Finally, 2020 has turned the corner to 2021! This change in years provides us an annual opportunity to reflect on the past year and look ahead at the year to come. By now you have read articles or seen news stories that try to make sense of last year’s events. These stories reflect on the significance of certain newsworthy and noteworthy events and try to get a sense of what the past year has meant, and what the new will bring.
Most of the reflections have been on politicians and a hard-fought Presidential election, the protests against systemic racism around the world and most of all, the COVID-19 (Corona virus) that has dominated our lives for almost a year now.
Those of us who are particularly courageous can take stock of last year, look back on past mistakes, and even try to take the steps we need to make amends with people we have hurt, especially over our nation’s political divide and racism. Others cannot be so bold. They look back on a year that began fresh with hope but turned sour through sickness, loss of jobs, family strife and lost friends due to political viewpoints and conspiracy theories. Some look to the future and begin to wonder what the future will hold.
Our annual reflection on this day, the Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God, might echo Mary’s own reflection on what has happened in her life. The turn of the new year takes second place to our celebration of this great feast. But the singular thing each event has in common is that time is set aside to ponder and reflect on all that has been heard and seen.
Saint Luke tells us that Mary “treasured all these things and reflected on them in her heart.” Most of all, Mary’s own reflection can give us new eyes to look back on our past ad look forward to the hear ahead with hope and the promise that God is with us. We can begin to see that our life, like the life of Mary, is lived in the presence of God’s grace.
In today’s reading from Galatians, St. Paul reminds us that we are children of God, we are brought into the household of god our Father. Just like Jesus, who was born of Mary, we are members of God’s household of faith, day in and day out. Then the gospel reading ends with Mary and Joseph bringing the child to the temple. There he was given the name Jesus. This is the same name we are given in the waters of baptism. It is the name of Jesus that marks our lives and our days, both in the year past and in the year to come. Mary’s reflection directs our reflection to the grace of Godin ALL circumstances.
Morton Kelsey, retired professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame wrote a book called: The Drama of Christmas, in which he reminds us that God breaks into our lives like God has broken into the life of Mary. As Kelsey puts it,
“God breaks into the hearts of all in unexpected and wonderful ways. We reflect on them in the light of our Christian heritage. Mary is our model and mentor.
What we see when we look at Mary is that she “reminds us of the courage, openness, and patience it takes to incorporate the wondrous gift of Christ in our hearts.”
As we look to the future, we trust that the God who became flesh in Jesus Christ with us still. We can trust that no matter what has happened in the past and what will come our way in the future – sins, guilt, alienation, disease, and even death itself – nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.
My brothers and sisters, our hope for the new year is not that our sorrow and pain and even death itself will escape us, like a bad dream, but that even in our sorrow and pain and perhaps death we will see the grace of God breaking into our lives. This is the grace that Mary rejoiced in and reflected on. This is the grace of God which we can reflect on as we begin this new year.
In such reflections we will find that god is always with us, to bless us and keep us, to smile on us, to be gracious to us, and to give us His peace!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!