Liturgical Colour : White
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today on New Year’s Day of this Year of Our Lord 2024, we also mark the occasion of the Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God, in Greek known as ‘Theotokos’ or ‘God-bearer’. This is a title of the Blessed Virgin Mary which had originated from early in the history of the Church, as since the days of the Apostles, the Church and the faithful had consistently treated Mary with the greatest respect among all of mankind and of all the members of the Church because of her unique role in the history of salvation of mankind. By her other titles that we celebrate in the liturgical year, especially that of the Mother of the Church after Pentecost Sunday, Mary is also the Mother of the Church and the Mother of us all, because the Lord Himself has entrusted her to us to be our own loving Mother.
As the Mother of God, Mary is respected above all other saints and all the created beings, living or dead, because this is a truly unique role surpassing anything that any saints by their lives and deeds had done. After all, no one else can be the one to bear the Lord Himself like Mary had done in her blessed womb for a whole period of nine months. Mary was told by the Archangel Gabriel that she would become the one to bear the Saviour of the world, the Son of God Most High Himself. And this belief that Mary as the Mother of God has a much deeper meaning, symbolism and importance to our faith than what it may appear at a glance. Why is that so, brothers and sisters in Christ? This is because the nature of Mary as the ‘Mother of God’ is inextricably linked to the nature of her Son, Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
There was a time in the early Church when there were varying beliefs and schools of thought regarding the nature of Our Lord Jesus, as while the Apostles had taught and most of the Church fathers had preserved the teachings that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and Son of Man at the same time, co-equal and co-eternal with the Father and the Holy Spirit, with distinct yet indivisible Divine and Human natures, united in the Person of Jesus Christ, there were some who considered that Jesus Christ as born of the Blessed Virgin Mary was merely a Man, and has separate nature from His Divine nature. This stemmed from a belief that Mary could not have been the Mother of God as how could God be contained in the womb of a woman like Mary?
However, this contradicted everything that the Church had always taught and believed from the beginning about Mary, whom the Church had always believed to be holy and full of grace, according to the words of the Archangel Gabriel himself. When Archangel Gabriel mentioned to Mary, ‘Hail Mary, full of grace!’ as we also repeat every time when we pray the Ave Maria or Hail Mary prayer, he was in fact referring to the fact that Mary is truly full of God’s grace, and if we understand better what grace is, it means that one’s actions and life are aligned with God, and fullness of grace means that Mary is perfectly attuned to the Lord, and hence, was not tainted by the taint and corruption of sin at all throughout her whole life.
And that is what we all believe in Mary’s special role in delivering unto us the Saviour of the world, the Divine Word of God Incarnate, that she, by the singular grace of God, had been protected and spared from any taint of sin, in the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception, which while it was only formally codified and defined over a hundred and fifty years ago by the Church, it had been part of the Church teachings and beliefs since the very beginning of the Church. And this is inextricably linked to the Dogma of the Divine Motherhood, which the Church celebrates today, as the fact that Mary was hallowed and made perfect highlighted that the One Whom she bore in her womb was none other than the Lord Himself, fully Divine and fully Man.
This is because like the old Ark of the Covenant, which God had hallowed and blessed, to bear His Holy Presence coming down among His people, thus, Mary, as the New Ark of the New Covenant of God, had been made not by human hands but by the Lord Himself, hallowed and blessed, to be the worthy vessel to bear the Son of God, the Divine being contained in the flesh, in the Person of Our Lord and Saviour. This would not have been necessary if Mary was merely the mother of Jesus Christ, the Man, and not the Mother of God as well. Some of those who held on to false and heretical beliefs back then argued that Mary was merely the Mother of Christ, or Christotokos, and not Theotokos, or the Mother of God as the Church has always upheld.
All of these disagreements and differences were resolved at the Ecumenical Council of Ephesus where those who adhered to the heresy of Nestorianism were condemned, and the Church officially declared Mary as the Mother of God, or Theotokos. Nestorianism was a heresy championed by the then Archbishop of the See of Constantinople, Nestorius, who propagated the extreme dyophysite idea that the Divine nature and the Human nature of Christ were separate and distinct, and not united in the Person of Jesus Christ. As such, significant numbers of the Nestorians also believed that Mary was only the Mother of Jesus Christ in His human nature, not in His Divine nature, hence rejecting the title of Mother of God for her.
The Ecumenical Council of Ephesus resoundingly rejected that view and idea, and reaffirmed the Church’s beliefs that Jesus Christ is truly Divine and Human, and His two natures, while distinct, are united indivisibly and cannot be separated, united perfectly in a hypostatic union in His Person. Because of that, Mary is not merely just the Mother of Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, but also the Mother of God the Son, hence being the Mother of God. And it is this great position and honour that Mary has, which made her to be esteemed and honoured above all the other saints and holy men and women of God. But all of us as Christians also honour her ultimately because of her great faith, obedience to God and commitment to Him.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, today as we all celebrate the Divine Motherhood of Mary, the Holy Mother of God, let us all remember that she is also our mother as well, for the Lord has entrusted her to us, and all of us to her vice versa. Not only that, but by sharing in our humanity, the Lord has brought us all under His mother’s loving care and attention. Mary has always been loving and attentive towards us all, whom she has treated as her own beloved children. This is why she has always interceded for us, and appeared many times to remind us and to chastise us for our sinful ways and wickedness, through time and history. As our mother, she has always looked upon us with love and pity, seeing how we are all still shackled by the many bonds and entanglements of sin and worldly desires.
Let us all therefore today strive to change our ways for the better, heeding our loving Mother’s call, for us to repent and turn back towards her Son, Our Lord and Saviour. Let us all be thankful that the Mother of God herself has always loved us and cared for us, and has shown us the surest and best path towards salvation in her Son. Let us all hence do our part so that our new year may begin in the right manner, free from the corruption of sin and evil, and let us all do our best so that our lives may truly be exemplary and holy, following the examples of Mary herself, the Mother of God, our loving Mother. Let us all follow her examples so that we may also be filled with God’s grace, and be freed from the attachments we had to sin and evils all around us.
Today, the Church also commemorates the World Day of Peace or the World Day of Prayer for Peace. Therefore, on this particular occasion, and keeping in mind how conflicts are still raging all around the world, particularly in Ukraine and in the Holy Land, let us all ask the Blessed Mother of God to intercede for us, and let us all also pray together as one people, seeking and desiring for peace in our world today. Let us all do whatever we can to promote peace and to work against misinformations and efforts by some to stir hatred and anger amongst us, so that we may indeed all work together towards genuine peace in our world. Let us all pray and support all of our leaders and everyone involved in negotiating the peace process.
May the Blessed Mother of God, Theotokos, continue to guide us as always, towards her Son, our Lord and Saviour, and may she always direct us and our attention towards Him, and no longer towards all the temptations of this world. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now, and at the hour of our death. Amen.
petercanisiusmichaeldavidkang 