Beginning the New Year with Mother Mary!

Mary, the Mother of God

Monday, January 1, 2024

Nm 6:22-27; Gal 4:4-7; Lk 2:16-21

Happy New Year – 2024!

As we celebrate the arrival of the new year, it is relevant to begin our reflection with two Greek words that describe newness in the Bible: Chronos and Kaine. 

The two words, though appearing to mean the same, are conceptually different. Chronos means ‘newness in time.’ As such, it signifies the ‘latest.’ If I have a new shirt, then it is new in relation to the old one that I bought a year ago. Hence, it points to the latest one. Whereas Kaine describes the qualitative change or newness. Here, newness is measured by kind or quality. We used to carry heavy cell phones that had keypads. Whereas when we talk of newer models today, we not just mean that the phones are recently bought, but that they come with a ‘touchscreen’ feature. To understand it better, the word ‘new’ in the New Testament stands for qualitative change and does not mean that it is new in time, having embraced a shift from the Old Testament. 

The first day of the Catholic calendar celebrates the solemnity of Mary, Mother of God (Theotokos). But what model does Mary offer us to begin the New Year? How are we justified in invoking Mary’s help for beginning something new? As valid and reasonable as these questions appear to be, they find their answers in Mother Mary’s life. 

Usually, our New Year begins with many resolutions that reflect our individual goals and pursuits. But have we ever wondered why we fail at them so often? However good our resolutions are, often enough, they are reduced to activities done in individual capacities, leaving God out. As a result, our resolutions lack root and die within a few days or months. 

It is here that Mother Mary comes to our rescue. She sets the course of our lives. She puts things in perspective. She offers us directions and correctives. These reasons require that we need Mother Mary’s help to begin the New Year. 

Let us look at the Mother of God for the kind of help she offers. 

1.Siding with God: During the peak of the American Civil War, one of his trusted generals requested Abraham Lincoln pray for victory. He said, ‘Dear Mr. President, please pray that God be with us!’ Lincoln replied, ‘General, God is always with us. But we are not with God. Hence, pray that we will be with God.’ When God is not with us, our efforts are destined to fail. Mary teaches us the secret that the victory will be ours when we side with God. Mary was with God, and therefore, she had the strength to walk through everything. Without God, her suffering would not have had any meaning. With God on her side, her sufferings assumed salvific significance. 

2. The spiritual practice of discernment: Mary pioneers the model of discernment. In Mary’s life, discernment is an act of surrender in faith. Only with the help of discernment could Mary give her unconditional ‘yes’ to God’s salvific plan. The capacity to discern helped Mary wade through unbelievable scenes surrounding the birth of Jesus. The gift of discernment kept her strong in the most painful moments of Jesus’ passion and death. In her discernment, Mary offered everything to God, and God found her offering pleasing and acceptable. When things go beyond human comprehension, Mary’s model of readiness to discern and surrender in faith becomes a credible pathway for us to follow. 

3. Accompanying God: Another feature of Mother Mary is the active dimension of her discernment, through which she accompanied God. In Mother Mary’s discipleship, we discover something completely new. The Old Testament prophets, kings, and judges represented God, spoke on behalf of God, and acted in God’s name. They served God and were faithful to God as servants. Mother Mary was also a servant of God. But in a unique way, she was privileged to accompany God all her life, and she excelled in it. Mother Mary showed in her life what it means to accompany God. 

In these ways, Mother Mary offers us a reason to walk in her light to reach God. 

We imitate Christ better when we walk in the footsteps of Mother Mary. 

Can there be a better way to begin our New Year, if not for the model of Mother Mary?  

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar