My take on the 1st January 2015 sermon

1st January, 2015 The Octave Day of Christmas: Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God Rev Fr. Bonah

The Church is something we need to appreciate and be proud to be a Christian and Catholic. The year 2014 has come to an end and we begin a new year 2015. To begin the New Year, Mother Church invites us to celebrate Mary the Mother of God at the beginning of the new year.

Who is the mother of God. Mary has become the mother. We do not know the beginning of Yahweh, so she could have been the mother. It is God who chose her Mary to be His mother. He does it through the Incarnation of The God made man.

Calling Mary the Mother of God should be the responsibility of all Christians. But it does not happen. We cannot separate the Mother from the Son, who was a true God and true man.

Calling Jesus God is not an imagination of any individual. It is from God Himself. Even when Mary visited Elizabeth before the Child Jesus was born, Elizabeth makes it known that the Baby in the abdomen was Lord God, Luke 1:43 “And whence is this to me, that the mother of my LORD should come to me”

In Philippians 2:5-6 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God. Christ is God when He incarnated he was true God and true man, so the woman who gave birth to Him was made the Mother of that true God who agreed to be used to bring God into the world. This is confirmed in Col 1:15 “Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature”

The Church tries to help the faithful to come to the appreciation of Christ being God based on Scripture. So if He is God. What is His mother? Who is Mary, the Mother of God? St. Augustine’s tells us that God gives us grace but we need to cooperate with God to let the grace function. Mary in her Yes got the Grace to function. Luke 1:38 And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her. The Angel called her blessed & Elizabeth also called her blessed.

From the moment when Mary said her yes to God she was always there for God, she always kept God’s Word in her heart & pondered upon it. We should always accept the Word in our hearts & ponder over them. She did not live by the fact that she was the mother of the Savior so I could live anyhow. She was very humble and lived the Gospel and was always close to the Son till the Cross and beyond even at Pentecost.

 She is for us someone to imitate. We are blessed like her when we imitate her and the 1st reading gives us the blessing that is bestowed on all of us. The Blessing of Aaron was for the people of Israel and they are for us as we start the year. When receive such blessing and put ourselves into the shoes of Mary and say to God that we are the handmaiden of the Lord and God should do with us as He pleases and we should also go along and continue doing God’s will. Num 6:23-27 This is how you shall bless the Israelites. Say to them: The LORD bless you and keep you! The LORD let his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you! The LORD look upon you kindly and give you peace! So shall they invoke my name upon the Israelites, and I will bless them.”

So if we consider ourselves as blessed how do we live? If you feel blessed then we should always do things that are pleasing to God. How do we demonstrate the blessing? We should treat the environment as God’s own. We should not pollute the environment. But some of us right with the church as we hear the Word and we are blessed we go on to dirty right in the chapel. We litter right in God’s house. We pollute the environment, how can we blessed people engage in these antisocial behavior. Let us not just come to meet the Lord, blessed and go back the same living our lives with showing that we blessed people. But like Mary when she received the message she went back a blessed and changed person of God forever. Let’s thank God for today, the New Year and the life of Mother Mary the Mother of God. Let us pray through her intersession for God to bless us.

Today we begin a new year. It’s one week since Christmas Day. In the nativity scene we have at home or at our parish, we gaze at Baby Jesus in the manger just as the shepherds did so long ago. We see Mary, his mother, and Joseph, Jesus’ foster-father.

Mary was the daughter of Joachim and Anne. She loved God and her Jewish religion very much. Her neighbors probably thought Mary was very ordinary. It would be God’s work in her that would make her so special, so full of grace.

God chose Mary from all women to be the mother of his Son. The Lord sent the Archangel Gabriel to Mary’s town of Nazareth. Gabriel asked Mary to become the mother of God’s Son. Mary wanted to please God, and so she answered “yes.” With her “yes,” Mary became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit. She became Jesus’ mother. Because she is the mother of Jesus, God’s Son, Mary really is the Mother of God! What a blessing it was for Mary and her husband, Joseph, to be the ones to raise Jesus! They spent many happy years with him in Nazareth.

When Jesus was about thirty years old, he began his preaching and healing ministry. This is usually called his public life. (It seems that Joseph had died sometime before.) Mary often went with her friends to be near her Son and listen to his words. One day, she attended a marriage celebration in a town called Cana. Jesus and his disciples came too. When the wine ran out, Mary asked Jesus to do something. She wanted him to save the couple from being embarrassed in front of their guests. That’s when Jesus worked the miracle of turning plain water into delicious wine!

Mary loved Jesus and believed in him. She was there when he was nailed to the cross. She received his body into her arms after he had died and was taken down from the cross. After Jesus’ resurrection, Mary waited with Jesus’ apostles for the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. The apostles loved her. They knew they needed more courage to be real followers of Jesus. Mary prayed for them and encouraged them. She taught them how to be disciples of her Son. Mary’s feast days are special events that we celebrate throughout the year. Today we honor Mary as God’s Mother by going to Mass. We can be very happy because Jesus gave Mary to us as our mother, too.

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Mary’s life was closely connected with the life of Jesus. To remember the events of Mary’s life is to remember the life of Jesus too. Let’s ask Mary to help us love her Son Jesus more each day of this new year.

FIRST READING – Numbers 6:22–27

The LORD said to Moses:

“Speak to Aaron and his sons and tell them: This is how you shall bless the Israelites. Say to them: The LORD bless you and keep you! The LORD let his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you! The LORD look upon you kindly and give you peace! So shall they invoke my name upon the Israelites, and I will bless them.”

RESPONSORIAL PSALM – Psalm 67:2–3, 5, 6, 8 (2a)

• May God bless us in his mercy.

May God have pity on us and bless us; may he let his face shine upon us. So may your way be known upon earth; among all nations, your salvation.

• May God bless us in his mercy.

May the nations be glad and exult because you rule the peoples in equity; the nations on the earth you guide.

• May God bless us in his mercy.

May the peoples praise you, O God; may all the peoples praise you! May God bless us, and may all the ends of the earth fear him!

• May God bless us in his mercy.

SECOND READING – Galatians 4:4–7

Brothers and sisters:

When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to ransom those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. As proof that you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” So you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son then also an heir, through God.

ALLELUIA – Hebrews 1:1–2

• Alleluia, alleluia.

In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets; in these last days, he has spoken to us through the Son.

• Alleluia, alleluia.

GOSPEL – Luke 2:16–21

The shepherds went in haste to Bethlehem and found Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known the message that had been told them about this child. All who heard it were amazed by what had been told them by the shepherds. And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart. Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just as it had been told to them.

When eight days were completed for his circumcision, he was named Jesus, the name given him by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

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