Homily for the Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God

Today is, of course, January first and as such is the first day of the new civic year, New Year’s Day.  It is also the eighth day since December 25^th and therefore marks the Octave of Christmas.

In the old calendar for the Roman Rite, the Church observed this day as the Feast of the Circumcision of the Lord – since, as we hear in today’s Gospel, Jesus was circumcised on the eighth day after His birth according to the ancient Jewish tradition. 

In our current version of the Roman calendar, the Church marks this day as the Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God.  St. Paul says in his letter to the Galatians, which we heard as our second reading, that “God sent His Son, born of a woman … so that we might receive adoption as sons.”  So, not only is Mary the Mother of God, but she is our mother as well, and we are adopted children of God!

Finally, the Church also marks this first day of the New Year as the World Day of Prayer for Peace. Following the ancient tradition we hear about in today’s first reading, from the Book of Numbers, we invoke God’s name in blessing upon the nations as Aaron did of old.

So, today is New Year’s Day, the Octave of Christmas, the Circumcision of the Lord, the feast of Mary the Mother of God, and World Day of Prayer for Peace.  But I’m not going to talk about any of those things!

I’d like to speak briefly about the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus.  Devotion to the Holy Name of Jesus predates even the writing of the Scriptures. The ancient Christian hymn that ultimately comes to be written as part of the Letter to the Philippians says that, “at the Name of Jesus every knew should bend, in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, and every tongue proclaim to the glory of God that Jesus Christ is Lord!”

But the formalized devotion to the Holy Name is the work of St. Bernard of Siena, who reformed the Franciscan Order in the late 1300s and early 1400s.  He preached sermons about the Holy Name and had holy cars printed and distributed with the Latin monogram IHS – which we still see so often in Church art and architecture.

In Spain, the second Sunday after Epiphany was chosen as the date for a feast in honor of the Holy Name –and in 1721 when the feast was extended to the entire Roman Rite, that was the date that was used.  In 1969, Pope Paul VI removed the feast from the calendar, stating that the Holy Name is part of the commemoration of the Octave of Christmas. 

And indeed, many Eastern Churches, the Lutheran Church and the Anglican Communion celebrate today as the Feast of the Holy Name.  Most recently, the 2002 Revised Roman Missal restored the feast of the Holy Name, and assigned January 3^rd, the first free date in the calendar after January 1^st, as the optional memorial of the Holy Name of Jesus.     

I chose to speak about the Holy Name today, because it is certainly a part of the history of the observance of this first day of the year – and we will formally celebrate its feast this week – and because, the Holy Name is so much more than a label – a convenient way to tell one person from another.

We heard in the Gospel today that “after eight days had passed,” not only was it time to have Jesus circumcised, but He was also “named Jesus, the name given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb.” 

According to St. Luke, this is the name that the angel Gabriel tells Mary to give her son at the Annunciation. And according to St. Matthew, Joseph hears this name from the angel in his dream, telling him to take Mary as his wife. 

So it is not a name chosen by His parents. It is a name that comes from God Himself.  And the word itself adds to this deep significance.  It is essentially the same name as Joshua, the Old Testament hero who led Israel into the Promised Land, and literally the name means: “The Lord is salvation.”  

Thus, the very name of the Savior, the salvation He brings, and He Himself all come to us as a gift from God.  The Holy Name points us to who He is – our Savior – and when spoken with faith and reverence, it is the greatest, if the simplest, of prayers because it puts us into a sacramental contact with the salvation Jesus brings.

Friends, do you want to pray, not only with your lips, but from your heart?  Then use the Holy Name of Jesus.  Say the name of Jesus, with faith and reverence, many times throughout the course of each day.  Let this prayer, His name, rise and fall with the rhythm of your breath – a practice called the Jesus Prayer, which is so revered in the Eastern Churches.

Pray the Rosary, with its decades of Hail Mary’s, the very center of which is the Holy Name of Jesus.  Even while you are doing other things, let saying the name of Jesus become a holy habit, a second nature.  The saints of the Church bear witness to the power of the Holy Name to provide sweetness and consolation, courage and joy, whatever may come our way.

Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, who wrote the great hymn of the Holy Name, has said: “The sweet Name of Jesus produces in us holy thoughts, fills the soul with noble sentiments, strengthens virtue, begets good works, and nourishes pure affections … Jesus is honey in our mouth, light in our eyes, a flame in our heart … This name is the cure for all diseases of the soul. Are you troubled?  Think of Jesus, speak the Name of Jesus, and the clouds disperse, and peace descends anew from heaven. Have you fallen into sin?  Invoke the Name of Jesus, and you will soon feel life returning. Are you surrounded by sorrow and danger? Invoke the Name of Jesus and your fears will vanish … No rigidity of the soul, no weakness, no coldness of heart can resist this Holy Name.”

In other words, friends, we can be changed, and our world can be changed, through an increasing reliance on the Holy Name of Jesus. 

A new year opens before us.  We do not know what it will hold for us.  Some of us will be ill during this year, and some will even die.  We can have the peace of God with the name of Jesus on our lips. Some of us will face other trials and loss.  We can meet them confidently with the name of Jesus on our lips.  Some of us will experience wonderful joys, new opportunities, and unique blessings in this new year.  We can express our gratitude with the name of Jesus on our lips.

Brothers and sisters, may the year ahead be for each of us an opportunity to pray our Savior's Name with faith and fervor – a time for us to discover the power that His Holy Name can have in our lives.