Homily for Monday, 1 January 2018– Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God

Octave Day of Christmas

Readings of the day: Numbers 6:22-27; Psalm 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8; Galatians 4:4-7; Luke 2:16-21

This homily was given at Our Lady of the Valley and St. James Church, Coldstream and Vernon, BC, Canada.

How many names and devotional titles can we think of by which we, as Catholics, celebrate Mary? We often give her, as in the name of today’s celebration, two names, “blessed” and “virgin.” When we speak of Mary as “the Blessed Virgin,” we combine two different Gospel accounts of Mary around the conception, birth, and infancy of Jesus: Matthew, who applies Isaiah’s prophecy to Mary, “A virgin shall be with child,” and Luke, in whose Gospel Mary’s relative, Elizabeth, first calls Mary “blessed.”

The second part of the title of today’s celebration of Mary, “Mother of God,” is a simplified form of a complicated Greek title given Mary at the First Council of Ephesus in 431, theotokos or “God-bearer.” The main purpose of the bishops at Ephesus was to affirm the truth of the two natures of Christ, both divine and human. Mary, then, was said not to have borne Jesus in his human nature but also in his divine nature in her womb; Mary is not only “Christ-bearer” but “God-bearer.”

And we have a long list of less-complicated names for Mary than theotokos. Anybody here whose name is Mary or a variation of Mary: I do not want to be too gloomy, but your name derives from myrrh, the burial spice brought by the magi in Matthew’s Gospel alongside gold and incense. The name Mary— Mariam, “myrrh-bearer”— reminds us of the suffering Mary would endure alongside her Son Jesus through his passion and death. No saint has as many titles or is called upon for as many causes as Mary. Right here [in the Vernon area], Mary is the namesake of our church, Our Lady of the Valley. When I was a teenager, my family moved to a parish called Our Lady of Perpetual Help, outside of Edmonton, Alberta. Pope Francis has helped to popularize the devotion to Our Lady, Untier of Knots, which was not a very common devotion until Francis became pope. Whole countries and regions, like the United States under Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception or the American continents under Our Lady of Guadalupe, are dedicated or, we say, consecrated to Mary.

Mary is called upon in times of illness. She has been called upon to defend nations in times of conflict. She is the patron of many a religious order, of refugees and migrants, of the homeless, the dying, of widows, and of those in situations of unplanned or crisis pregnancies. From the “Black Madonnas” of Częstochowa in Poland and Montserrat in Spain to her appearance to humble shepherd children of Fátima in Portugal; from Lourdes in France to atop a pillar in Spain; from Kazan in Russia to Australia’s Mary, Help of Christians, to Notre-Dame-du-Cap in Trois Rivières, Quebec, here in Canada, and beyond, the number of devotions to Mary and the causes associated with her are countless.

We also often call Mary “Queen of Heaven.” Two glorious mysteries of the Rosary, Mary’s Assumption and heavenly Crowning, recall our belief that Mary has been taken up body and soul into heaven, and reigns there as the greatest of all the saints. When we end our Rosary, and at other times, we pray, “Hail, Holy Queen, Mother of mercy, our life, our sweetness, and our hope”… and, during the Easter season, we might pray the “Regina coeli”: “Queen of heaven, rejoice, for the Son you merited to bear has risen as he said, alleluia”!

But what does it mean for us to recognize Mary as “queen”? I have to admit some personal fascination with royalty. Lately, as I have been staying with family over this Christmas season, I have caught a few episodes of the Netflix series “The Crown.” This series is about the rise to the throne and reign of Queen Elizabeth II. In several scenes of “The Crown,” Queen Elizabeth is sought for her government and diplomatic skill. She is consulted by Prime Ministers in dealing with sometimes tense events in the world early in her reign. “The Crown” portrays Elizabeth as a competent, strong yet calm queen. And yet I am even more drawn to how frequently “The Crown” portrays Elizabeth as a devoted and even tender wife to Prince Philip and mother to their children.

To a much greater extent than of Queen Elizabeth, indeed perfectly so, the same is true of Mary. She is Queen of Heaven, and yet also Mother. Mary is Mother of God; she is Mother of Christ; she is our Mother. Mary’s queenship and motherhood are inseparable. When we pray, “Hail, Holy Queen,” we add immediately, “Mother of mercy, our life, our sweetness, and our hope.” Our Regina coeli acknowledges Mary as “Queen of Heaven” (these are the prayer’s first words), and then immediately as the joyous one who bore her, and God’s, now-risen Son. Our Advent and Christmas hymn, Alma Redemptoris Mater, again acknowledges the inseparable queenship and motherhood of Mary: “Loving mother of the Redeemer, gate of heaven, star of the sea, assist your people who have fallen yet strive to rise again. To the wonderment of nature you bore your Creator, yet remained a virgin after as before. You who received Gabriel's joyful greeting, have pity on us poor sinners.”

St. Thérèse of Lisieux was known for her reverence and yet familial relationship with Mary. St. Thérèse knew Mary intimately as both queen and mother; as queen because Mary is our Mother. Some of the last words St. Thérèse spoke were these: “We know well that the Blessed Virgin is Queen of heaven and earth. But, I believe, she is more Mother than Queen, [because she] greatly increases the splendor of” her children.

As our Mother, the Mother of the Church, the Blessed Virgin Mary does not keep the splendor of queenship to herself. Instead, she guides us tenderly toward and reflects upon us the same splendor of heaven. Through Mary, Mother and Queen, God blesses us in the same way he once asked Moses to bless his people: “The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.” Through Mary, our Queen because she is our Mother; Mother of Christ, Mother of God, St. Paul says in his letter to the Galatians, we are made sons and daughters of the same God. “And if son [and daughter], then” we are also heirs (do we hear the royal language here?) to the salvation to which Mary is leading us.

Luke’s Gospel, we hear today, says that, when the shepherds arrived at the manger in Bethlehem where the newborn Jesus lay and “made known what had been told them about this child,” Mary “treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.” Treasuring and pondering: These are the actions of a devoted, loving mother. As Mary once treasured and pondered the shepherds’ words about her Son Jesus, we can be assured, sisters and brothers, that Mary still ponders and still treasures us in her heart, the heart of a mother.

And so today we celebrate many things, including the beginning of a new year, no less. But, as we ring in this New Year, we celebrate first and foremost our Church’s Mother’s Day. We celebrate Mary, the one who ponders and treasures; the one who blesses and leads us toward heaven, toward God and God’s Son, Mary’s Son, Jesus Christ. Today we celebrate this joyful feast of Mary, greatest among the saints; woman of countless names, titles, and devotions; woman of our age and for all ages; Queen because she is first Mother. She, the Blessed Virgin Mary of Nazareth, is Mother of Christ; Mother of God; Mother and model of the Church; our Mother, for the salvation and greater splendor of her children.