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Jan. 1, 2022 / Mary Mother of God ● + Luke 2:16-21 ●
● ● ●
● + Luke 2:16-21 ● ●
Title: New Year’s./Holiness/Mary
[__01_] Many years ago, I remember we were planning a social event that involved Monsignor Joe Petrillo, our beloved pastor of many years. And, we were trying to set this up for a FRIDAY evening.
And
a friend and I talked to Father Joe, to asking him which FRIDAY might be
available for this particular event, which involved him, especially.
And he gave us a list of dates on which he might be
available. And one of them he said was, as he remarked, “I'm free on my
birthday!” In fact, his birthday fell on a
FRIDAY that year.
And
we kind of rolled our eyes like, well, of course, you're free on your birthday.
We knew when his birthday was. We were not focused on his birthday, we were
focused on “Friday”.
Nevertheless,
Father Joe – looking at the calendar, saw “birthday” with more importance than “Friday”.
That’s natural. Father Joe always
enjoyed his birthday very much.
If
you have memories of things that happened – either for good or ill – and it
happened on your birthday, that fact will be more important than what day of
the week it was.
There
are certain days that we have burned into our memory. Also – birthday – or date
of birth – is an identifier again and again. Been to the doctor or hospital
lately? You were asked for your birthdate frequently!
So
there are certain days that don't have to be qualified, don't have to be
defined and your birthday is one of those days.
[__02_] New
Year's Eve and New Year's Day are also two of those days. It invites us to focus , specifically on the end of the year and the beginning of
another year. And if you've noticed, have you noticed that we we so easily
omit the day of the week when we're talking about New Year's Eve New Year's
Day. We don't have to say it's Saturday, New Year's Day. It's just New Year's
Day. Or we don't say it's Friday New Year's Eve. We just say it's New Year's
Eve. New Year's Eve New Year's Day stand on their own as do Christmas Eve and
Christmas Day. Conveniently, we can put up a sign outside the church every year
the exact same sign that says Mass is Christmas Eve at four o'clock or 530.
We don't
have to say what day of the week it is or that it’s “December 24th ”.
You know what day Christmas Eve is. So, they have they have a certain
permanence. Pope Benedict XVI, writing a reflection about New Year’s s asked if
our feelings about the old year and our feelings about the new year which are
stirred up also on our birthdays.
But
they're also stirred up on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. Are they not the
same that our feelings about the in other words we feel about the old year the
year has passed, that everything is transient, that nothing material lasts, no
matter how valuable that material thing is, it will not last forever.
[__03_] Nothing
material can endure. But that does not mean that nothing endures. St. Paul in
his letter to the Corinthians observes that “love never fails, Love bears all
things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
[__04_] Several
years ago when my grandmother died, it was impressive to me how similar our memories were of her. The memories of each of her grandchildren. We all had a
similar memory of her. And it all focused on the way in which she put us to
sleep at night. It was all about how she put us to sleep and what she did what
her routine was all of us remember that all of us remembered it independently that
transcended her life.
This
loving fondness and affection. Of course there were other memories. But the one
that stood out – on the “new year’s eve of her death” was about her putting us
to bed. And, this is also – in Catholic liturgies and prayers – that sleep is
also meant to be a metaphor for our dying and rising to life.
[__05_] One
prayer that many religious sisters, brothers, priests say at the end of the day
in night prayer goes like this. And it reflects both our going to sleep and are
going to our death “protect us Lord, as we stay awake. Watch over us as
we sleep that awake we may keep watch with Christ and asleep rest in His peace.” (Night Prayer, Liturgy of the Hours)
So
we pray that we will sleep in his peace whether we are living or dying. January
1, it also has a special identity because it is on the day on which we asked
for the intercession of Mary, the Mother of God, the Our Blessed Mother.
Jesus
is the one person with a divine nature and a human nature and Jesus receives
his human nature, his human physical nature, all of his DNA from Mary as as his
mother.
[__06_] Recently
I heard a reflection about Mary as our Blessed Mother by radio Catholic radio,
talk show host Father Richard Simon,
who explains it this way that Mary as our mother is meant to remind us also of
the presence of the church in our lives. So for example, when we celebrate the
Immaculate Conception and the coming into being of Mary's conception as a human
being, remember, remember that the church started off very small. Right now,
when we look at the church, we may look at the church or look at ourselves, and
we might feel discouraged at times, we might think. I have to urge you, for
example, I say, we pray, for example, in the creed that there's going that
there is one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, there is a holy church. But
where is the holy church? Is the Holy Church in me, the pastor of Our Lady of
Lourdes? Well, I'm, I'm trying to be holy, but I know that I am not the perfect
model of holiness. I am also a sinner in need of God's grace.
And
you might say, Padre, you have no idea!!
[__07_] So,
so there is no one person or one priest who's going to be a perfect model of
holiness. And sometimes we might say, how can the church be holy? If that's if
that's the case. But we say and profess that the Catholic Church is holy
because the church was conceived originally with exactly one member and she was
free from sin or sinfulness. This is Mary of Nazareth, Mary of Nazareth was the
first parishioner, the first parish council member, the first president of the
Rosary altar society, the first member of the Rosary altar society, the first
lector who proclaimed the Word of God, Jesus is the Word of God. Mary is the first
Minister of the Holy Eucharist, the first one to hold the Blessed Sacrament
Jesus the body of Christ.
Mary
is also referred to as the tabernacle. Mary does not equal the church per se,
but it is Mary's holiness provided for an advance and her yes to God that
enables the church to come into being. So Jesus is Jesus is our Savior through
Mary's Yes. And this takes us back to our origins to remember where we came
from.
I
think it was exactly one week ago that there was a major announcement and a
major achievement by NASA and the space agencies of the world. Perhaps you saw
the news that a new telescope went up into the sky, way up into the sky. It's
called the Webb telescope. And it is meant to replace what is now the Hubble
Space Telescope. And this telescope is going up into the sky to give us a view
of new galaxies, new stars. Its approach appropriate it's up there for epiphany
because an epiphany, which we're about to observe soon is also about the search
for a star. So the Webb Space Telescope is up into the sky. It's a
multinational multi billion dollar endeavor, specifically to catch really old
stars in view, really old galaxies at their rising at their origin. And this
telescope is out there to catch stars. And we're about to go into a feast so
it's about to catch a star. That's the feast of the Epiphany, which starts with
the vigil this evening. 5:30pm Mass, that's the announcement,.
And the Epiphany, in a way is a telescope as well, just as Mary's life is a telescope on the good news, to remind us to focus on Jesus to focus on where we have come from how we were born into this world, that we are blessed by God's grace, that his forgiveness helps us to grow in holiness each day, as we end this one new year and we begin another. [__fin_]
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