Mary, Mother of God - Solemnity

Have you ever paused for a while to ponder what sort of life you are living? A great philosopher, Socrates, once said: "The unexamined life is not worth living." When we do not take time to take a step back and look at our lives, some of us may begin to find life mundane and some of us may even repeat the same mistakes made by others or even by ourselves, mistakes which could have been avoided if we had properly reflected and noted what has happened.

Today we are given the example of Mary, Mother of God, who as the Gospel tells us, “treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart.” In our frantic and frenzied efforts to celebrate this New Year with a bang, we sometimes forget to follow the example of Mary to treasure and give thanks for all the things we have received in the past year and to ponder on where God is leading us. We need to reflect on one’s life because it is only through reflection and prayer that we will understand God’s plan for us. God is our constant guide who continually speaks to us, and if we do not take time to pray and reflect, we may find ourselves moving from one activity to another, possibly aimlessly and without purpose. It is only with prayer and reflection that we can come to recognise God's presence in many different life's situations.

As we celebrate this New Year, let us cast off our old ways, our bad habits, our selfishness, and put on the ways of Christ. Some of us like to make New Year resolutions, but making such New Year resolutions is pointless, if we do not evaluate from time to time how far we have progressed, and seek God's guidance to help us get back onto the right track. Change can come into our lives and in the lives of the community around us, if we are willing to imitate Mary and take time to treasure all these things and ponder them in our hearts. Are we willing to make the change happen this year?

Mary, Mother of God - Solemnity

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. More importantly, we celebrate God becoming man. Because of Mary's yes to God, God became man and we have Jesus Christ our Lord. Salvation is the result of the cooperation between God and man, and Mary's cooperation made this possible.

God sent his Son to redeem us and to enable us to be adopted as sons. As the second reading tells us: "The proof that you are sons is that God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts: the Spirit that cries, ‘Abba, Father’, and it is this that makes you a son, you are not a slave any more; and if God has made you son, then he has made you heir." Are we aware of our being adopted sons of God? Are we appreciative and humbled that we have been made heirs? Sometimes in life, we may forget who we are and may go astray. However, God is always waiting patiently for us to come back to Him, just as the father waited for the prodigal son to come home.

Let us thus, like Mary, treasure all these things and ponder them in our heart, for God has given a wonderful gift to us, the gift of His Son. As we also celebrate World Day of Peace, let us bring the peace of Christ to all and continue to dwell in His presence.