Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God Year A
Numbers 6:22–27
Psalm 67:2–3, 5, 6, 8
Galatians 4:4–7
Luke 2:16–21
The Marian title that encompasses all the other titles and prerogatives of Our Lady is Theotokos, meaning, “God-bearer.”
Although other titles offer insights into the role of Mary in the acceptance and sharing of salvation in cooperation with Jesus, her Son – the Savior of the world – the title “Holy Mother of God” gives us the greatest possible insight into what God has entrusted to her.
Mother is a title of relationship. The primary relationship of Mary is to her Divine Son, the Word Made Flesh, the Eternal Son of the Father.
To call her “Mother” is to acknowledge that God has given Himself to us through Jesus. Mary is the mother of the One Divine Person, the Son of the Father.
By the power of the Holy Spirit, she opened herself to receive the very Life of God in her womb. This made her fruitful in both a spiritual and earthly sense.
Jesus is the fruit of her womb in the fullness of His Person, which is Divine. He is the Son of the Father.
Jesus shares with us all that He receives from His Father. He also shares with us the relationship He has with the one who conceived Him in her womb and who gave birth to Him in the world.
She is holy because He has claimed her fully for Himself. She is Mother of God “because by the Holy Spirit He was incarnate of the Virgin Mary and became man.”
The Divine Son became human through a woman by the Holy Spirit. Paul reminds the Galatians, “When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to ransom those under the law, so that we might receive adoption.”
The holiness of Mary herself was received as a gift. She cooperated with the Holy Spirit in the begetting of the Son of God among us.
Celebrating her, we are simply acknowledging what God has done in and through her. Contemplating the action of God in Mary, we also begin to experience the invitation that is offered to us.
Mary watched and heard all that took place surrounding the birth of her Son: the annunciation by the Archangel Gabriel to herself, the quickening of John in his mother’s womb – this son of Elizabeth and Zechariah responding to the Divine Presence in Mary’s womb as she greeted Elizabeth, the message of the angels reported by the shepherds on the day of His birth.
Scripture tells us that “Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart” (Luke 2:19).
Mary accepted her role lovingly. We also are called to respond with love, embracing the role that God has designed for us. Learning to say our own, “yes” to God, we gradually open our minds, our hearts and our lives to the God Who has made us.
The Holy Trinity dwells in us as in a temple. We are able to continue His Presence in the world.
Since Jan. 1, the Octave of Christmas and the Solemnity of Mary, begins the civil year, the Church also invites us to observe it as a day of prayer for peace.
Peace does not mean only a cessation of war. It means fullness of being, living in the love that is incarnate among us.
As we begin this New Year, may we bring God’s peace to our families and to the world. May God bless us in his mercy!
“The LORD bless you and keep you! The LORD let his face shine upon you and be gracious to you!
The LORD look upon you kindly and give you peace!” (Numbers 6: 24-26)
