January 1, 2024 Mother of God Gospel: Luke: 2: 16-21
There’s nothing like a New Year to look back and see how far we’ve come,
to see how different our lives are today from a year ago,
to see the good deeds we’ve done, see what got broken that still needs fixing,
to say we’re sorry where that applies.
There’s nothing like a New Year of God’s grace and mercy!
On behalf of the monks, Happy New Year to all our retreatants and friends!
Brothers and sisters,
Think of our icon in choir: Mary holding her Babe, the infant Jesus embracing his mother,
cheek touching cheek. It’s a picture of tenderness, a picture we all relate to: Mary the Mother of God.
A week ago it was Christmas.
Today, as a bookend to Christmas, we honor Mary under one of her oldest titles – Mother of God.
We call her by hundreds of names – Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Our Sorrowful Mother, Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Our Lady of Guadalupe – but perhaps her favorite is: Mother of God.
When you see the Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, when you call Mary the Mother of God, you testify that God really did become human, you safeguard the fleshiness of God, you defend God’s plan for His son to become human and save us.
When we celebrate Mary, the Mother of God, it’s all about the Incarnation.
That God was willing to get involved in the flesh and blood of human life.
The Christian God in the womb of a virgin.
She carried him for nine months, then gave birth in Bethlehem.
That’s the foundation of Mary’s dignity. Her womb became the sanctuary of God’s Son.
The angels sang the praises of God, the shepherds glorified God for all they heard and saw.
For this Babe was truly Son of God, Son of Mary.
Mary isn’t on the fringe of Christianity, she’s central. In the earliest Church, the Fathers spoke of Mary in terms that couldn’t be applied to any other human being.
In the second century, they were preaching that only Mary, among all the daughters of Eve,
is the one whom God chose to be a “Temple for the Holy Spirit,” and a “Mother for the Son of the Most High.”
In the third century the Fathers were saying that, “The Spirit brooded within her womb, and Mary became a second heaven,” that she deserved being called “Second Heaven” since the Only Son of God, at the message of the angel Gabriel, really did descend to our world from his eternal dwelling in heaven, and make the womb of the Virgin his dwelling place.
Calling her “Mother of God” however didn’t come easy. They actually fought over it.
In the year 428, just two days before Christmas, the priest Proclus delivered a sermon in the cathedral of Constantinople in honor of the Blessed Virgin, repeatedly giving her the commonly-used title of Theotokos – “God-bearer,” Mother of God.
Well, seated over on the throne was the Patriarch, Nestorius, who could not let these remarks pass uncontradicted. As soon as Proclus had finished, Nestorius ascended the pulpit and preached a sermon of his own. Nestorius admitted that Mary was worthy of all praise, but he strongly objected to calling her Theotokos, since Jesus did not receive His divinity from Mary. The Patriarch said she was Mother of Jesus, but not Mother of God.
With two different explanations being preached, it was clear to the people that someone was falling into heresy, and they chose sides. Fights broke out in the streets.
The matter was taken to Pope Celestine in Rome.
Before it was over, an Ecumenical Council was held to settle the controversy. The Council of Ephesus, at Pentecost in 431, ruled that Jesus is truly human, and Jesus is truly God, though He did not receive His divinity from Mary. And since there is only one Person in Jesus Christ, not two, YES! Mary is indeed the Mother of God. Anyone who fails to affirm Mary as Mother of God commits heresy by denying that the One who gestated in Mary’s womb is God.
Crowds of excited Ephesians paraded through the streets, carrying torches and shouting, “Praised be the Theotokos! Praised be the Mother of God!”
Mary, Mother of God. It’s from her divine motherhood that all gifts and prerogatives flow.
God has done such great things in her, given her so many graces – including the Immaculate Conception and her bodily Assumption – because God chose her as Mother for his only Son.
Yet she remained a handmaid.
You could say God waited 5,000 years for such a woman to come along —
a woman who could bear such a gift yet remain humble through it all.
Mary’s own hymn, the Magnificat,
which we sing at Vespers each night,
reveals the balance between her exaltation and her submission.
She is handmaid, because no creature can stand in any other relationship to the sovereign majesty of God.
But all generations shall call her blessed because God took human flesh from her.
Holy Mary, Mother of God. That’s our Catholic faith, come down to us for centuries.
The angel Gabriel said, “Hail blessed one, full of grace, the Lord is with thee!”
Elizabeth, her kinswoman, addressed Mary as “Mother of my Lord,” and exclaimed, “Blessed are you among women, blessed is the fruit of your womb.”
It was all for our sake. It was for us that she gave birth to God. It was for our salvation that a frail and tender Babe nursed at her breast –
to bring us back to the kingdom of heaven.
For Catholics, it is not a burdensome thing to honor our Mother. It comes from the heart.
Isn’t our favorite prayer: Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now, and at the hour of our death. Amen.