Feast of the Mother of God

We begin a new year with the celebration of the Feast of the Mother of God. First of all, thanks and praises must be given to God because He gives us yet another year a life of sanctification. We should make good use of the coming year to love God and love our neighbours. Secondly, it is an honour and glory of mankind to be so privileged as to give birth to Jesus, our God. This is a great mystery which we may never fully fathom. God chose to become a mere man and to die for us. It is an expression of tremendous overflowing love on God's part. It is not our merit but God's love. God does not mind our base essence. He is willing to share His divinity with us and not with any other creatures. It is our privilege to the envy of angels. Why did God do this to us? Simply because we need redemption. St. Paul wrote.
But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,
to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons (Galatians 4:4-5).
Among women, Mary was blessed. From eternity, God has in mind Mary. Her life has a purpose, to clothe the Word of God in flesh and to raise him up as the Saviour of the world. In order to do that, God grants special privileges to her. First of all, Mary was conceived without the stain of original sin. This is the doctrine of her Immaculate Conception. God has prepared an immaculate environment to clothe His Son in flesh. Is it necessary? Is it possible for Jesus to be born from an ordinary woman stained with sins? Yes, it would be but the consequence would be a Jesus flawed with all tendencies to sin. Then the author of Hebrews cannot write the following.
For we have not a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15).

Jesus in every respect is truly a man. He grew up like man. He ate, drank and slept like man. He had compassion to the weak and furies to the arrogant like man. He was flesh and blood in such a way that Satan could tempt him and Roman soldiers could crucified him to death. Yet, Jesus was without sin so that he could be the perfect Paschal Lamb to expiate all our sins. So, God's wisdom has it that Jesus was nurtured in an immaculate womb.
The humanity and divinity of Jesus cannot be separated. Therefore, Mary was not just the biological mother of the humanity of Jesus. She was the mother of the totality of Jesus, thus the mother of his divinity. To deny Mary her status as the mother of God is to deny the divinity of Jesus. Therefore, defending the Mother of God is defending the divinity of Jesus, our God.

Today, we also celebrate the Day of World Peace. In view of so many conflicts and confrontation worldwide nowadays, peace seems to be such an unreachable goal. Deep in our hearts, we yearn for peace. But we need to put down our pride, reach out to those who are inferior in order to make peace a possibility. But what is inferiority? Isn't it a human construct, a human defense mechanism? Bearing in mind that we are all children of God, brothers and sisters in Christ, we are no better than any other human beings. God has taken the initiative. He took our flesh and became one of us. Mind you, the old lady collecting dishes in the McDonald's may well be Jesus in disguise! Let us follow Jesus' footsteps and give peace a chance.

Dear Mother in heaven, pray for us sinners, now and always beseech God to grant your children enough grace to achieve sanctity. Amen.