Jan 1st, 2019
Post date: Dec 31, 2018 6:24:56 PM
January 1, 2018 Homily by Fr. Karl Schray
The Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, World Day of Prayer for Peace, and a Happy, Holy New Year
Why do we celebrate January 1st as a Holy Day?
What feast are we celebrating today?
No, Jesus did not play football or soccer as far as we know.
It is the 8th day after the celebration of His Birth;
and, therefore, the day he was circumcised and given the name of Jesus,
or in Hebrew, Y’shua.
But these were not emphasized until the 7th century.
Yes, the ancient Romans did celebrate the beginning of the New Year
and they did it with much drunkenness and moral impurity.
To lead her new Christians away from this corruption,
the Church celebrated by meditating on Mary, the Mother of Jesus,
the Mother of God in the flesh.
Today’s Feast answers the question of why Catholics honor Mary.
Non-Catholics sometimes believe we worship Mary as a goddess
who gave birth to our God. Non-Catholic Christians argue
that there is no biblical basis for honoring Mary and that
Catholics worship her and make her equal to God.
They fail to understand why we honor Mary by
naming churches and institutions after her.
They do not understand what we mean by calling her the God-bearer,
Theotokos, the Mother of God.
The truth is that we Catholics do not worship Mary.
We worship and adore God alone!
We honor her, respect her, love her, and seek her intercession,
praying— “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners.”
Jesus honored his mother and worked his first miracle at her intercession.
We never equate her with God or replace God with her;
rather, we honor her primarily because God the Father honored her
by choosing her to become the Mother of Jesus,
the Second Person of the Holy Trinity,
when He took on our flesh and became Man.
Think for a moment on the amazing things surrounding
first the Conception and now the Birth of this Child
and you can see why Mary kept all these things and
reflected on them in her heart.
Let us do some reflecting ourselves.
Let us each compose our own homily today, a sermon for ourselves—
not for teaching or encouraging anyone else.
I will suggest 3 ideas we emphasize this day. We will have time to reflect on these ideas after each question:
What does Mary mean to you?
What does peace mean to you?
What does this new year mean to you?
If you did reflect on what Mary, peace and the new year mean to you,
you have done what the Gospel praises Mary for doing—
“Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart.”