Joke: One Sunday morning, a mother was getting ready for church when she noticed her son wasn’t up yet. She finally went in to wake him up. “Come on, get up. You’ll be late for Mass,” she said. “I don’t want to go,” said her son as he buried his head under the pillow. “You have to go,” the mother wheedled. “No, I’m not going,” he insisted. “And I’ll give you two reasons. Nobody there likes me, and I don’t like them.” Indignantly, his mother replied, “You are going to church, and I’ll give you two reasons: You’re 45 years old, and you are the pastor.”

In 365 days of a year, why does the Church choose this day, the last day of the octave of the Nativity and the beginning of a New Year to celebrate Mary, the Holy Mother of God? It is to say how important it is the role of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Holy Mother of God in the life of the Church. How is it possible that God, the Almighty God, Creator of the human race and the whole universe, is the Son of a woman called Mary? We can only understand this question in the contact of Christmas, Incarnation, God vests on himself our human flesh through the womb of an ordinary woman Mary chosen by God to be the Mother of God.

This day reveals two important realities: First, it is to reveal that in Christ, there are truly two natures, human and divine. Second, Mary is truly the Mother of God, the Lord Jesus Christ who has taken human flesh in her womb. How is it possible?

In today’s first reading, taken from the book of Numbers, the Lord instructs Moses to tell his people Israel that when they invoke [God’s] name, [He] will bless them. Has Mary ever invoked the name of the Lord? She does not only invoke the name of the Lord, but she also acknowledges her lowliness saying, “I am the handmaid of the Lord, may it be done unto me according to your word.” How can she, an ordinary and fully human being, conceive God, the Son of God in her womb?

To prepare Mary who is like a burning bush mentioned in the Old Testament and who is a fully human being, God chooses her and prepares her to be born without original sin. We are reminded of the story of Moses leading his people out of slavery. Moses came upon a burning bush and heard a voice from that burning bush asking him to take off his sandals since the ground where he was standing was holy ground. This burning bush was not consumed, our Blessed Virgin Mary, even though fully human being, conceived God not by another human being but by the Power of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, at the moment her Son was conceived in her immaculate womb, she was still a virgin. The burning bush without consuming that Moses experienced prefigured Mary, the Mother of God. She carried God, the Son of God in her womb because God chose her. Unlike the burning bush, Mary, without her cooperation with God to say “yes” to the invitation to become the Mother of God, there would be no Incarnation took flesh in her womb.

Christ, therefore, is not only divine but man as well. In today’s second reading, Saint Paul beautifully reminds us that the Son of God was “born of a woman, born under the law, to ransom those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons [and daughters]. So [we] are no longer a slave(s) but a son [and daughter], and also an heir through God.” In coming into our human flesh, the Son of God truly becomes man, and we become adopted children to inherit the Kingdom of God.

In coming together to celebrate Mass, the action deacon pours water into the chalice of wine accompanied with the words, “By the mystery of this water and wine, may we come to share in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share in our humanity.” A little bit of water symbolized our humanity, and the wine symbolized the Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We ask to be united with his divinity blood in his sacrificial offering for our salvation. Therefore, Mass is the highest form of all prayers because every time we come to participate in the Mass we remember the passion, death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ and to partake in his Body and Blood, food for our journey towards the heavenly homeland.

Celebrating the Holy Mother of God at every beginning of New Year, we might want to ask ourselves: Why did the Lord choose Mary to be the Mother of the Son of God? What was so special about her? To all our mothers, why do you choose to become the mother of your children? Just as Mary was so attractive to be the Mother of God, have you ever been so attractive to be the mother to your children? To all our mothers, just as Mary became the Holy Mother of the Son of God, how would you become a holy mother to your children? One suggestion would be to follow the example of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, to be faithful to her Son even to the foot of the cross of her son.

To set a resolution for this New Year, to all our mothers, be faithful to your children and try to be there to help them always. To all our children, learn to listen to your mother, obey her, and pray for her. To all our fathers, love and be there for the mothers of your children to help them raise your children. The decision is always yours.

HAPPY NEW YEAR