Cycle C - Year I:  

01 January 2019: Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God

(Liturgical Color: White)

Readings:

First Reading:        Numbers 6:22-27

Second Reading:   Galatians 4:4-7

Gospel:  Please Read  Luke 2:16-21 New Year

Entrusting our life to Mary, Mother of God!

It's the mother who first welcomes a child's first moments in our world. That is why the most passionate and enduring of all human relationships is that of mother and child!

The Catholic Church welcomes a new year 2019 by proclaiming Mary as the Mother of God. It was in June 431 that the Council of Ephesus affirmed that Mary can rightfully be called "Mother of God".

Let us try to understand this title of Mary in its proper context.

Since Mary is Jesus' mother, it must be concluded that she is also the Mother of God.  This fact can be affirmed by logical syllogism: "If Mary is the mother of Jesus, and if Jesus is God, then Mary is the Mother of God."

Nonetheless, it is important to clarify that "although Mary is the Mother of God, she is not his mother in the sense that she is older than God or the source of her Son's divinity, for she is neither. Rather, we say that she is the Mother of God in the sense that she carried in her womb a divine person -- Jesus Christ, God in the flesh -- and in the sense that she contributed the generic matter to the human form God took in Jesus Christ."  (Catholic Answers @ http://www.catholic.com)

So we honor Mary, Mother of God, for her courage, faith, devotion and humility. Like all other mothers, Mary must have felt afraid at certain moments in her maternal role, like when Jesus was lost and  found in the temple after three days, and also during the agony and death of the grown up Jesus, But Mary's complete trust in God made her accept the role of a mother to God the Son.

St. Luke's Gospel today tells us about the poor shepherds who were the first witnesses of the birth of the Messiah. They went in haste to Bethlehem after receiving the Good News from the angel. And there they found Mary and Joseph, and the infant Jesus lying in a manger, just as what the angel told them. And we read from the Gospel about Mary's humility and complete obedience to God's will: "Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart." (Lk 2:19)

Thus, in Mary we have a perfect model of being a Christian and disciple of Jesus. Mary was the joy-filled mother to the new born Jesus; she was the mother of sorrow cradling her lifeless Son in the "Pieta"; and she was the Queen-Mother standing at the right hand of the glorified Lord, which we proclaim in the Fifth Glorious Mystery of the Rosary.

And so, as we begin a new journey in the Year 2019, let us pray to Mary, Mother of God and our Mother too:

"O Blessed Virgin, pray to God for us always, that He may pardon and give us grace; pray to God for us always, that He may grant peace in this life; pray to God for us always, that He may reward us with Paradise at our death. Amen."

Finally, the Church also celebrates this Sunday the 52nd World Day of Prayer for Peace. Let us also pray that our Lord Jesus, the King of peace, bless our country and all humanity with the gift of His peace.

And so it is my greatest joy, to wish my readers A Happy and Prosperous New Year 2019. Thank you for a moment with God.

Ad Jesum per Mariam!