Cycle B - Year II:  

01 January 2024: 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

We begin a New Year with Mary!

On the first day of the new year we proclaim and celebrate with joy the Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God, and our Mother too. It is fitting that as we start a new journey of life, we do so under the protection of a mother, as we celebrate the most passionate and enduring of all human relationships, that of a mother and child.

We honor Mary as 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 on the cross. But Mary's complete trust in God made her accept the role of a mother to God the Son.

Mary presents to us a perfect model of being a Christian and disciple of Jesus. She was the joy-filled mother of 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 Holy Rosary.

Now, let us 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."

Gospel Proclamation:

St, Luke is our evangelist and he tells us about the poor shepherds traveling to Bethlehem to give homage to the child Jesus. They were the first witnesses of the birth of the Messiah. There they found Mary and Joseph, and the infant Jesus lying in a manger, just as what the angel of the Lord told them.  "And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart."  (Lk 2:19)

Like Mary, let us continue to to keep the Word of God in our heart and to contemplate on them day in and day out. Like the shepherds, may we always glorify and give praise to God for all His amazing works and teachings. And so as Christians, let us go out and tell others the Good News of our salvation.

So we know: The Council of Ephesus proclaimed in June 431 that Mary can rightfully be called "Mother of God". It is one of the four Marian dogmas. Today is also a holy day of obligation for Catholic faithful in the Philippines.

The Church also celebrates today World Day of Prayer for Peace. Let us pray for end of all human hostilities in all parts of our world, as we welcome the Prince of Peace with the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I wish all my readers A Happy, Safe, and Blessed New Year 2024! And thank you for a moment with God.

Ad Jesum per Mariam!