Today we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family and tomorrow we will celebrate the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. These feasts give us a good opportunity to reflect on the witness and example of the entire Holy Family, but also in a more specific way to look at our Blessed Mother as model of faith and mother of us all. In the Collect (opening prayer) for the Feast of the Holy Family we pray:
O God, who were pleased to give us the shining example of the Holy Family, graciously grant that we may imitate them in practicing the virtues of family life and in the bonds of charity, and so, in the joy of your house, delight one day in eternal rewards.
What are the virtues of family life? By virtue we mean those stable dispositions of the will ordered towards the good; in other words, the good habits we form in order to thrive in humanity and holiness. The Church teaches us that among these good habits (virtues) of the family are: “the reception of the sacraments, prayer and thanksgiving, the witness of a holy life, and self-denial and active charity” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1657). In this way, the family becomes a “school of Christian life” and a “school for human enrichment” as the members of the home each learn through the bond of charity that unites them “joy of work, fraternal love, generous—even repeated—forgiveness, and above all divine worship in prayer and the offering of one's life” (ibid, 1657). As Christian families persevere in these “domestic virtues” they grow in holiness, and each member becomes aware of the vocation to which he has been called by God, and in a special way this environment is one in which religious vocations are fostered and sustained. The home is the first teacher of the faith, supported and guided by the Church and the parish, and the example of the Holy Family shows what every Christian home ought to be and can be, if only the family responds to this lofty task and cooperates with God’s empowering grace.
In this task – the task God gives each of us – to cooperate with and respond to the Lord’s grace in our lives, Mary is there for us as mother and model. We pray in the Collect for the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God:
O God, who through the fruitful virginity of Blessed Mary bestowed on the human race the grace of eternal salvation, grant, we pray, that we may experience the intercession of her, through whom we were found worthy to receive the author of life, our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son.
Mary is the one who merited for us a Savior; she is the one through whom humanity was found worthy to receive the Author of Life. Because Christ has incorporated us into His own Body, Mary is not only the Mother of Christ the Head, but also the Mother of the entire Christ in each member of His Body. If we belong to Christ, we also belong to Mary. Mary’s “yes” to conceiving the Son of God echoes eternally in each of our lives, as we seek to bear Christ into the world in imitation of her. In a real way, we are each born again in Christ the New Adam through Mary, who is the New Eve because she has become the Mother of all the living who are alive in Christ. Of course, this in no way places Mary on the same level as her Son – she is His companion in the work of salvation, but He is still the Savior; still less does it place her in conflict or competition with Him as regards our love – we must love God above all else, but since love is a multiplicative reality and not a divisive one, our love can and must be extended and offered to her as well. Many Christians do not know the joy of Mary’s motherhood; many Catholics have even lost sight of her role in their lives. In this New Year, may our devotion to her increase, so that through her our love for Jesus may blossom forth and bear abundant fruit.
Please consider joining the parish for our Marian Consecration that starts today. Some may feel uneasy about the idea – chances are you’ve heard non-Catholics and Catholics alike ridicule or belittle Marian devotion. Remember: “Never be afraid of loving the Blessed Virgin too much. You can never love her more than Jesus did” (St. Maximilian Kolbe). As you can read in the consecration booklets at the doors of church (free for the taking!) we will use together, consecration means “giving Mary our full permission to complete her motherly task in us, which is to form us into other Christs. Thus by consecrating ourselves to Mary, each of us is saying to her: ‘Mary, I want to be a saint.” And in this consecration, we ask her to do her work of helping us to become the saints we are called to be, so that our parish may become all that it is called to be. May God bless you and all of us in the New Year, and may you have a blessed and merry Christmas season! I remain,
Affectionately Yours in Christ,
Fr. Hess
