Make sure that you have greater peace in your hearts

Homily for January 1, 2017 (Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God)
Numbers 6:22-27; Psalm 67; Galatians 4:4-7; Luke 2:16-21

The next time you walk past a Nativity scene—in your home, here in church or elsewhere—stop for a moment and take a careful look the baby Jesus.  Chances are you will notice something unusual:  in the typical Nativity scene his size is rather out of scale with the people that surround him.  To put it bluntly:  Jesus is big—really big, the size of a second or third grader!  For our poor Blessed Mother to be able to give birth to a child of that size would be, well, a miracle.  However, in art as in other areas of life, size and scale are often shorthand for significance. There’s a reason, then, why Jesus is so big:  in the midst of the shepherds, angels, kings, animals and his saintly parents, our focus needs to be on him.

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God.  As with all Marian feasts, while we may begin contemplating her and her life, she inevitably points us to her son.  Through Mary’s generous and courageous “yes” to God we have become God’s children and heirs to a promise of life eternal.  We can only give thanks to God for her role as the First Disciple. But God’s promise is ultimately fulfilled in Jesus.

The shepherds, too, direct us to Christ.  As our gospel passage portrays them, they could actually be thought of as “proto-apostles,” that is the earliest earthly messengers of the Lord.  They responded to the message of the angels and brought it to Mary, Joseph and others who heard it.  After seeing Jesus with their own eyes, they returned to their fields “glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen.”

As followers of the Christ, we are called to keep him and his teachings ever in front of us and, like Mary and the shepherds, to both contemplate him and serve as his messengers, praising and glorifying God for all that we have heard and seen him do in our own lives.  That’s the essence of evangelization.  Many mistakenly think that the purpose of the New Evangelization is to bring people (back) into the Church.  It’s not. Instead, our mission is to first invite people into personal encounters with Jesus and only then ask if they would also like to be part of a community of believers who are dedicated to transforming the world through love the power of the Gospel.

Today also marks the 50th anniversary of the World Day of Prayer for Peace.   Pope Francis has designated this year’s theme as Nonviolence—A Style of Politics for Peace. At first that seems like a risky or naïve proposition—mixing politics and religion…and on a holiday, no less! But as the Pope has reminded us: “Jesus himself lived in violent times. Yet he taught that the true battlefield, where violence and peace meet, is the human heart….In the words of Saint Francis of Assisi: ‘As you announce peace with your mouth, make sure that you have greater peace in your hearts.’”  That peace will take root and bear fruit in us more and more as we follow the example of Mary and keep our eyes on her Son.  May God bless and keep us and our world in 2017. + The Pope's World Day of Peace Message