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Institute for Homiletics

A Collaboration of The Catholic Foundation and the University of Dallas

The Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God

A New Year’s Blessing

We return once again to Bethlehem, accompanying the shepherds, to see the  One announced by the angel as the Savior of the world. With them, we stand before the mother and contemplate the child wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger because there was no room in the inn. We are told that “Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart” (Luke 2:19).  

Mary invites us to ponder in our hearts the mystery of her Son Jesus, truly  God and truly human. He came for us and for our salvation, and so we ask him to banish any darkness from our hearts and to send us out to bring his light into the world. 

The light that Christ brings is the blessing of God’s peace, all that makes life full, and transforms the world into a place that cherishes and preserves, rather than neglecting and destroying life. Christ’s gift of blessing is to let us know the  Father and the Father’s plan: that all be one, united as family, able to recognize in each other the dignity of God’s adopted children, alive with the life of grace,  destined to share in divinity.

Christ’s blessing calls us to grow into maturity, keeping God’s law of love, just as Jesus himself grew up, living a life that brought the law to its fulfillment. We  don’t do this on our own, as the name given to the child reminds us: Jesus, which  means “God saves.” 

Consider/Discuss

  • What blessing do you ask from God for the coming year, for yourself,  for your loved ones, for your country, for the world? 
  • Jesus came to save, to bring God’s salvation. What do you need to be saved from? 

Responding to the Word

We pray that God will bless us with peace, with fullness of life, by drawing us ever more deeply into the life of the Trinity. We ask that the Holy Spirit will come upon us and transform us more completely into people the world can recognize as adopted children of God.

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Scripture Study for

The blessing found in today’s Numbers reading may be one of the oldest pieces of poetry in the Bible. Although it is the priests who ultimately bless the people, it is Moses who receives the blessing from God and who delivers it to  Aaron and his sons. The blessing itself is quite crisp and direct. Each line invokes a personal action from God: to bless with good fortune and to keep from harm;  to look favorably toward and to be gracious to; to look upon and to grant peace.  Actually, all the petitions ask for the same reality, namely, the blessings that make life worth living. Peace is the fundamental characteristic of Jewish blessing, the condition of absolute well-being. 

According to Paul, the goal of Christ’s mission was the transformation of the  Galatians from slaves under the law to adopted children of God. He uses a social custom of the day to illustrate the contrast between servitude under the law and freedom in Christ. An heir too young to claim inheritance was appointed a legal guardian until he came of age. Paul compares the believers to underage minors who, until “the fullness of time had come,” could not claim what might be right fully theirs (Galatians 4:4). The law acted as legal guardian. All of this changes with the coming of Christ. Christians are no longer minors bound to the tutelage of the law.  

The Gospel is essentially the same as that of the Christmas Mass at Dawn.  However, this passage also speaks of the circumcision and the naming of Jesus.  This slight addition shifts the focus of the passage from the shepherds to the child and his parents. As observant Jews, Mary and Joseph fulfilled all of the prescriptions of the law, seeing that the child was circumcised as custom dictated.  Just as the angel had foretold, the child is named Jesus, which means savior. Now almost everything that the angel had announced has come to pass.

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Scripture Study for

The first reading features the well-known “priestly blessing,” probably originally to be imparted to visitors to the Jerusalem temple or other worship sites. Blessing is a form of prayer that asks for  God’s gifts. This blessing asks for God’s protection, good favor, and peace. To “keep” here means to watch over or guard. To “shine one’s face on,” or simply to show one’s face, means to have a favorable disposition toward someone (see Psalm 4:7). Thus, the second line of the blessing asks for God’s positive attitude and gracious favor toward the blessed. The third strophe repeats the hope for God’s good favor before asking for God’s “peace,” in Hebrew, shalom, a word that sums up all that the blessing asks of God: wholeness, well-being, harmony, long life, etc. 

In his letter to the Galatians, Paul argues that the coming of Christ has made both Jews and Gentiles children of God by freeing them from “elemental powers” (4:3), spiritual forces that somehow prevent humans from living in full conformity with God’s will.  Christ was born into this human condition of bondage in order to deliver us from that misery, and to bring all who accept the gift into familial relationship with God. As “sons and daughters” and therefore “heirs” in Christ, Christians inherit the promises made to  Abraham (3:29) and passed on to his freeborn children. 

Onto a quiet birth scene burst several shepherds, to whom an angel has announced the birth of the Messiah (Luke 2:8–15). Finding the child in a manger, as the angel had said, they immediately inform Mary and Joseph and probably some helpful neighbor folk that the savior’s birth has been announced to them. While the neighbor folk  are amazed at the notion that the child born under such unpromising  circumstances could be “Messiah and Lord,” Mary merely reflects on “these things.” Jesus’ circumcision on the eighth day, in accordance with the law (Leviticus 12:3), signals his solidarity with the covenant community that he will save.

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God of Blessing

As a boy, I remember our parish priest would visit my grandparents’ house.  Before he left, my grandmother would always ask his blessing and all of us would kneel to receive it. Another childhood memory sees my mother dipping her finger in a small holy water font that hung on the bedroom wall and sprinkling some of the water over my brothers and me in blessing every night. 

We begin the New Year hearing an ancient blessing in today’s first reading.  What a beautiful way to enter into the new year as we gather, calling on God to bless us, to keep us, to let the divine face shine on us, to look on us kindly and to give us peace. These words tell us who our God is and what God wishes to give us—blessing. In Mary, our mother, we see what it means to live out of God’s blessing and bring Christ to the world. 

In the fullness of time, God blessed creation with Jesus, our Savior, who came to call us to a freedom that is the true blessing of the adopted children of our  Abba (Father)-God. Jesus continues to ask God’s blessing on us, standing with us, and blessing us with his peace. Today we ask God to bless our world with the peace that the world cannot achieve on its own. Today we ask Mary, the Holy  Mother of God, to pray with us as we join her in reflecting on the One whom the angels named as our Savior.

Consider/Discuss

  • What blessing do you ask of God as this new year begins? 
  • When have you last blessed someone (other than when someone sneezes)? Whose blessing would you ask? 

Responding to the Word

God of blessing, look kindly upon our world as we begin this new year of grace.  Bless all those who work for peace and drive out from the hearts of all your children any temptation to take up arms against another. Mary, our mother, bless us with peace.

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Scripture Study for

The blessing found in the reading from Numbers is one of the oldest pieces of poetry in the Bible. It is introduced by a statement that gives the content of the blessing both Mosaic and divine legitimacy. To know God’s personal name, YHWH, presumes a kind of intimacy. The blessing itself is crisp and direct. Each line invokes a personal divine action: that God bless with good fortune and keep from harm, look favorably toward and be gracious, look upon and grant peace.  Though these invocations might be realized in different things for different people at different times, they all ask for peace. 

According to Paul, the goal of Christ’s mission was to transform the Galatians from being slaves under the law to being adopted children of God. His attitude toward the law is not as negative as it appears at first glance. Here it is a necessary guardian that carefully watches over minors until they are mature enough to take care of themselves. Though the law is inferior to the Spirit of Christ, it is faithful and trustworthy. However, once the Spirit takes hold of the believer,  dependence on the law ends and freedom in the Spirit, the rightful inheritance of the children of God, begins. 

The Gospel reading is the same as that of the Christmas Mass at Dawn.  However, the circumcision and naming of Jesus are included here. This slight difference shifts the focus of the passage away from the shepherds to the child and his parents. As observant Jews, Mary and Joseph fulfilled all the prescriptions of the law; the child was circumcised as custom dictated. Besides being circumcised, the child was given the name earlier told to Mary, the name Jesus, which  means “savior.” Now almost everything that the angel had announced has come to pass. Mary will have to wait to see how he will acquire the throne of his father  David and rule the house of Jacob forever. 

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