Numbers 6:22-27; Psalm 67 May God bless us in his mercy; Galatians 4:4-7; Luke 2:16-21
We begin the year off with a Holy Day of Obligation.
The Holy Day is quite different than a holiday; a holy day is the Church's gift to man. Not having to work has little to do with a holy day of obligation.
A holiday is a day in which we find freedom from work, freedom from the routine.
A holy day is different. It is holy because it is not dependent on our decision, it is not homemade but ordained. We do not make it, rather we receive it.
It is an acknowledgment that we receive our time not from ourselves, or by our own doing, not from the stars or the sun or the planets that revolve; we receive our time from him who creates and sustains the universe. We set our watches no longer by the rhythm of the sun and moon but by the rhythm of grace bursting in our time and filling it with the presence of him who knows no time but invites us to keep rhythm with eternity.
A holiday may be a time when we take a break from the routine of living; a Holy Day is where we pause to recognize God breaking through our day. Thus, the routine of living is filled with the giver of life himself.
The Holy Day reminds us of the beauty that is awaken by faith and thus our routine should be changed forever. A holy Day is not a break from something but rather it is a celebration of Someone breaking through into our existence so that it adds an eternal pep to our not so routine steps.
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Not only do we begin the new year with a Holy Day of obligation we begin it by celebrating the Feast of Mary the Mother of God.
The entire life of Jesus is surrounded in deep significance of having his mother close by. She was there, everywhere:
Born in a manger, she was there; Shepherds and magi sneaking a peak, she was there; flight into Egypt, she was there;
lost in the temple, she was there; wedding of Cana and water into wine, she was there; working of miracles, she was there; teaching of the crowds, she was there;
choosing of the apostles, she was there; crowd seeking to kill him, she was there; agony in the garden, she was there; arrested and condemned, she was there; scourged and crowned, she was there;
the way of the cross, falling and tripping, she was there; stationed at the foot of the cross, she was there; piercing of his side, she was there; burial in the tomb, she was there;
resurrection, she was there; ascension into heaven, she was there; out pouring of the Holy Spirit, she was there; beginning of the Church, she was there.
Mary, the mother of God, gives Jesus his humanity so that in the flesh He could make the Father known, "he who sees me sees the Father." In his flesh, we are caught in love of the God made visible. Mary's yes, her role as mother, makes God visible. Because she was willing to be there, Jesus is here.
If we eliminate Mary, we eliminate the humanity of Jesus, his very ability to relate to us, for he is like us in every way but sin.
We pause this day, as we start the new year, to allow this reality of God's revelation to break through into our lives.
We take Mary with us into our homes as Jesus invited the beloved disciple to do from the cross, "Then he said to his disciple, 'Behold, your mother.' And from this hour the disciple took her into his home." John 19:27
May she lead us in the footsteps of Jesus, for every where that Jesus was, she was there.
Poem for a mother
"She always leaned to watch,
anxious if we were late;
In winter by the window,
In summer by the gate.
And though we mocked her tenderly, who had such foolish care,
The long way home would seem more safe
because she waited there."
Mary, Mother of God, our mother, pray for us!
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