NEW YEAR/ MARY, MOTHER OF GOD A
NO GREATER TITLE
LK 2: 16-21
MESSAGE
Recently, a church document was released clarifying certain matters about the titles of the Blessed Virgin Mary used by her devotees. The document taught that it is now unacceptable to continue referring to the Blessed Virgin as Mediatrix of Grace and as Co-Redemptrix with her Son, Jesus.
The corrective was understandable, given the already so many titles ascribed to the Blessed Virgin, and some of them may lead to confusion. Our faith holds, from the Scriptures no less, that there is only One Mediator between God and humanity, Jesus the Lord (1 Tim 2:5), and that grace flows generously from the hands of God, although he uses instruments to participate in this outpouring. The explanation proves that our love for and devotion to Mary do indeed have Jesus at the center. Mary leads, points, draws people, not to herself but to the Lord.
While some have expressed disappointment and taught that the church has diminished its love for Mary, it must be remembered, especially in this season, what Mary really thought of herself. Was she not the handmaid, the servant, of the Lord? All the titles born out of thousands of years of devotion cannot remove the basic disposition of Mary’s humility, her hiddenness, her submission to the lordship of her Son. She remains the first and perfect disciple.
No other title of Mary can equal the one we celebrate today, a title dating back to the early Christians’ appreciation of her unique role in salvation history and her palpable presence in the life of Jesus and of her many children in the church, then and now. She is the Mother of God, not the source of Jesus’ divine nature, but the Mother of the total Christ, God and Man. On the cross, as Jesus was dying, he made her Mother of the faithful, mother of us all.
REFLECT
As we start our new lives, new chances, new opportunities this New Year, let us ask the Blessed Virgin Mary to once again accompany us in every step. We turn to her as we say: Holy Mary, Mother of God, prayer for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
