Homily for the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God - Mary is our model of faith and prayerful pondering

         Happy New Year!  I’m glad to see you’ve all finally made it back to church.  It seems like it’s been since last year since I’ve seen you all.

Today is the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, which is the Eighth Day in Octave of the Christmas Season.  This is a Holy Day of obligation, but since it falls on a Sunday you miss the opportunity to go to church an extra day this year. Today we recognize Mary’s special role in being Mother of God.   

Many of us make resolutions for the New Year as a new beginning.  I was curious about the most popular resolutions and found the Marist poll of annual New Year’s Resolutions with the top five being:

1)   Being a better person

2)   Tie - Losing Weight / Exercising More

3)   Spending less and saving more money

4)   improving one’s health

5)   eating healthier

I really like the first one in being a better person.  One of the best models in being a better person is the Blessed Virgin Mary.  Of course Mary always leads us to Jesus, the model we all strive for, as she was his first and best disciple. Mary brought about a new beginning for mankind through the birth of her son, Jesus, by her strong faith.  Mary’s faith and prayerful pondering are great examples as we make our own New Year resolutions.

Mary was prepared for her special role as being the Mother of God by being preserved from Original Sin from the time of conception. Even though she was given this special grace, Mary still had the freedom to choose in cooperating with God’s plan.  When the Angel Gabriel greeted her with, “Hail, Favored One, you will would conceive a son who be the Messiah and Lord”, Mary must have really been tested.  Since she had no relations with Joseph, conceiving a child would have been a scandal and possibly life threatening. 

Trying to understand God’s plan, Mary asked the angel how this could happen. Who responded: Through Holy Spirit she would conceive the Son of God.  After pondering the angel’s response, Mary answered a resounding yes! 

Now what is pondering?  Pondering is taking time to prayerfully reflect on the meaning of life’s events in relation to God.  Mary’s yes came through her strong faith in God, making it possible for birth of the Son of God.  How did Mary develop such great faith?  We don’t exactly know, but we can suspect that spending time with God’s Word and pondering in prayer surely helped.

We hear today Mary’s pondering the shepherds message who came in search of the

infant lying in the manger.  The angel’s message to the shepherds was: Good news of great joy for all the people!  A savior was born who would be Messiah and Lord. This was very similar to Gabriel’s annunciation to Mary and we’re told she kept all she heard in her heart.   

Another time we hear of Mary’s pondering was in response to Jesus being lost in the Temple where he says to his parents after being found, “Did you not know I must be in my Father’s house”.  When Mary ponders she’s prayerful reflecting over time of God’s plan for her and her Son.

Mary’s pondering gives us a good model to follow in reflecting on God’s plan for us.   She’s a very good intercessor in prayer for our own joys and sorrows.   Even though she’s the Mother of God, she has a lot in common with us.  She is a mortal human being like each of us and a mother who cared for and loved her child.  Mary experienced many joys and sorrows in her life that we can unite to ours:

-       She rejoiced to God in learning of her conception of Jesus.

-       She was told her heart would be pierced when presenting Jesus in the Temple.

-       She was a homeless refugee as she fled with Joseph and Jesus to Egypt.

-       She lost her child for three days in the temple.

-       She lost her husband and was a widow

-       She met her Son on his way to be crucified.

-       She witnessed her Sons’ crucifixion.

-       She received the Her Son’s dead body and buried her Son.

Mary is also like a mother to us.  She gave birth to the Son of God, Jesus, who made us children of God.  She is now in heaven with her Son and we can develop a relationship with Mary as our Heavenly Mother which will help us to grow closer to Jesus. Many of us ask our friends and family to pray for us when we have struggles.  So if we ask our friends and family to pray for us, why not ask our Blessed Mother in heaven who is closest to Jesus, to offer prayers for us?

So how can we ask for Mary’s prayers and follow her model of pondering?  One way is by praying the Rosary. The prayers of the Rosary, the Apostles Creed, Hail Mary, Our Father, and Glory be, are all familiar to us. In praying these on the  beads of the Rosary it provides a quiet rhythm as we meditate on the life of Jesus and Mary through the Joyful, Luminous, Sorrowful, and Glorious mysteries.   While praying the Rosary, we can ask Mary to intercede in prayer for our life’s challenges.   Praying the Rosary allows us find some quiet time and peace to be with our Blessed Mother and our Lord.  It also gives us an opportunity to become better disciples of Jesus, by meditating on his life.   

If praying a full Rosary seems to be a challenge, consider praying just one decade to start.   Another prayer to consider is the Magnificat, Mary’s prayer of gratitude found in the 2^nd chapter of Luke. Every evening clergy, religious, and even some lay people pray this as part of the Liturgy of the Hours.  It’s a good way to close each day reflecting on God’s blessings in your life and uniting them with Mary’s gratitude for the gift of Jesus.

So in making your New Year’s resolutions look to the Blessed Virgin Mary as a model of faith in saying yes to God and prayerfully pondering God’s will in your life.   The Mother of God can be a powerful prayer intercessor and lead you to grow closer to her son, Jesus.   Hail Mary, Full of Grace, the Lord is with You!

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