Solemnity of Mary,
the Mother of God
Cycle B
January 1, 2015 4:00pm,
8:00am and 10:00am
Saint
Margaret Parish, Bel Air
Mary and New Year’s
You probably know that the great
feasts in our Church, like Christmas and Easter, have an octave.
The word octave comes from the Latin word for eight. So the idea is that these particular feast
days of our faith are so important that we celebrate them for eight days.
January 1st is the
eighth and last day of the octave of Christmas and we, in our Catholic tradition
honor Mary as the Mother of God today. Of
course, we are also celebrating New Year’s.
I think this is a happy
coincidence. I say that because I
believe that Mary has something to say to us here on New Year’s Day about time:
our past, our future, and especially our present.
Mary: Past and Future
First of all, Mary’s past life
must have shaped her expectations.
She was part of a modest,
probably poor, and little-known family. Her
past must have led her to expect that her life would unfold very predictably,
with not much new or surprising.
But then along comes the angel
Gabriel.
And now Mary’s future seems like
a blur.
How will she manage this and
manage what others will say about her?
Her future suddenly looks very different from what she has expected.
Mary: Be Present to the Present
With all of this, Mary is present
to the present moment – and this is her lesson for us.
She does not allow expectations
developed from her past to close her off to what the angel is saying. And she does not allow her anxiety about the
future to make her resistant to facing the unknown.
I have to think that it was
Mary’s faith that tells her to find God in the present. She finds her peace and her direction in
being present to the present.
What Does It Mean?
What
does it mean for Mary and for us to be present to the present moment?
On a
common sense level, it means that we understand that the present is really all
that we have. On a faith level, with our
faith, it means that we believe that God comes to us where we are right now.
Being
present to the present means that we believe that God comes to us in our
prayer, in the reading of the Scripture, and also in the wise counsel of a
friend or in the affirming words of a teacher.
It means that we listen to what is really being said underneath the
words of another person.
It
means that we look underneath the actions of another person to appreciate what
is really going on. It means that we pause
and take time to respond to persons or situations from within ourselves, from
our core or center where God abides, and that we allow God to bring light and
warmth to our behavior.
Being
present to the present means that we give of ourselves to what we are doing
right now. It means that we try to
discern God’s presence in this.
Conclusion
This is
the way to the inner peace and the fullness of life that Jesus promises.
It is also
the way to do what Mary did – to bring God into the world. So being present to the present – this is
Mary’s message for us on this New Year’s Day, this junction between the past
and the future.
