JANUARY 1:
NEW YEAR, DAY OF PEACE AND OF THE MOTHER OF GOD
For us Christians, the first day of a New Year calls our attention to three points: the New Year, the World Day of Peace and the Feast of Mary as Mother of God.
NEW YEAR
On the first day of every New Year, we wish happiness to our relatives and friends – and to all! Yes, may we all have a Happy New Year!
Charlie Brown, the friend of Snoopy, asked Linus (of the wonderful Peanuts Family): “What is happiness?†The understanding of happiness by the world is always connected, if not identified with money, power, pleasure, fame and glory. The understanding of happiness by Jesus is diametrically opposed to that of the world. For Jesus Christ, happiness is spiritual poverty, mercy towards the suffering and needy, work for justice and peace.
Perhaps, for most people the meaning of happiness is to have a meaning for living. For many people – as it is made clear in different world-wide surveys – the meaning of life is to love – and to love more! As young Cathy Rhodes puts it: Give more that what you take…Love more. Don’t be bitter. Forgive, forgive, and forgive.†Happiness, someone wrote, is the unconditional donation of what has been unconditionally given.
Indeed, to live is to love and to love implies not just to love our family and friends, but to love all. If love is selective it cannot be true love; this includes love of all neighbors, in particular the suffering and poor – and even the enemies!
Selfishness or the fat ego is a source of envy, pride, anger, insensitivity to others – of unhappiness.
For the followers of Jesus, blessed – or happy – are the poor in spirit, the merciful, and the pacemakers, those suffering for the sake of justice. For Christians, the Eight Beatitudes of Jesus (see Mt 5:1-12) are eight forms of happiness. Truly for those who believe in God – the majority of people – happiness is happiness with others and for others, for “to be a human being is to be a fellow human being†(M. Buber).
WORLD DAY OF PEACE
In a world of injustice, violence and wars, there can be no full happiness without peace. And there can be no peace but by peaceful means to peace. To underline the need of peace in our world, the Christians since 1966 celebrate every first day of the New Year the World Day of Peace. The celebration is highlighted by the Pope’s Message for the World Day of Peace. This year of 2011 Pope Benedict XVI delivers his Message on “Religious Freedom, the Path to Peace.†We reflect briefly on this papal message.
Peace means living together in justice and love. Its four columns are, beside justice and love, truth and freedom. Freedom, or the power to do good includes necessarily religious freedom, which is an essential component of genuine human freedom. Religious freedom entails the profession of their religion individually and in community by billions of people throughout the world. Rooted in human dignity, and radically in God, religious freedom is with life a basic human right, and therefore it demands respect – reverence and esteem – by all human beings. Respect of religious freedom is “a condition for the moral legitimacy of every social and legal norm†(no. 2). Indeed, religious freedom is the path to peace, an authentic weapon of peace (no.15).
Religion and its varied expressions and manifestations must not be marginalized, much less prohibited from social life. Different religions contribute substantially and positively to society, the common good and the ethics of a good life. On the other hand, the exploitation of religious freedom for fanatical or fundamentalist practices is deeply harmful to social life and cannot be justified but strongly condemned. Similarly, the political and social hostility to and rejection of religions as well as imposition of a religion should also be condemned (nos. 6-8).
For her part, the Church respects “the positive secularity of state institutions†(no. 9), and accepts gladly all that is true and holy in all other religions (no. 110). She constantly asks Christians to consider and treat all others as brothers and sisters in Christ and encourages them to work with all towards the building of a just, fraternal and peaceful society.
Before closing his profound and meaningful message, Benedict XVI expresses his affection for the Christian communities suffering persecution throughout the word – in Asia, Africa, the Middle East especially the Holy Land. Violence, he adds, is “not overcome by violence†(no. 14). Moreover, our Pope is hopeful that the West and particularly Europe end their hostility and prejudice against Christians. Benedict XVI concludes: “May all men and women, and societies at every level and in every part of the earth be able to experience religious freedom, the path to peace†(no. 15). As Christians, let us heed and carry out individually and in community the urgent call to peace of Pope Benedict XVI.
MARY, MOTHER OF GOD
The Church celebrates the Motherhood of Mary, Mary as the Mother of God, on January 1 of every year, that is, the Octave of Christmas and the first day of the New Year.
The Annunciation to Mary is proclaimed to us thus: Mary said to the archangel: “Let it be†(Lk 1:26-38). Yes!  “When the appointed time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman…†(Gal 4:4-5). St John the Evangelist speaks of Mary twice in his Gospel: Mary at Cana, and Mary at Calvary, and in both cases, the Evangelist presents Mary as the Mother of Jesus. In a deep sense, the expression tells us everything about Mary. The motherhood of Mary is the source of all her privileges and graces: she was conceived without original sin (she is the Immaculate Conception); she was taken up to heaven in body and soul (the Assumption of Mary); she is Virgin and Mother!
Mary, the Mother of God. This is how she is called through the first centuries of Christianity. In the Council of Ephesus (431), Mary is dogmatically declared by the Church “Theotokos,†that is, God’s Mother. Vatican II tells us: “Mary is the Mother of God and the Mother of the Redeemer, and, therefore, she surpasses all other creatures in heaven and on earth.†In the Church, “she is the highest after Christ and yet very close to us†(LG, 54). Mary is the Mother of Jesus, who is the Son of God and the Son of Mary: “She conceived, brought forth and nourished Christ; presented Him to the Father in the temple, and was united with Him in suffering as He died on the cross†(LG, 61). Mary is, certainly, the Mother of the Child Jesus, and also the Mother of the Crucified and Risen Lord.
How can Mary, a creature, be the Mother of God, the Creator? Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange explained: “Mary is the Mother of Jesus who is God. Certainly she did not give Him His divine nature, but only His human nature. She is Mother, however, not precisely by reason of the humanity of Jesus, but by reason of the Incarnate Word: Motherhood does not end in the nature, but “in the person possessing this nature, in this case the Person of God.â€
As we wish all a Happy New Year and try to become more peacemakers in our world, we ask Mary the Mother of God and our Mother to bless our brothers and sisters as we pray to her confidently: “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now…â€
FR FAUSTO GOMEZ BERLANA, OP
St. Dominic’s Priory
(Posted December 26, 2010)