TODAY WE CELEBRATE the feast of Mary as the Mother of God. It is a title we Christians have become very used to. Yet, in a way, it is a very strange expression, one which our sister religions - Judaism and Islam - would find very difficult to comprehend or accept.
After all, how can God have a mother? He is eternal, with no beginning or end. As Creator, we understand him to be the source of all living things. There is nothing beyond or before him. How then can he be described as the offspring of someone else? The term seems either contradictory or meaningless.
Mother of Jesus, Son of God
Mary, of course, is primarily the mother of Jesus. She contributes from her own body to the formation of his human body. She is the mother of Jesus. But the Gospel speaks of his Father being God, not Joseph.
Jesus himself is very special. He has a fully human nature, like ours in every respect, except for sin. But he also has a fully divine nature. However, while Jesus has two natures, he is only one Person. That Person is the Son, the second Person of the Holy Trinity. Mary is the mother of the person who is Jesus but Jesus, through his divine nature, is also God. Mary, then, in that sense is the Mother of God. She is the mother of the Jesus who is divine but is not the mother of his divinity. On the contrary, she herself is a creature of God's making.
Scene in the stable
In today's Gospel Luke describes the simple scene in the stable at Bethlehem. We see a man, a woman who has just given birth, and a baby in a feeding box. Truly primitive surroundings and yet this Baby is the Son of God and that young woman is the Mother of God. This is the great mystery of the Incarnation.
And who are these people who are their first visitors? The shepherds, a group of poor and despised and marginalised people, the people God came especially to save and liberate.
We often portray Mary as Queen of Heaven, dressed resplendently in beautiful clothes with crowns, jewels and stars. But I think this Gospel scene is the one that is most striking. It is the one that says the most about what God is doing for us through Jesus and through his Mother.
No wonder that Luke says, "Mary treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart". She had indeed a great deal to ponder about and understand. There was much that now and in later years she would have to reflect on with regard to this Child of hers.
Circumcision
The Gospel ends with the description of the traditional circumcision of the young child in accordance with the Law and, in fact, this feast used to be called the Circumcision. This ritual would mark Jesus clearly as a child of Abraham. The whole early life of Jesus and, even much in his later life, takes place within the ambience of the Jewish Law.
But, as Paul tells us in today's Second Reading, "God sent his Son, born of a woman, born a subject of the Law, to redeem the subjects of the Law and to enable us to be adopted as children." Born under the Law, Jesus led us out of the bondage of the Law, while, born to a woman, God's own Son led us to become, with him, children of God. No longer slaves and servants but heirs as sons and daughters, and brothers and sisters of Jesus.
As Paul says, with Jesus the Son, we now can, like him, address in loving intimacy God the Father as "Abba", a Greek equivalent of Papa or Daddy. And on today's feast we need to remember that it is Mary who played a crucial role in the bridging of the gap between God and ourselves.
World Day of Peace
This is put very well in the Second Reading today. It is a very extraordinary statement if we listen to it very carefully. "Let us love one another," we are told, "since love comes from God and everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God. Anyone who fails to love can never have known God, because God is love."
Love is all you need
Finally, just one more point. In recent years, today, the first day of the new year, has been designated World Day of Peace. It is very appropriate because today's gospel story is filled with a beautiful peace. In fact, it was in response to the angels' song, "Glory to God in the highest and peace to his people on earth", that the shepherds had gone in search of the baby in the manger. On this day, the Pope asks all of us to pray for peace and to work for peace. There are many places in the world today where there is a great deal of violence and conflict. Untold millions of innocent people are the victims.
But, when we think of peace, we should not just think of the conflicts which make headlines in our newspapers. Conflict on a wide scale happens because of the conflicts on the small scale: in single nations, in single communities, in neighbourhoods and within families. We may not be able to do much about peace in Northern Ireland or in some other troubled spot (if we do not live there), but we can all do something about peace in our immediate surroundings.
Let it begin with me
All of us can and need to be agents of forgiveness and reconciliation. We can all be peace-makers. "Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God." As the song tellingly says, "Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with ME." We could hardly make a better resolution at the beginning of this new year.
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