Homily for the Feast of Mary, Mother of God
Preached on the 1st January, 2023
What does your heart desire in this new year? It’s a tough time I know for so many in so many ways, not least in the midst of a cost of living crisis which will surely only get worse in these coming months. But as we stand at the threshold of a new year, with all the challenges, we bring ourselves before God and before his mother Mary, just as we are, and I hope with hearts open to be touched by a spirit of generosity and courage at the start of this year, a heart open to God. My prayer at the start of this year is that we are touched by our patron, our mother Mary, by her generous courage as she opened her heart to the God who called her to bring him to birth in our world. As Catholics, and indeed many others too, around the country and around the world, this weekend we’re also mourning the loss of our Pope Emeritus Benedict. Not a great surprise at his advanced age, and we had been warned for a few days his health was declining fast, but nonetheless a moment for us to stop and give thanks for all he was for so many: a Christian disciple whose calling too him in so many directions over his long life – as a priest, a theologian whose thought shaped so much of Church doctrine and life over the last century, the chief shepherd guiding the Church and finally the extraordinary courage and humility of one who stepped down when it was right to do so – above all, like Mary whose feast we celebrate today, a disciple through and through, who discerned always the greater good not for himself but for the flock entrusted to him.
And today’s feast, in the middle of the Christmas Season, draws us to contemplate this greatest of Christian disciples, Mary. A disciple whose calling was specific, discerned well, and courageously lived out. She is for me above all a good mother, teaching us what it is to be human, nurturing us and coaxing us always to open our hearts to others. She is the model of generosity, openness, authentic response to God’s will. But here she represents not just the model of discipleship in general. That is true – she is the greatest human being who was not God and greatest disciple who ever lived. And Mary’s place in our Catholic and Christian tradition is defined by doctrine from the Early Church to show us who her Son is for us, that is God himself from before all time born of a woman in time. But Mary stands alone too living out her yes to God in a beautifully human way specific to her being a mother, to her being a woman, as she nurtures, protects, ponders in her heart, supports, grieves deeply and rejoices in his rising.
But she is, importantly, far from passive. There is surely so much we don’t know about Mary which isn’t in the Gospels, maybe written out of artistic representation too. She is a strong woman, an equal partner, who searches out places to lie low along the banks of the Nile escaping from Herod, who gets everyone organised at Cana so everyone has enough, above all who has to put up with all the antagonism towards her son and yet she fights for him. She stands surely for all those women whose gifts and voices are badly needed in the Church, especially when it comes to those important moments of our faith journeys and of discernment and decision making.
Pope Francis, speaking in 2013 put this so clearly: ““When we men are dealing with a problem, we arrive at a conclusion, but if we deal with the same problem along with women, the conclusion could be different. It could lead along the same path, but would be richer, stronger, more intuitive,” he said. “Women in the Church must have this role,” because the Church needs “the feminine genius”. Mary for me exemplifies that feminine genius. That is her appeal and her beauty. She is born with absolutely no status in the world, plunged into poverty, with no right it seems to take her place in God’s plan of salvation, just a teenage girl without class, any special schooling or education, anything which marked her out, except that she is called just as she is to open her heart to God with total generosity. And she does that in an exemplary, immaculate way, which seals our freedom.
Here’s another question for today. What is our image of Mary? I’ve learnt to appreciate in recent years, the last decade in particular in my own life, how there is something really indescribable but deeply engaging about her. I commend to us again Andrew White’s beautiful Mother Mary. I think it captures her for me. A teenager, coping with anxiety through allowing the Spirit to teach her a sense of calm and peace, cradling arms prefiguring the joy of giving birth. I think it invites us to take to heart who she is – and – to get to the very heart of it on this great Feast – on what she did out of love for us in saying yes to the Lord’s call to be mother, to be mother of Jesus – and so mother of God – and so also mother of us all, mother of the Church through whom our salvation is accomplished.
What does she want to show to us today? Maybe there’s a personal response to that deep in our own hearts which might speak to where we are on our pilgrim journey in life. And there’s also clear answer for all of us as a community of faith. Above all she shows us Jesus – the one who saves us, frees us, unlocks meaning for our lives - and she in so doing she shows us the Son of God. For us Christians – of so many different traditions in east and west, with our varied theologies and spiritualities – Mary leads us to the Son of God in a singular way in which no other human being who was not also God could.
And so as we stand at the threshold of a new calendar year, with all its challenges, it’s fitting to turn to Mary as the greatest disciple ever to turn our hearts to her son again. And there’s a certain appropriateness too that Pope Benedict would pass over to the next stage of his journey as a disciple at this feast as her courageous discernment of God’s will for her inspires us to follow whatever our specific call is. Thank you, Benedict, for leading us to that Christ and his will. And mat his mother, the Mother of God, give us her protection as she continues to teach us what it is to be fully human and so more like him who is also fully God for us.
Fr Dominic Robinson SJ