Jan. 1 homily...New Year's Day and Feast of Mary, Mother of God

First of all, on behalf of Sr. Karen Collier, our parish life director, and our Deacon, Mr. Ricardo Recenos, and all our parish staff, I wish each of you a New Year filled with kindness and peace.

The Feast we celebrate is, of course, New Years. It’s undergone several name changes over the centuries--the Octave of Christmas, the Feast of the Circumcision, the Feast of the Blessed Naming of Jesus, and today, the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God. Though the name changes, the day remains the same--New Year’s Day. And we all gather, to pray for ourselves and our world as a New Year opens, and we also remember the
spiritual context in which we pray--We ARE in the Octave of Christmas, and it was after 8 days that the child, Jesus was circumcised and named, and it is through the courage of His mother, Mary, that this holy and blessed season is even possible. And so, those elements inform our New Year thinking...

We need courage as individuals and as the People of God to create a world of blessing when the easiest course of action is curse the world with anger and war. It takes a person of patience, self-knowledge, and courage to offer a different solution. In this need, we turn to Mary, whose courage has brought us to this day to pray for us.

And, we remember that the naming of the Christ child was so important--for his name (which means “God saves”)--reveals his mission, AND it keeps us on track with what OUR mission is about. Had he been called Zedekiah--God’s Justice, it is possible that His person and His message would have been used to condemn the world, rather than to save it. It is in the “Naming” of the Christ that we learn what authentic Christianity is about. And, so we learn that we need to be able to properly “name” the issues of our lives. For how we “call” things and people sets up our response. If I call you a “trouble maker,” I have one reaction to you; if I call “a struggler for justice,” I have a different reaction to you. Today’s feast asks us to look at every single one of our enemies and all of the other “irritants” in our lives, and RE-NAME them, more charitably, so that we can find the strength to BE Christians in the coming year.

And, as we open the year, we remember that we ARE in the Octave of Christmas, the season of Peace on Earth to men (and women) of Good Will. And so, something is asked of us as the year opens. We are asked, like the shepherds to move to a place of humility (in their case, a stable) but in OUR CASE, simply a more humble place, in order to see God in our world. For God cannot be seen in places of power or places of arrogance...it’s hard enough to see Him at all in a place of wealth, even if there is no arrogance....God’s Presence is best discerned in humility--which often, but not always, means poverty, too.

So as the year opens, let us find a humble place inside our hearts, and with the Grace that we receive, may we use our lives to bring blessing to friend and foe alike, as we name them all our brothers and sisters. And may we find the courage to make our lives benedictions of peace that lift us and those around us a little higher. May our coming year be a time of peace and kindness, a time of courage and inner strength. And may God bless you all. +