Solemnity
of Mary, the Mother of God
Cycle C
January 1, 2013 8:30 and 10am
Saint
Margaret Parish, Bel Air
Our American Calendar
Our American calendar is marked
with certain days that we celebrate each year.
For example, we observe Martin
Luther King’s birthday in January, President’s Day in February, Independence
Day on July 4, and on it goes. These
annual observances help us remember who we are as Americans.
Year after year this regular
calendar helps to deepen our appreciation of our heritage. It helps to keep us together as a people.
Our Church Calendar
Our Catholic Church also has a
calendar.
We have an annual cycle of
observances and celebrations in our liturgy.
Each year, we have Advent and Christmas, and then Lent and Easter.
We have thirty-three Sundays that
we call Ordinary Time, and this parallels everyday life and our efforts to live
well and even grow spiritually. And, of
course, there are certain special days, like All Saints Day, or today, Mary the
Mother of God.
This Church calendar helps us to
remember year after year what our relationship with God is. It helps us to deepen our spiritual
identity.
Mary
Mary, whom
we honor today, seems to have centered her life around the religious observances
of her day.
For
example, today we hear that when Jesus was eight days old, he was circumcised
and given his name. In this past
Sunday’s gospel, we heard that each year, Jesus’ parents went to Jerusalem for
the feast of Passover.
The
gospels also mention other instances of synagogue or Passover observance. So I am saying that Mary gave herself to this
religious calendar and this helped her to remember who she was in relation to
God.
Mary’s faith
was enriched by following year after year the cycle of observances on the
religious calendar. This enabled her to
cooperate with God in bringing the divine into our world.
Our Observance of Calendar
Today we begin a
new calendar year and I recommend that we approach our Church calendar with the
same spirit that we see in Mary.
It can be tempting
to see this as repetitive, as just the same thing over and over again. I recommend, instead, that we view our Church
year as a positive opportunity for strength and growth.
First, the Church
calendar allows God to speak to some important human needs.
These are needs
for joy, hope, peace, trust, and also for challenge and forgiveness. These human needs are re-occurring in us and
each year the rhythm of the Church calendar speaks to these in a helpful way.
Second, the Church
calendar allows for the deepening over time of our inner self and our
relationship with God.
It puts us in
touch with where we came from, where we are going, and how we are to live this
earthly journey. It also leads us to
know God more and more fully and to grow in our inner relationship with God.
And third, the
Church calendar forms us as a community.
It gives us an
identity as God’s people, as Christians and as Catholic Christians. It forms us into a people united in the
basics of faith, in the hope of the fullness of life, and in the love of God
and neighbor.
Conclusion
So, a new calendar
year, 2013, leads me to look at Mary as one who lived the religious calendar of
her time.
Her example is a
good one for us. Our observing the
Church year will enable us to be instruments of the divine entering more and
more fully into our world, much as Mary did as the Mother of Jesus, the Mother
of God.
