HOMILY FOR JANUARY 1st 2024 – SOLEMNITY OF MARY MOTHER OF GOD
THEME : As for Mary, she treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart.
BY: Fr Deotacious Chikontwe SMA
READINGS OF THE DAY
Numbers 6:22-27
Psalm 66:2-3,5,6,8
Galatians 4:4-7
Luke 2:16-21
LITURGICAL COLOUR
WHITE
INTRODUCTION
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, today is the New Year and the first day in the year 2024. On this special day, we also celebrate the Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God, in Greek known as ‘Theotokos’ or ‘God-bearer’.
ALSO RECOMMENDED: HOMILY FOR JANUARY 1ST, SOLEMNITY OF MARY MOTHER OF GOD.
HOW THE TITLE OF MARY MOTHER OF GOD CAME ABOUT
Mary was declared to be Mother of God at the council of Ephesus towards the end of the fifth century(About Year 431). This was as much a declaration about Jesus as it was about Mary. It is because Jesus is both human and divine that Mary the mother of Jesus can be declared to be the Mother of God or in the language of the Council, the Theotokos, the God bearer. The title ‘Mother of God’ is one of Mary’s more exalted titles.
ABOUT OUR FIRST READING AND THE RESPONSORIAL PSALM
In both today’s first reading and responsorial psalm there is a reference to the Lord’s face. In the first reading, we find that wonderful blessing, ‘May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord let his face shine upon you and be gracious to you’. In the psalm, we pray, ‘God, be gracious and bless us and let your face shed its light upon us’. In each of those references, the face of God is associated with a shining light; the light of the Lord’s gracious presence shines from his face. Both the first reading and the psalm expresses the longing of the people of Israel to see the face of God, a face they knew to be a gracious source of healing and saving light.
FROM OUR SECOND READING
In the words of Saint Paul in today’s second reading, it was because God sent his Son, born of a woman, born of Mary, that the Spirit of God’s Son has been poured into all our hearts, drawing us into a share in Jesus’ own relationship with God, enabling us to cry out ‘Abba, Father’, alongside Jesus.
FROM OUR GOSPEL READING
In todays Gospel Reading the angels proclaims the gospel to the shepherds, they in turn proclaims the gospel to Mary and Joseph. The gospel that the shepherds proclaimed in Bethlehem met with a two-fold response. The gospel reading says that all who heard what the shepherds said were astonished at their message, including Mary and Joseph. It is also said of Mary that she treasured the words spoken by the shepherds and pondered them in her heart.
CONCLUSION
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.
Happy Blessed New Year 2024 Everyone. God loves you.
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