Posted by The WORD in other words (2006) by Fr Antonio Pernia SVD – Rome
Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God – January 1
A week ago, at Christmas, our attention centered on the Child. Today, the start of a New Year, our attention shifts to the Mother. But even if Child and Mother have separate feasts, they are nevertheless inseparable. Thus, down through the centuries, one of the most popular images that adorn Catholic churches is the image the Mother holding the Child in her arms. For many, this image is an icon of two realities – God’s blessing and world peace.
God’s blessing. In Mary, thanks to the gift of the Son, the blessing that God promises his people is fulfilled. As the first reading puts it: “May the Lord let his face shine upon you and be gracious to you”. Mary carrying Jesus in her arms is God smiling at humanity. The Hebrew word for “gracious” signifies friendship, love, life, grace. At the Annunciation, the Angel Gabriel says: “The power of the Most High will cover you with its shadow”. Mary is full of grace. She is blessed among all women. With her Divine Motherhood, Mary becomes for us the beginning and fulfillment of God’s blessing.
The shepherds who came in haste to the stable, went home feeling blessed by what they saw and heard. As the reading puts it: “The shepherds went back glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen”. But not only that, they also shared with others the blessing they had received. “They repeated what they had been told about the Child, and everyone who heard it was astonished at what the shepherds had to say”. God’s blessing cannot be kept to ourselves. Once blessed, we need to share this blessing with others.
World peace. It is not by chance that the start of the new year and the solemnity of Mary’s divine motherhood has also been declared the “World Day of Peace”. For the image of the Child in the arms of his Mother is a powerful appeal for peace in the world. The innocence, fragility and helplessness evoked by this image are an antidote to the violence, armed conflict and abuse of power that often make world peace seem more and more an unreachable ideal. No one in his or her right mind would ever think of doing violence to a fragile child in the arms of his helpless mother.
Indeed humanity’s yearning for peace needs to be placed in the context of this image, if peace is not to become a casualty of the rhetorics of world leaders and other less worthy politicians. Often individual politicians and nation states ride on the language of peace in order to further their own political ambitions and economic interests. They talk of peace but mean economic profit or political advantage. They profess service to humanity but act only to serve their own self-interests.
Alas, true peace is not one which the world can give but one which the Lord Jesus gives. Only when the search for peace is built on the Child in the arms of his Mother will true peace be received. Only when peace is given and received in humility, vulnerability, respect and forgiveness will peace at last disarm. Indeed, like the disarming reality of the child Jesus in the arms of Mary, his mother.
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