{"id":2000,"date":"2017-01-01T11:52:59","date_gmt":"2017-01-01T16:52:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=2000"},"modified":"2017-01-01T11:52:59","modified_gmt":"2017-01-01T16:52:59","slug":"honoring-mary-mother-of-god-at-christmas-homily","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/honoring-mary-mother-of-god-at-christmas-homily\/","title":{"rendered":"Honoring Mary, Mother of God at Christmas – Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mary, the Holy Mother of God<\/a>
\nNumbers 6:22-27
\nPsalm 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8
\nGalatians 4:4-7
\nLuke 2:16-21
\nJanuary 1, 2017<\/p>\n

One week ago we celebrated Christmas day<\/em> but our Christmas season continues until next week.\u00a0 Today marks the eighth day of Christmas and on eighth day, we celebrate Mary in her role as Mother of Jesus, which means she is the Mother of God.<\/p>\n

Our gospel picks near where our Christmas gospel ended.\u00a0 On Christmas we heard how Mary and Joseph had gone to Bethlehem for the census.\u00a0 While they were there, the \u201cfullness of time<\/em>\u201d came for Mary to give birth to Jesus.\u00a0 It happened in a stable as we see in our Nativity scene.<\/p>\n

Then the angel appeared to the shepherds to tell them of the birth of the Messiah.\u00a0 That is where we left off on Christmas Day.<\/p>\n

Today we hear the response of the shepherds.\u00a0 Upon hearing the angel\u2019s words, they \u201cwent in haste to Bethlehem\u201d<\/em> to see Jesus.<\/p>\n

There \u201cthey made known the message<\/em>\u201d that the angel had given them.\u00a0 People were amazed at these words.\u00a0 What was Mary\u2019s reaction?<\/p>\n

We might think that Mary knew everything that was to happen but she didn\u2019t.\u00a0 The angel Gabriel had told her that she had been chosen to be the Mother of Jesus and that she would conceive by the power of the Most High but she was given no details of what life would be like with Jesus.\u00a0 She simply trusted that God would take care of them.<\/p>\n

So, Mary took the words delivered by the shepherds and reflected \u201con them in her heart.<\/em>\u201d\u00a0 Then on the eighth day, Mary and Joseph took Jesus to the Temple as good Jewish parents.<\/p>\n

Have you reflected on the words of our Christmas story?\u00a0 It is a story of the birth of Jesus.\u00a0 The birth<\/em> of Jesus is an important story but it is not the whole<\/strong> story.\u00a0 It is the beginning of our salvation.\u00a0 Jesus, Son of God, has been \u201cborn of a woman, born under the law<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

As we reflect on the mystery of the Incarnation we honor Mary as the one through whom we received the author of life<\/em>, the greatest Christmas gift.<\/p>\n

Today is also a World Day of Prayer for Peace and Justice.\u00a0 This fits with the beginning of a new secular year as we hope for peace in the New Year.<\/p>\n

When we look at \u201cpeace\u201d in this context, we might see peace simply as the absence of violence.\u00a0 That is certainly something we seek but in the context of our faith, \u201cpeace\u201d is something we receive from God in our hearts.<\/p>\n

The Hebrew word for \u201cpeace\u201d used in the first reading is \u201cshalom.\u201d\u00a0 Shalom is not simply an absence of violence.\u00a0 It involves happiness, health, prosperity, and friendship.\u00a0 It involves these things not just as physical and\/or earthly peace but in our heart and soul.<\/p>\n

Here we turn to reflect upon what it means to receive God\u2019s blessing.\u00a0 God offers us a good life through his blessing but what is a good life?<\/p>\n

I think some people give up on faith because they don\u2019t get the life they want<\/em>.\u00a0 Now, we should all pray for a life free of war, violence, illness, and full of prosperity but life is more than these things.\u00a0 These people think if they don\u2019t get these things, it means God doesn\u2019t exist.<\/p>\n

If we are truly open to receiving \u201cthe author of life<\/em>\u201d then we need to open ourselves to seeing our lives as God sees them.\u00a0 We need to stop measuring goodness and success in our lives by merely physical terms.\u00a0 In physical terms, we might always want more.<\/p>\n

Receiving \u201cthe author of life<\/em>\u201d transforms our world view to look at things differently.\u00a0 To do so we need to make God our highest priority.\u00a0 Do you?\u00a0 It isn\u2019t easy.\u00a0 There can be so many demands on our lives.\u00a0 Some people have to work even on Sundays.\u00a0 If you have kids, there can be activities scheduled even on Sundays now.\u00a0 Are those activities really that important?<\/p>\n

For the adults, think back to when you were young.\u00a0 Were you involved in so many things?\u00a0 If not, then why now?<\/p>\n

For the youth, you might enjoy doing these things but do they make your life any better?\u00a0 How busy are you?\u00a0 Do you ever relax?\u00a0 Do you ever think about Jesus?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mary, the Holy Mother of God Numbers 6:22-27 Psalm 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8 Galatians 4:4-7 Luke 2:16-21 January 1, 2017 One week ago we celebrated Christmas day but our Christmas season continues until next week.\u00a0 Today marks the eighth day of Christmas and on eighth day, we celebrate Mary in her role as Mother of …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Honoring Mary, Mother of God at Christmas – Homily’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[62,82,94],"tags":[129,230],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-wg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2000"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2000"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2000\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2002,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2000\/revisions\/2002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}