(Mary,
the Mother of God 2018: This homily was given on January 1, 2018 at St. Pius X
Church, Westerly, R.I., by Fr. Raymond Suriani.
Read Galatians 4: 4-7; Luke 2: 16-21.)
[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Mary, the Mother of God 2018]
Calling
Mary the “Mother of God” confuses some people.
Actually it confuses a lot of people!
They say, “How can God have a mother?
To say that Mary is God’s mother
implies that she existed before God did—which makes no sense and is clearly
wrong. God is the one who gives
existence to everyone—and to everything.”
This,
of course, is a complete misunderstanding of what the Church means when she
calls Mary the Mother of God. What the
Church is actually telling us in that title is something very important about Jesus and his identity. It’s telling us
that Jesus was (and is) a divine Person. Yes, he had a human nature as well as a
divine nature, but he was a divine Person: the Second Person of the Blessed
Trinity, who took on human flesh in the womb of the Blessed Mother.
So,
on Christmas day, Mary did not give
birth to a human person; rather, she gave birth to a divine Person: a divine
Person who had both a divine and a human nature! Therefore, in that sense, she can rightly be
called the “Mother of God.”
In
fact, you could call Mary the “earthly Mother of a divine Person” and it would mean
the same thing.
When
I was a student at Providence College in the late 1970s, I was taking a
theology exam one day that had several true or false questions on it. One of those questions was this one: Jesus was a fully human person. True or false? I said, “True”—which, of course, was
wrong. And it shocked me when I got the
test back, because I didn’t fully understand the theological distinction at the
time. Now the interesting thing is, if
the statement had been: Jesus was fully
human. True or false? then the right
answer would have been “True”, since, as Scripture says, Jesus was a man like
us in all things but sin.
“Fully
human”—yes! “A fully human person”—no!
Ever
since I got that exam question wrong I’ve never forgotten this teaching and
this truth. But it’s easy to do. In fact, recently I was previewing some of
the videos that we’re going to use in our Bible study on the Gospel of Mark,
and I discovered that on one of them the presenter—a woman who has an advanced
degree in theology—refers to Jesus as a human person 3 or 4 times!
She,
of all people, should know better!
So
it’s a common mistake.
I
share this with you today because it reminds us of the dignity and power of our
Blessed Mother! Of all the women who’ve
lived on planet earth since the fall of Adam and Eve, Mary was the one the
heavenly Father chose to bring a divine Person—his divine Son—into this world. The Father also entrusted Mary (and Joseph)
with the task of raising his Son: the task of nurturing him and protecting him
and educating him. Remember, because
Jesus had a human nature he could grow, as Scripture tells us, “in wisdom and
age and grace before God and men.”
Mary
was largely responsible for that growth and progress of Jesus in his human
nature.
Now
the good news is, because we’re Mary’s adopted children, she will also assist
us in our growth and progress in the faith, if we seek her prayers and
help. That’s why it’s so good to begin
each year by focusing on Mary. Our primary
goal on January 1 every year should not be to get rid of the 10 pounds we put
on during the month of December (although that would probably be a good
idea!). Our primary goal on January 1
should be to grow and progress spiritually during the next 52 weeks, and become
better disciples of Jesus Christ.
So
today we begin the new year of 2018 by seeking that grace through the powerful
intercession of our Blessed Mother as we say one Hail Mary together: Hail
Mary …
