Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God 2025

As we stand on the edge and threshold of a new year, we celebrate the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God.  The Church is inviting us to place our focus on Mary as we begin 2025.  This is no accident that we celebrate this feast at the beginning of a new year.  We are deliberately invited to refocus and reorient our lives on what ought to be most central: God and our relationship with Him.  And if we place ourselves in the hands and under the mantle of Mary, she will always bring us to God her son.

The title “Mother of God” seems rather bold.  After all, how can the eternal God have a mother?  But this title for Mary did not develop without thought or controversy.  In the early fifth century, there was an archbishop named Nestorius who claimed that Jesus was not fully God.  Nestorius taught that Jesus was merely a man who was united to the Son of God but was not Himself God the Son.  And so Nestorius concluded that we could not call Mary the mother of God since Jesus was not God.  He said we could only call Mary the mother of Christ.  And so, in 431 the council of Ephesus discerned and declared that we can in fact call Mary the mother of God because Jesus was and is truly and fully God.  I provide you with all of this context to show that even though this feast day celebrates a title for Mary, it is really about Jesus.  And this is Mary’s entire mission, isn’t it?  She points us to Jesus, brings us to Jesus, and shows Him to us.

The blessing in the first reading is one of the most ancient blessings that we have.  “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.”  This blessing was given by God through Moses to Aaron who was the first high priest of Israel.  This blessing invokes the name of God three times and emphasizes the importance of the Lord turning His face towards us.  If we want to be blessed, we have to be placed in front of the face of God.  We must allow Him to look at us, turning our faces towards His.  All of us long to see the face of God.  This is what it is to be blessed.

Mary was the first one to turn her gaze upon the face of God as her son was born.  She was the first one to be blessed as she held God become man in the form of a baby.  And she facilitated an encounter between the child Jesus and the poor shepherds as they gazed upon the face of God.  This is what Mary does.  Because of her “yes” to the invitation to be the Mother of God, humanity is able to gaze upon the face of God.  Because of Mary’s cooperation with God, the Lord is able to look upon us.  All of us want to be able to see God.  And because of Mary, we can.

It is easy to keep our attention, our gaze fixed on things that rob us of peace and joy.  But if we want to be blessed, to have peace and joy as the shepherds did, we must turn our gaze towards God.  We must allow Him to shine His face on us.  And Mary can help us just as she helped the shepherds.  As we begin a new year, ask Mary to show you the face of God.  Ask her to show you the face of her Son.