Mary, Mother of God: A New Beginning for Creation and a New Year

Readings for Today

"And Mary kept all these things,
reflecting on them in her heart." Luke 2:19

What does it mean to commemorate Mary as the Mother of God on the first day of the year? Because Mary’s yes to God initiated something new into our broken world. ‘Mother of God’ means that Jesus is God and Mary is his mother. He was conceived in her womb by the power of the Holy Spirit, carried in her body for nine months, suckled at her breast, groomed by her and nurtured by her after his birth. She taught him to pray and how to act as an Israelite. The Incarnation is the fundamental belief that God accepted a human nature by choosing to be born into this world including be mothered by Mary.

Why Israel?
This decision on God's part is mysterious. God penetrates the entirety of the human condition, including our experiences of birth, suffering and death. God became a human being in a particular family and culture. Scripture explains why God redeemed us this way. God became a human being through the consent of a particular mother living in a particular culture prepared by God. The people of Israel are chosen by God to prepare themselves and us for God’s self-revelation in Christ Jesus.

In the Gospel of Luke, the importance of Israel is emphasized in the story of Jesus’ circumcision in the Temple. Circumcision is the sign that Israel is set apart from other peoples and nations for a particular purpose. God reveals himself by becoming an Israelite, being born into an Israelite family, learning its culture and customs, speaking its language, and living its way of life. God's relationship with Israel is such that it can be likened to a mark as permanent and, at times as painful, as that of circumcision. This is seen in all its terrifying intensity in the Cross. God leaves a mark.

How did this come about?
The "how" of God accepting a human nature is an absolute mystery. It is a revelation that, while it can be appreciated and believed, can never be fully explained. To proclaim the Blessed Virgin Mary as the Mother of God is a statement about Christ. It highlights the humanity, identity and mission of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  No one else will ever be the Mother of God or know Christ as God in the same way that the Blessed Virgin Mary does. God chose Mary in a way that we are not chosen. The life of the Blessed Virgin Mary is something that our lives will never be. She is completely human, like we are. She is not divine. Mary is a mystery; we can love her, but never fully understand her.

What does it all mean?
The emphasis in scripture is always on her Son, not on her. Mary as the Mother of God tells us that Jesus Christ is God and human. Jesus, fully human and fully divine, entered our history through his Mother. We are saved by Christ’s death on the cross as much as we are saved by his Incarnation.  These mysteries reveal to us something important about God and his intentions for us.  God has, in Christ, accepted a human nature and lived a real human life. Christmas and this feast are the remembrance of how far God is willing to go for us. In short, all the way! Fulton Sheen said, that Mary is like the moon. Hers is always a reflected light, coming from a greater source that is revealed through her gift of Jesus.

Enjoy this video from Bishop Barron's Catholicism series