Mary, the Holy Mother of God
The Blessed Mother. The Immaculate Conception. Our Lady. The Virgin Mother. Madonna. Immaculate Mary. Mother of Mercy. Queen of Heaven and Earth. We have so many titles for Mary, but on January 1st we celebrate and contemplate a title that tells us who Mary is and what God has called her to be: The Mother of God. This is more than just a title; it’s a calling from God. We know that God explicitly called Mary to be the mother of Jesus at the Annunciation, when the Archangel Gabriel told Mary that God wanted her to be the mother of His beloved Son. After first wondering how this could be she then proclaims, “Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord, may it be done unto me according to your word.”
Mary always leads us to Jesus. She guides us to Jesus and teaches us how to follow Him. The title “Mother of God” is supposed to teach us about who Jesus is and should lead us closer to Him. Today we contemplate an incredible truth that Jesus isn’t one prophet among many, He’s not just a really nice guy, He’s not a kind of spiritual guru with a lot of wisdom, we believe in faith that He is God, Jesus is God incarnate. Arianism was an early Church heresy that denied the divinity as Christ as the Arians believed that Jesus was merely a human person. We cannot do the work of the New Evangelization people don’t know the foundational element of Christianity: Jesus is true God and true man. If Jesus is true God and true man than Mary in turn is the mother of God! Through her love and obedience to God’s call Mary always shows us not only who she is, but also who her Son really is.
In this New Year we need to recover a renewed appreciation for the divinity of Christ and the role of Mary as His Blessed Mother. The Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God is of course celebrated on January 1st, so at the beginning moments of 2017 Holy Mother Church once again helps us to recover a proper understanding of both the identity and mission of Jesus and Mary. We begin this New Year by once again going through Mary to get to Jesus, for the Mother of God always leads us to God and to the truth about God.
