and make other live;
- We have two personalities for us to imitate and to go forward in our journey of another year:
o Mary who taught us to just wonder at the working of God rather than finding reasons because divine interventions go beyond our normal thinking; let us take the example of Mary and 'treasure in our heart' all the incomprehension and failures of knowledge and thus giving space to the Spirit to work in us and to bring forth from our heart the savior.
o Shepherds who taught us to find God in the simplicity of life and openness to the truth and availability to the divine inspirations and to rejoice over them and give glory and praise to God; great thing is the summary of the simple things just as the great ocean is the summary of the single and simple drops; so also God acts in the simple hearts that are ready to listen to him, that desire to see him, that set out to meet him and finally that renders due praise and glory to the Him; let us try to understand this and live as simple and available as the shepherds to the mystery of God for us and amidst us. In this way let us safeguard well in our hearts the grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ. May God Bless Us Today and the Days to Come.