Happy New Year. We’re edging out of the Christmas season. Tuesday will see a glimmer of normality return and once Nollaig na mBan or Little Christmas, which is also the feast of the Epiphany is over, Christmas 2022 will have become history. A new year beckons. Shall we be people of hope?
Tomorrow is the feast of Mary Mother of God. I think it is fair to say that most of us have lost touch with the panoply that makes up the calendar or structure of the Christian faith. Was our faith in any better state 50, 60, a 100 years ago? I’m not sure it was and certainly I would not wish to return to a state of faith where there was little place for any sort of independent thinking. Today many young people have lost touch with the structures that supported Christian understanding of God. We are children of our times; we are influenced by our peers and our surroundings. It is now beyond question that the established Christian churches in Ireland are not in the front rank of being relevant. What are the essentials of the Christian faith? Surely number one must be that Christians believe that the historical Jesus was both man and God. The Scriptures, the tradition down the generations, and the Christian community are more or less the building blocks of our faith. But in the 2,000 years since Jesus appeared as man in the world, the thinking of the Christian community has seldom been static. There have been seismic disputes over many fundamental issues. There have been rows about almost all aspects of our faith, indeed, there have been wars about matters of faith.
If, as we believe, Jesus is God, it is natural for us to hold Mary the mother of God in a special place in the history of salvation. Instead of seeing Mary as some sort of other-worldly figure we have been given a wonderful description of a woman who had the ability to live in the now and appreciate the gift she had been given. In tomorrow’s Gospel (Luke 2: 16 -21) St Luke tells us that Mary “treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart”.
It’s customary for us to make resolutions as we head into a new year. Isn’t this the perfect time for us to make it our business to treasure each other, irrespective of whether or not we like or dislike them, whether we agree or disagree with them? Isn’t it the perfect time to make a stand and make it our business to treasure the less fortunate and marginalised, the weak, those who have to flee their countries because of war, starvation and oppression? Surely it is the wish of the mother of God that women are treated with respect.
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I am forever inspired by so many young people who are dedicated and enthused to do what is right, honourable and just. And those same people may never see inside a church door. Language, style, thought change constantly. Anything of significance is forever developing. Surely our understanding of our faith too is constantly growing and seeing the mystery of God in a new light.
January 1st is the day we pray for peace in the world. Just as Mary “pondered” all that was happening her, we believe that God and the mother of God can be called on to help us in our search for peace, charity and justice. And we can do that in a vocabulary that makes sense to us. The Christian message offers us a wonderful adventure of discovery .
How can I be a person of hope in 2023? We look back in history. We may look back in sorrow at some of the things that were done in the name of religion, but we can look forward in hope and leave the baggage of the past behind us.
I’m reminded of the words of the poet and philosopher John O’Donoghue: Awaken your spirit to adventure;/ Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;/ Soon you will be home in a new rhythm/ For your soul senses the world that awaits you.