(Listen to this homily here).
We hear often enough, especially at Mass that Mary is the
Mother of God. And indeed she
is. But have you ever thought
about what this means or how this can work? How can a human be the mother of God?
When
we call Mary, Mother of God, we do not mean she is Mom to the eternal God,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God
has no beginning and is not begotten by us! What we are implicitly saying is that Mary is the Mother of
the God incarnate. She is the Mother of Jesus—when the
second Person of the Trinity became man.
While
we believe this today, it took several centuries for this title to receive
official endorsement. A huge
controversy took place around the term theotokos
(a great cocktail party word)—which simply means Mother of God. Some (including Nestorious) didn’t
think Jesus was fully God and concluded that Mary could not be labeled theotokos—Mother of God. Yet at the Council of Ephesus in 431,
Jesus’ divinity was affirmed—so too was Mary’s title. If Mary was Jesus’ Mother, and Jesus was God, it followed
that Mary could be called the Mother
of the God incarnate.
With
a bit of theological and historical background, I would simply like to reflect
on the power of Mary on this great solemnity.
This
begins with my Grandma Betty. No
offense to other grandmas here, but my grandma was the best! She sold me my
first car for a dollar. It was a puke-green
1979 Buick Century with vinyl seats, AM radio, a caving-in roof and a bumper
that had to be chained up. She was
a phenomenal cook, spoiled me and was present for many of our family
traditions.
When
I was a child my brothers and I found a stash of what we thought was
jewelry. We played with and put on
her necklaces. One day I asked her
what they were called; she answered that it was a Rosary and that it was for
prayer. As an inquisitive kid I
asked how to pray the Rosary. All
I remember is she said one Our Father and ten Hail Mary’s.
Several
years later I went on a retreat in high school. My friends and I wanted to pray the Rosary, but none of us
had a clue what we were doing. We
didn’t even have the beads! I
prayed my first Rosary counting on my fingers the Our Father and ten Hail
Mary’s.
Just
after graduating from high school, I went to World Youth Day in Toronto. St.
John Paul II said that we, as youth, should pray the Rosary daily to prepare
for our time together. I did and
the Rosary has been a part of my daily prayer to this day.
After
my first semester in college I had a revelation—I had seen my Grandma more when
I lived in McGregor than while at school in Duluth. At first I tried to justify this by not having a car (the
trusty Buick finally bit the dust), but then I remembered I ran marathons. That spring I made a point to run to
Grandma’s. (For those of you
familiar with Duluth, it was easy on the way down, but not an easy run back up
the hill!)
One
day I took out my Rosary ring and headed out the door to see Grandma. When I arrived I saw that she just
extinguished some candles by her chair.
It turned out she had just finished praying the Rosary. We put two and two together and our
following visits often featured the Rosary.
At
this time, Grandma’s health began to decline. We continued to pray the Rosary together and some powerful
graces came. The greatest came two
days before her death when my buddy and I paid her a visit. For those of you familiar with the dying
process, my Grandma was on her way home.
She hadn’t eaten, her eyes were glossed over and she was completely out
of it. While she held the beads,
she didn’t even finger along as my friend and I prayed.
Something
amazing happened that I’ll never forget.
In the middle of the third decade Grandma raised her head up, looked
right at me and said, “Jesus loves you.”
These were the last words she ever said to me, and possibly her last
words she said to everyone.
That is the power of Mary! Grandma led me to Mary, which led me to
Jesus!
While
we don’t pray to Mary, we ought to
ask for her intercession. You can’t
grow closer to Mary, the Mother of God, without growing closer to her Son.
As
we conclude the octave of Christmas on this great solemnity, may we grow closer
to our Mother, who leads us to Christ.
Blessed
Mary, Mother of God, pray for us.
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