[stephenkhoo]

Sunday, 01 January, 2012, Solemnity of Mary, The Holy Mother of God
FACING THE FUTURE WITH CONFIDENCE IN CHRIST
SCRIPTURE READINGS: NUMBERS 6:22-27; PSALM 66(67); GAL 4:4-7; LUKE 2:16–21

As we begin another year, we are full of hope that the New Year would be different from the previous year. But is our hope merely a wish or a promise waiting to be fulfilled? How can we enter into the New Year with hope and with freedom from fear? This is where the Church invites us to continue to contemplate on the birth of our Lord and what it means for Christ to be one with us.

Firstly, we must take note of the importance of ‘the appointed time’ that St Paul wrote in the letter to the Galatians. This appointed time refers to the Incarnation that God has prepared since the beginning of time. The whole of History, so to speak, was waiting for this moment when the Word of God became flesh. Indeed, this was the moment that Adam, Abraham, Moses and all the prophets were waiting for. And that moment has come.

To help us deepen our appreciation of Christ’s birth, the Church on the last day of the Octave of Christmas, celebrates the Feast of Mary the Mother of God. Why is this feast so important and comes immediately a week after the birth of Christ? This is because the feast celebrated in honour of Mary is in truth a Christological feast rather than a Marian feast. It was at the height of Christological controversy that Mary was declared the Mother of God at the Council of Ephesus in 431 A.D. There were some heretics who were denying the true divinity of Christ and there were some who denied that Christ was truly human; and still some denied that Christ is the divine person with two natures, divine and human but two persons.

So to quash such false or rather half truths about the person of Christ, the Ecumenical Council of Ephesus declared in no uncertain terms that in Christ, the Second Person of the Trinity, there is one divine person, namely, the Divine Logos who has two natures, human and divine. Jesus Christ is therefore truly God and truly man! He is not half man or half God; neither is He two persons, divine and human. Since Mary is the mother of that one person, Christ, and not simply the man Jesus, she is declared to be the Mother of God. This does not mean that Christ took His divinity from her but that He, being one person and not two, would therefore be equally Mary’s son as well. Otherwise, we would have to declare that Mary is only the mother of the human person Jesus, and not of the second person of the Trinity. Hence, it is not wrong to declare Mary as the Mother of God since Christ is both God and man. To say that Mary is only the mother of the man Jesus, we are implying that there is another person, namely, Christ who is God.

In the light of this doctrinal declaration, we can now confidently draw out the implications of what it means for us to believe in Christ who is truly God and truly man.

Firstly, we are told that the name of our Savior is Jesus. The gospel tells us that “when the eighth day came and the child was to be circumcised, they gave him the name Jesus, the name the angel had given him before his conception.” Names have great significance both in the bible and in most cultures. What is in a name? It stands for the whole person, his character and the power of personality. A name gives us our identity and our role in life. A person’s entire life and direction is summed up by his or her name. Even in the bible, we read that Abram’s name was changed to Abraham (Gen 17:5); Jacob to Israel (Gen 32:29), Simon to Peter (Mt 16:18) and Saul to Paul (Acts 13:9). The name of Jesus means God saves!

Invoking God’s name is to confess our faith in the nature and revelation of God’s secret life. For this reason, the liturgy takes the first reading from the Book of Exodus, which records the threefold Aaronic Blessing that Moses instructed Aaron to bless the sons of Israel. This threefold blessing of course is seen as an anticipation of the Trinitarian faith of the Church in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. By invoking the name of God, the people would be blessed. This is the assurance of God. “This is how they are to call down my name on the sons of Israel, and I will bless them.”

Of course, an effective blessing is more than just invoking the name of God. Even the magicians during the time of St Paul also sought to do that. We read in Acts 19:13-17, that the seven sons of Sceva, tried to cast out evil spirits imitating what St Paul did. “But the evil spirit answered them, ‘Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you?’ Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all.” To bless means to invoke upon all the faith that God is and all that He has done for His people. In other words, if we want to receive blessings from the Lord, it must be invoked with all the faith that one has about and on Jesus. Without faith in Jesus, His identity and person, there can be no question of a person being healed. In the gospel, Jesus repeatedly reminded His apostles and listeners that the healing and deliverance ministry requires tremendous faith in Him. Without faith in what the name stands for, we have no power to heal.

How does He save us? By the very fact that Jesus is truly God and truly man. In His divinity, He revealed to us the mercy and love of God. In His works and teachings, He showed us that our God is a powerful and yet compassionate God who loves us all without reserve. He considers us worthy to sacrifice His only Son for us when we are so insignificant. Through His humanity, He showed us the face of God and at the same time, gives us hope that as man, we can overcome our sins and human weaknesses. He allows us to see His sufferings which were real so that we will no longer ask about our own sufferings when we know that because He cares for us, His suffering is even more immense than ours. No longer do we need to ask why we suffer, when we learn how much God suffers. In the first self-emptying of Jesus in His incarnation and in the second self-emptying of Jesus on the cross, we see the greatness of God and His utter mercy in the way He humbled Himself to save us at all costs. What further proof do we need of God’s kindness and love for us all when God has humbled Himself on our account?

That Jesus is one of us in every way except sin is our greatest consolation. He too was subjected to the same limitations that we face. The implication of the incarnation means that the Second Person of the Trinity has put Himself under the same human restrictions that characterize human life. Hence, the scripture readings take pain to underscore that Jesus was also subjected to the Law like us. He went through the circumcision in accordance with the Law laid down. (Cf. Gen 17:12; Lev 12:3) This explains the insistence of the Church in declaring that Mary is the Mother of God and not just the mother of Christ.

By His utter submission to the confines of humanity, He became truly the compassionate High priest who understands our struggles and our pains. No one knows more deeply how much we try to be good and overcome evil than Jesus. No one knows how weak we are at the same time, so poor in our capacity to love and defenceless in the wake of temptations and trials than Him. That is why Jesus is our Advocate whenever we sin, as St John tells us. (cf 1 Jn 1:1-2)

At the same time, by using His human will to do God’s will, He shows us how we can overcome sin. Jesus could fight the battle and win the battle only because of His union with the Father and because He allowed the Spirit to work in and through Him. Without the help of the Holy Spirit, He would not have been able to conquer sin and death. Because of His love for the Father, He was able to surrender His human will to the Father’s divine will. We too if we deepen our love for the Father and are open to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, will be able to win victory over sin and every trial in our lives. The more we become the sons and daughters of God, the more liberated we will be from the powers that hold us bondage from loving and giving ourselves to God and others.

Hence, we can be confident of victory because Christ saved us by giving us back our dignity as sons and daughters of His heavenly Father. The purpose of becoming human is more than just to reveal to us the Face of His heavenly Father, but to elevate us to become the children of God. St Paul says, “The proof that you are sons is that God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts: the Spirit that cries, ‘Abba, Father’”. Truly, in Christ, we are no longer slave to our sins and the bondages of the Evil One. We are now made heirs in Christ, sharing His glory and His life short of His divinity. All that Jesus has is also ours. Indeed, He did tell us, “anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.” (Jn 14:12) So in the face of trials and tribulations, temptations and sin, let us know that God has given us the same power to conquer Satan and overcome all trials in life.

So let us not fear what the future holds for us. Today, let us remind ourselves that with Christ’s birth, it is also the beginning of a new humanity as well. With the birth of our Head, Christ, His body too will share in all His blessings, as St Paul assures. We can stand tall no matter what happens because we are redeemed by Him and if ever we fall, Christ our brother and advocate is standing by to defend and intercede for us before the heavenly Father.

So like Mary, let us continue to ponder on this great event of the Incarnation. We need to keep on contemplating on the marvelous love of God in the baby Jesus and what it means for us. Then like Aaron and the apostles, let us continue to invoke His powerful name in all that we do and say, for at His name, the devil will even flee from us. But we must invoke His name with all the faith of the Church. Finally, following the shepherds, let us go back and glorify God in our lives. So let us begin the New Year by claiming our sonship and daughtership, amazed at His election of us, and live like liberated sons and daughters. Come what may, we will triumph at the end in Christ. We do not fear the future, for the future is already in the hands of God. We do not fear how the battle will end, for the end is already certain. What is left for us now is to battle on with the grace of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit till we arrive at the kingdom of our heavenly Father.