January 1st is a triple holiday for Western Catholics. It is New Year's Day, of course, the beginning of the calendar year (Note 1). It is also the Octave of Christmas (Note 2); finally, January 1st is the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary under her title of "Mother of God." In the East, the word used is Theotokos, or "God-bearer." (Note 3).
On the walk to church this morning, I was pondering why the Church, in its wisdom, chooses to venerate the Blessed Virgin under this title on the Octave of Christmas. The answer appeared in today's gospel reading: "And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart." (Luke 2:19).
Approaching the end of this season of wonders, maybe some reflection is in order. How may Mary's motherhood have been a model for me in my holiday season? She was accepted and embraced by her family despite the stigma of being pregnant out of wedlock; did I embrace my family despite their foibles? She traveled far with the man she loved; was my inconvenient holiday travel lit by the glow of love? She had no proper bed to give birth in; did I unite the much lesser disappointments of my holiday with the sacrifices of the Holy Family for the love of God? Shepherds arrived at her door telling tales of angels; did I find joy to share with even the oddest of strangers as they appeared in my life?
So Mary's maternity is the perfect cap for the Christmas Octave, but why does it start the new year? Well, pop wisdom says to treat every day like Christmas. I don't think this means to spend too much, eat too much, and not go to work. How did Mary spend Christmas, then? Well, she radical trusted in God despite how unconventional things became. She was filled with the overpowering joy of God's very real presence in her life. Most importantly, she "kept all these things." She is didn't lose what had been given to her in the distraction of life, though that would have been quite understandable (Note 4). After all, the radical self-gift of God given to us at Christmas should not be lost during the hubbub of the rest of the year.
God-with-us. God born in us. That sounds like a pretty good way to start the year. It sounds like a pretty good way to continue the year. It sounds like a pretty good way to live a life.
Happy Two Thousand and Twenty, one and all. May the sacrifice, joy, trust, rest and hope of Christmas grow in us more and more each of these 365 days. May be all become, like Mary, "God-bearers."
Blessings,
Epimetheus
1) The beginning of the liturgical year is the first Sunday of Advent.
2) Octaves are a concept I am still educating myself on. As I understand it, when there is a really important feast, like Christmas or Easter, Catholics celebrate the feast proper as 8 days long rather than just one day; (this is in contrast to the last 4 days of Christmas--January 2 through 5th--which are within the Christmas season liturgically, but are not quite at the same level as the first 8).
3) (In the Eastern Church this feast is also celebrated on a different day). This title title of Mary has been used since at least circa 250 A.D. and was confirmed by the Council of Ephesus in 431, but celebrating it on January 1st is a fairly young practice only beginning in 1969. Before that, January 1st was the feast of Jesus's circumcision and naming. Thanks Wikipedia.
4) Not to mention the whole fleeing to Egypt thing.
1 comment:
I always thought that this was a gimmick. Making people go to church on NYD forces them to practice a modicum of temperance the night before. I was always resentful about having to attend mass red-eyed and hung over!
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