Three celebrations in one...

Our Church calendar calls us to participate in three celebrations today: the Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God, the World Day of Prayer for Peace, and the beginning of the New Year. We begin with the Prayer for Peace.

Our first reading today came to us from the Book of Numbers. After wandering in the Sinai Desert for more than 39 years, the followers of Moses were completely demoralized. They were saying to each other, “We are a worthless bunch of nomads. We have no power. The other tribes push us around whenever they want to.” When Moses overheard what they were saying, he reported it to God and God said, “Please be patient because things are going to change. The 40 years are almost over. Soon I will bless these people. I will say to them, ‘You are my people. You are a holy people. In my eyes you rank higher than the other nations. You will help me to implement my plan of salvation. You are my chosen people and as you become more and more holy I will send you into the world to bring my holiness to your neighbors. You will show other people how they can have great dignity and how they can share in my holiness. I will bless you and send you forth to bring my blessing to the other nations.’” Moses turned to Aaron, his brother, and said, “Give the people a blessing.” We heard Aaron offering these words of blessing in the first reading today. Aaron said, “May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord shine his face upon you. May the Lord grant you peace.” The word Peace was the final word in that blessing prayer and we are called to be peacemakers on this World Day of Prayer for Peace.

My second topic will be Mary, the mother of mercy. Mercy was the theme of our Responsorial Psalm today. Four times we sang these words: “May God bless us in His mercy.” Scripture scholars today are telling us that the Hebrew word for mercy comes from the same root word as the word for “a mother’s love.” This leads us to see that mercy is more than forgiveness. Granted: A mother’s love is forgiving. But it is also the kind of love that reaches out to include everyone and to exclude no one. The best example of a mother’s love is found in Mary, the mother of Jesus. She was concerned about the newlyweds at the wedding feast in Cana when they ran out of wine. She tried to get Jesus to provide them with new wine. At first he did not understand. He did not think that it was any of his business to get involved. But Mary persisted in her request. Her mother’s love prompted her to be concerned about everyone because everyone belongs to her family. It took a few minutes before Jesus remembered that a mother’s love is a mirror of God’s love. He came to see that he was being called to help these newlyweds just as if they were members of his own flesh and blood family. He responded to their need by providing them with more wine. So mercy means that we love others with a mother’s love and Mary, the mother of God, shows us how to do this.

My third topic is the New Beginning that we call the New Year. Saint Paul was talking about new beginnings in today’s Second Reading. Since we have been saved by the suffering, dying and rising of Christ we are living in a new era, a new age, a new period in salvation history. In the old days we said that God is our Master and we are the servants. Now we say that God is Abba, God is our loving Daddy. We have moved from a fearful relationship with God to a loving relationship. We feel that God accepts us and we don’t have to prove our worth. We no longer have the blind obedience of slaves but the companionship of building the Kingdom together. So as Saint Paul talks about New Beginnings in the Christian life we are facing the New Beginnings of a New Year. This is my vision of New Beginnings for a New Year: God will help us to move from darkness into light and help us to become Children of the Light.

How will this happen? God will intervene in our lives… That’s how! With the help of God’s intervention we will let go of the grudges that we have been carrying. And as recipients of His divine assistance we will reverse our history of feeling sorry for ourselves. With support from His son we will let go of every prejudice and feeling of superiority. God will guide our conversations so that we can move away from criticizing others and move deeper into giving people affirmation and encouragement. Yes, I do believe that the New Year will be a great year! It will be a year when our loving God will help us to be Children of the Light.