A new beginning with Mary

In the new order of the liturgy, as developed by Vatican II, we find that New Year's Day is now being dedicated to Mary, the Mother of God. At first one might be struck by this new arrangement.

At a time when Christians, like the rest of the world, have been celebrating New Year's Day with much pomp and ceremony in ways not always marked by too many religious considerations, here we have the 'new beginning' of the Church's liturgy quite rightly associated with the Blessed Virgin Mary, in whom the all new beginning of Christian existence, the Incarnation of the Son of God, has taken place.

Now with hindsight we might say that this adjustment of the new liturgy was well in order. At Christmas, as was natural, our concentration was focused on the "Child of Mary". On New Year's Day, while not stopping from rejoicing at the ushering in of a brand new year, we are also invited to turn our attention on Mary, the "Mother of the Child".

New Year's Day is a very significant celebration in the life of every human being. No matter what religion we belong to, we are no doubt at least unconsciously urged to look back at the year that has just gone and to glance forward to the one that is just beginning.

In the old liturgy we find that a whole series of sacred events used to be commemorated all together. Among them was the circumcision of the child Jesus, as required by the Jewish law, and also the giving of the name Jesus to the newly born child. As if that were not enough, the new liturgy suggests to us that we celebrate the ushering in of the new year as the Day of Peace.

The Messiah had been heralded in the Old Testament as the Prince of Peace. It is quite in order, then, that on this day more than ever we should pray for the gift of peace to the world to which we belong and which continues to be torn by wars and conflicts of all kind.

Returning to our spiritual considerations about Mary as the Mother of God, these significant words of St Thomas Aquinas are appropriate: "In order that the body of Christ might be shown to be a real body, he was born of a woman; but in order that his Godhead might be made clear he was born of a virgin."

The foregoing reasoning introduces us to some significant thoughts suggested by none other than St Augustine of Hippo: "Born of the Father, Christ created his mother; formed as man in his mother, he glorified his Father. He, the son of Mary and the Spouse of Holy Church, has made that Church like to his mother, since he made it a mother for us and kept it a virgin for himself.

"The Church, like Mary, has inviolate integrity and incorrupt fecundity. What Mary merited physically, the Church has guarded spiritually, with the exception that Mary brought forth only one child, while the Church has many children destined to be gathered into one body."

May the New Year we are celebrating today usher us into a year that will be more peaceful, more prosperous, but also more just as far as we and everyone else throughout the world are concerned! This wish can only become a reality if we begin with our own selves. The New Year will indeed be what we make it, thanks to our efforts helped by the grace of God and by the loving intercession of Mary, the Mother of God.