Catholic Caucus: Daily Mass Readings, 10-01-04 Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God

Reading I
Numbers 6:22-27

The LORD said to Moses:
"Speak to Aaron and his sons and tell them:
This is how you shall bless the Israelites.
Say to them:
The LORD bless you and keep you!
The LORD let his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you!
The LORD look upon you kindly and give you peace!
So shall they invoke my name upon the Israelites,
and I will bless them."

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8

R. (2a) May God bless us in his mercy.
May God have pity on us and bless us;
may he let his face shine upon us.
So may your way be known upon earth;
among all nations, your salvation.
R. May God bless us in his mercy.
May the nations be glad and exult
because you rule the peoples in equity;
the nations on the earth you guide.
R. May God bless us in his mercy.
May the peoples praise you, O God;
may all the peoples praise you!
May God bless us,
and may all the ends of the earth fear him!
R. May God bless us in his mercy.

Reading II
Galatians 4:4-7

Brothers and sisters:
When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son,
born of a woman, born under the law,
to ransom those under the law,
so that we might receive adoption as sons.
As proof that you are sons,
God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts,
crying out, "Abba, Father!"
So you are no longer a slave but a son,
and if a son then also an heir, through God.

Gospel
Luke 2:16-21

The shepherds went in haste to Bethlehem and found Mary and Joseph,
and the infant lying in the manger.
When they saw this,
they made known the message
that had been told them about this child.
All who heard it were amazed
by what had been told them by the shepherds.
And Mary kept all these things,
reflecting on them in her heart.
Then the shepherds returned,
glorifying and praising God
for all they had heard and seen,
just as it had been told to them.
When eight days were completed for his circumcision,
he was named Jesus, the name given him by the angel
before he was conceived in the womb.

FEAST OF THE DAY

Today's feast reminds us that Mary was the mother of God. Part of
the mystery of the Trinity is the relationship between Jesus' divinity
and his humanity. Today's feast helps us focus on the divinity of
Jesus and his great sacrifice to be born on earth thus making Mary
the mother of God.

The fact that Mary is the mother of God was a hotly debated issue in
the early Church, and many of those arguments helped shape how
we see Mary and Jesus today. The teaching that Mary is the mother
of God was solidified in the Council of Ephesus in 431 and this feast
has a long history of celebration in both the East and the West. It is
significant that this council happened in Ephesus because tradition
holds that this is the place where John and Mary made their home
following Pentecost. There still is a shrine near the city of Ephesus
where it is believed that Mary spent the final years of her life.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Mary was raised to the dignity of Mother of God rather for sinners
than for the just, since Jesus Christ declares that he came to call not
the just, but sinners. -St. Anselm

TODAY IN HISTORY

1622 Papal Chancery adopts Jan 1 as beginning of the year (formerly Mar. 25)
1808 Congress prohibits importation of slaves
1863 Emancipation Proclamation issued by Lincoln
1982 Pope John Paul II prays for an end to martial law in Poland

TODAY'S TIDBIT

On the seventh day of Christmas, my True Love gave to me: seven
swans a-swimming.
This symbol represents the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. "Wisdom,
understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and fear of the
Lord complete and perfect the virtues of those who receive them.
They make the faithful docile in readily obeying divine inspirations."
(CCC 1831)

INTENTION FOR THE DAY

Today we pray that the new year will bring peace to our homes and
to our lives and that we may grow in our love for God and our pursuit
of holiness.

The Word About Us

Thursday, January 01, 2004

Meditation
Galatians 4:4-7

Mary, Mother of God

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners . . . These words from the Hail Mary fall off our tongue so easily that we forget what mysteries they contain. But a Christian from the third century a.d. would have gasped in surprise to hear them. How could a teenaged girl possibly be mother to the eternal, uncreated God?

This title for Mary was one of the most passionately disputed topics in the early church, not because of controversies over Mary, but be-cause the church was still wrestling with the question of who Jesus was. It took the church nearly three hundred years to come to the understanding that from the moment of his conception, Jesus was both fully God and fully man. To say that Mary was only the “mother of the human side of Jesus,” as many thought, would be saying that Jesus, the human person, was separate from the divine Second Person of the Trinity. And such a claim called into question the redemption Jesus won for us.

We honor Mary today because the baby she bore in her womb was not just an anointed prophet or Messiah but the uncreated Lord of all. When Jesus took flesh from Mary, he became one like us. God the Son truly was “born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under that law, so that we might receive adoption as children” (Galatians 4:4-5). Through his very human life, sacrifice, and death, Jesus, the Son of God, freed us from the enslavements of this world. And he did it so that we could become coheirs with him of all the riches in heaven!

As the new year begins, let’s lay claim to our inheritance as children of God. Let’s spend this year showing to those around us how good it can be to live in freedom as a child of God.

“Thank you, Father, for your divine Son’s entrance into humanity. Because he became like me, you now call me ‘child.’ May I become more and more like Jesus, that you may see his reflection in me.”

One Bread, One Body

<< Thursday, January 1, 2004 >>

Mary, Mother of God
(World Day of Prayer
for Peace and Justice)

Numbers 6:22-27
Galatians 4:4-7

Psalm 67
Luke 2:16-21

View Readings

THE YEAR OF HOPE

“They went in haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Baby lying in the manger.” —Luke 2:16

At the end of what may be the major document of the twentieth century, Vatican II’s teaching on the Church, Mary is proclaimed as a sure sign of hope (Lumen Gentium, 68). We pray: “Hail, holy queen, mother of mercy, our life, our sweetness, and our hope. To you do we cry, poor banished children of Eve. To you do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in the valley of tears.” Yes, many of us are in the valleys and are experiencing the banishment due to our sins. Of course, Jesus is our only Hope. But the Lord has chosen Mary to be part of the way He gives us hope. Mary shows to us “the blessed Fruit of her womb, Jesus.”

Today, once again, the Pope has called us to begin the year by praying for peace. Mary also has called us for decades to pray for peace. Nonetheless, we may feel like saying: “Too long did I live among those who hated peace. When I spoke of peace, they were for war” (Ps 120:6-7). Is there any hope for peace? Mary points to Jesus, our only Hope, and she commands us: “Do whatever He tells you” (Jn 2:5).

Is there any hope to stop abortion, starvation, racism, and other common atrocities? By faith, at the side of Mary, look to Jesus, our only Hope and the only Hope we need.

Prayer: Father, with my eyes fixed on Your Son Jesus, give me a new year characterized by an invincible hope.

Promise: “When the designated time had come, God sent forth His Son born of a woman, born under the law, to deliver from the law those who were subjected to it, so that we might receive our status as adopted sons.” —Gal 4:4-5

Praise: Mary, by the power of the Holy Spirit, brought the Prince of Peace into the world.

Homily of the Day

Homily of the Day

Title:	If You Want to Be Forgiven, Forgive!
Author:	Monsignor Dennis Clark, Ph.D.
Date:	Thursday, January, 1, 2004

Nm 6:22-27 / Gal 4:4-7 / Lk 2:16-21

One of the characteristics of healthy children is a consciousness of the importance of having rules and playing by the rules. One of the most frequent refrains amidst their games is the outraged challenge, "That's not fair. You cheated." This focus on rules is an important stage in a child's development, and it provides children with crucial habits for the rest of life. Without it their lives and society as a whole would descend into chaos. But by itself it isn't enough to make a life.

St. Paul learned this through painful experience. In his early days as a devout and sincere Jew, he strove with all his might to observe the whole of the law of Moses with perfection. And constantly he failed — in two ways. On the one hand, the simple human weakness which is common to us all frustrated his very best efforts to be perfect. He just wasn't and he never would be, and it drove him crazy. On the other hand, his frustration with his own inner imperfections and failures hardened his heart as he judged both himself and others. With ruthless vigor, he set out to catch and to punish everyone who was wandering away from the law as he understood it. And so he found himself killing Christians, presiding at the death of the very first martyr, St. Stephen.

In the end, he discovered that there was a way out of this terrible, bitter trap that he'd built for himself, and the way out was Jesus, the compassionate one, Jesus the forgiver. He is the only way out, the only salvation, for any of us fragile, fault-ridden human beings. His forgiveness and his compassion can be ours for the asking. All we need do in return is to pass it on and share it with our brothers and sisters.

From: Luke 2:16-21

The Adoration of the Shepherds (Continuation)

[16] And they (the shepherds) went with haste, and found Mary and
Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. [17] And when they saw it they
made known the saying which had been told them concerning this child;
and all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them.
[19] But Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart.
[20] And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all
they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

The Circumcision of Jesus

[21] And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was
called Jesus, the name given by the angels before he was conceived in
the womb.

Commentary:

15-18. The birth of the Savior Messiah is the key event in the history
of mankind, but God wanted it to take place so quietly that the world
went about its business as if nothing had happened. The only people he
tells about it are a few shepherds. It was also to a shepherd, Abraham,
that God gave his promise to save mankind.

The shepherds make their way to Bethlehem propelled by the sign they
have received. And when they verify it they tell what they heard from
the angel and about seeing the heavenly host. They are the first
witnesses of the birth of the Messiah. "The shepherds were not content
with believing in the happy event which the angel proclaimed to them
and which, full of wonder, they saw for a fact; they manifested their
joy not only to Mary and Joseph but to everyone and, what is more, they
tried to engrave it on their memory. 'And all who heard it wondered at
what the shepherds told them.' And why would they not have wondered,
seeing on earth him who is in heaven, and earth and heaven reconciled;
seeing that ineffable Child who joined what was heavenly--divinity--and
what was earthly--humanity--creating a wonderful covenant through this
union. Not only were they in awe at the mystery of the Incarnation, but
also at the great testimony born by the shepherds, who could not have
invented something they had not heard and who publish the truth with a
simple eloquence" (Photius, "Ad Amphilochium", 155).

16. The shepherds hasten because they are full of joy and eager to see
the Savior. St Ambrose comments: "No one seeks Christ halfheartedly"
("Expositio Evangelii Sec. Lucam., in loc."). Earlier on, the
evangelist observed that our Lady, after the Annunciation, "went in
haste" to see St Elizabeth (Lk 1:39). A soul who has given God entry
rejoices that God has visited him and his life acquires new energy.

19. In very few words this verse tells us a great deal about our Lady.
We see the serenity with which she contemplates the wonderful things
that are coming true with the birth of her divine Son. She studies
them, ponders them and stores them in the silence of her heart. She is
a true teacher of prayer. If we imitate her, if we guard and ponder in
our hearts what Jesus says to us and what he does in us, we are well on
the way to Christian holiness and we shall never lack his doctrine and
his grace. Also, by meditating in this way on the teaching Jesus has
given us, we shall obtain a deeper understanding of the mystery of
Christ, which is how "the Tradition that comes from the Apostles makes
progress in the Church, with the help of the Holy Spirit. There is a
growth in insight into the realities and words that are being passed
on. This comes about in various ways. It comes through the
contemplation and study of believers who ponder these things in their
hearts. It comes from the intimate sense of spiritual realities which
they experience. And it comes from the preaching of those who have
received, along with their right of succession in the episcopate, the
sure charism of truth" (Vatican II, "Dei Verbum", 8).

21. On the meaning and rite of circumcision, see the note on Lk 1:59.
"Jesus" means "Yahweh saves" or "Yahweh is salvation", that is, Savior.
This name was given the Child not as the result of any human decision
but in keeping with the commandment of God which the angel
communicated to the Blessed Virgin and to St Joseph (cf. Lk 1:31; Mk
1:21).

The Son of God became incarnate in order to redeem and save all men; so
it is very fitting that he be called Jesus, Savior. We confess this in
the Creed: "For us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven."
"There were indeed many who were called by this name [...]. But how
much more appropriate it is to call by this name our Savior, who
brought light, liberty and salvation, not to one people only, but to
all men, of all ages--to men oppressed, not by famine, or Egyptian or
Babylonian bondage, but sitting in the shadow of death and fettered by
the galling chains of sin and of the devil" ("St Pius V Catechism", I,
36).

Source: "The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries". Biblical text
taken from the Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries
made by members of the Faculty of Theology of the University of
Navarre, Spain. Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock,
Co. Dublin, Ireland.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.