Mary, the Holy Mother of God Jan 1, 2012

Numbers 6:22-27 Psalm: 67  Galatians 4:4-7 Luke 2:16-21

Today we celebrate two feasts. The first is the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God. The second is the Holy Name of Jesus. This was the original name of today’s feast. This year we celebrate it on the 3^rd Jan.

• The first feast is introduced by the second reading when Paul tells us that God sent us his son, “born of a woman.”
• The second feast is in the Gospel which is the same gospel as Christmas Day, with the addition of vs. 21 which tells us that Mary’s Son is to be named, Jesus.
  
  

On the 6^th December we celebrated the feast of St. Nicholas of Myra, who gave rise to our modern Santa Claus. He was there at the Council of Nicaea. Mary was given the title of “Theotokos” – the Mother of God. This seems a contradiction in itself. How could a person who was created give birth to One who existed from before all time? This created a great tension in the Council. Some really good men walked away saying they could not accept this teaching. But as the angel Gabriel said, “All things are possible with God.”

Jesus chose to be born in time. He was circumcised according to Jewish custom. As such he was subject to the law as St. Paul tells us in the second reading. But the law in itself cannot save us. The Commandments, coming to Church, saying prayers and even good acts of charity cannot save us in themselves.

• the Word became flesh
• He placed himself under human limitation.
• He was restricted by time, space and limited human knowledge
• He was subject to the law. Law is a restriction.

Why did Jesus do all this? He did this so that he could give us the gift of freedom. The gift comes by becoming children of God. Law was not powerful enough to achieve this gift and the consequent freedom.

• Jesus would be the vine, and we would be the branches.
• Jesus would be the shepherd and we would be the sheep.
• Jesus invited us to abide in him. We become children of God

In order to do this, Jesus needed to be born in flesh, Jesus needed to be born of a Woman. Mary, who pondered these things in her heart, was vital to this plan of salvation. Jesus was both God and man. Since Jesus was truly the Son of Mary, she could truly be called the Mother of God. The blessing we have on this feast day is the gift of Mary, the Mother of God. She is given to be our mother too.

Part Two.

Today we also celebrate the feast of the Holy Name of Jesus. Shakespeare would say, “a rose by any name would still smell the same.” But here is not a question of smell. The Name not only identified the person, but “knowledge of that name” gave a certain power over the person. It was for this reason that

• the Jews would not utter the name of Yahweh
• the Muslims will always invoke a blessing at the name of Allah and even his prophet Mohammed.
• Rawlings the creator of the Harry Potter series, cashing on this tradition would create Voldemort, - described as the “one who must not be mentioned.

In the Bible, we have the grandson of Abraham, Jacob. He is “re-gifted” with the promises made to Abraham. But he is given a new name: Israel.

Jesus would change the name of Simon, Bar-Jonah to Peter, who would be the foundation on which the church was to be built.

In our Western Culture, names do not seem to be very important. Strong names like William, Robert and Richard – names given to Kings are metamorphed or changed into Bill, Bob and Dick. Then we have persons called Chipper, Chad and Cookie! This evokes pictures of wood chips and stale biscuits. We have to do some mental gymnastics in order to properly orientate ourselves for the feast of the Holy Name of Jesus.

Perhaps we can meditate on the beautiful passage of the Letter to the Philippians, chapter 2:¹⁰  “at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, ¹¹ and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

The greatness of the name of Jesus lies that he was made special, he was designated to bring Glory and Honour to God. It is not wonder that in the special prayer that Jesus taught us, one of the key phrases is “Your Kingdom Come.”

Since we glory in the name of Christ, and since this Church is under the care of the Jesuits, it is all the more important that we should clap our hands, jump for joy, sing and loudly acclaim the name of Jesus.

Appendix.

The holy name of Jesus has a special significance to me as  a Jesuit.

• the followers of St. Dominic are called Dominicans
• the followers of St. Benedict are called Benedictines
• the followers of St. Francis are called Franciscans.

But St. Ignatius did not want his companions to be called Ignatians. They were to be companions of Christ, and hence they were to be “Jesu- ita” or a person like Christ. Would that in all that we say and do and live, we were like Christ. I remember a very saintly Jesuit telling me way back in 1960, If we had even 10 Jesuits who lived a 100% like Jesus, we could transform the world. We could do wonders in the Name of Jesus.

Now do not get me wrong. There are many wonderful Jesuits. Most of them live out the calling, but like the seeds in the famous parable of the sower, some give 30%, others – 60% and still others 80 and 90%.  There is always one small segment of God’s Little Acre that we want to keep to ourselves.