Numbers 6:22-27
Gal 4:4-7
Luke 2:16-21 

Bishop Untener's Homily

A Feast of Many Feasts

This feast has had many themes over the years. It is the feast of Mary, the Mother of God - celebrating the title that was fought over in the early centuries. The question was, although Mary is the Mother of Jesus, can she be called "Mother of God." The Council of Ephesus in 431 decided that she could, and the feast of Mary under that title has been celebrated ever since.

Today is also the Octave of Christmas, and we celebrate that today.  It has also been traditional to celebrate the naming and circumcision of Jesus on this date, for Luke says that it was eight days after his birth that Jesus fully became a member of God's chosen people.  To add to all of this... in recent years, today has been designated as a day of prayer for world peace.

Well, you can legitimately include all those colorations in our celebration... but what emerges above all is that today is New Year's Day. That is what most of all is on our minds. 

New Year's Resolutions

With New Year's, what comes to mind of course - besides wall to wall football - is New Year's resolutions. 

Studies have indicated that New Year's resolutions are usually not very effective. For one thing, we try to make too many of them. For another, we don't think them through or prepare for them very well, and they don't have roots.

Taking a cue from the Gospel, I suggest that, instead of resolutions, we think of reflections. By that I mean a certain reflectiveness. The Gospel says that when Mary heard what the angel told the shepherds, she "kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart."

So, instead of resolutions, early this morning I wrote down some reflections... the kind of reflections that come to you as you look back on one year and look ahead to another.

Where Is My Life Moving?

The Gospel says that the shepherds went in haste to Bethlehem where they found Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in a manger. There is movement here. The shepherds moved toward Christ.

The first thing I thought about is that my life has a movement to it, a flow. Life is never inert, standing still. It is moving, always moving. (Actually, because the earth is a satellite of the sun, and the sun is moving in a great loop around the Milky Way galaxy, we are moving at a rate of 360,000 mile an hour... even though it may seem as though we're standing still.) But I'm talking more about the flow, the direction of my life. It is always moving. I can direct it, or I can let it drift, but I must never have the illusion that it is standing still.

A good question to ask is not whether my life is moving, but where my life is moving. Is it toward God, or away from God? It is definitely moving in one direction or the other.

The Rhythm of Life

I also thought about the rhythm, the pulse of my life. The flow of life isn't simply linear

... in a flat line. It has a rhythm to it, ups and downs, and these are not always of my own doing. In the second reading Paul said that, "When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman." God's plan has a certain rhythm to it, and my life does too. I need to be attentive to that. Just because some choices are available to me now doesn't mean that they will necessarily be available always and everywhere.

As the year of Our Lord 2004 unfolds, I need to be attentive to the signs of the times.

Choices

Another reflection is the simple fact that I am free. There are many things I can't choose - for example, I can't decide to live at some future date instead of now, or in some past era. But within the life I've got, I can make choices.

That may seem obvious, but a certain awareness comes over you if you take a blank sheet of paper and simply write: "I can make choices." As the life of Jesus unfolds, we will see different people come on stage and make choices. Some accepted him, and some didn't. I can make choices.

Providence

Finally, in all these musings I need to remember that my life is surrounded by, enfolded in God’s providence. God has a direct hand in my life, and in all that surrounds me.

When we think of God's providence, we should think not so much in terms of God's power - God controlling and manipulating everything by his mighty hand. It's better to think in terms of God's love. The best way to put it is this: God's love ultimately holds sway over everything. God's love will see to it that all works for good, not for evil. 

What I need to do is be attentive to God's providential love, and let God's love hold sway in my life.

A "Resolution" for 2004

Well, I started out by saying that New Year's resolutions aren't usually effective... and now I end up with a New Year's resolution. But it's a different kind. Instead of getting specific about doing or not doing this or that, it's an all-embracing resolution: In 2004, I will be more attentive to the presence of God in my life, and to what God is doing in my life. 

That could make for a very good year. May it be a good year for allof you. I leave you with a quote from Thomas Merton:

"Life is very simple: We are living in a world that is absolutely transparent to God, and God is shining through it all the time. This is not a fable or a nice story. It is true. God manifests himself everywhere, in every thing, in people in things and in nature and in events. You cannot be without God. It's impossible. Simply impossible."

January 1, 2004