Seeing Out the Old Year, Welcoming the New

By Sister Mary Core, OSB

How can we connect the celebration of New Year’s Day with the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God? 

Both occur on January 1st, but appear miles apart in terms of meaning and how we celebrate them.  

The New Year comes in with lots of partying, football, hang-overs, parades, and making of resolutions.  

The Solemnity of Mary comes a week after Christmas and seems more like an afterthought:

Oh yeah, because Mary is the Mother of Jesus, she is then also the mother of God. What a lousy day to be a holy day of obligation. A sleep-in after last night’s party seems much more reasonable.

This year I got to thinking, there must be something that could link the New Year with Mary as Mother of God. When I finally made a connection, I wondered why I’d not thought of it before. 

On New Year’s Eve we celebrate the end of events that took place during the year that is ending and look forward with great hope and expectation to the new year ahead. 

New Year’s Eve is like the threshold between the past and the future. It is the connection between events over and done and the optimistic anticipation of hoped for better things to come.

And in many ways, that is exactly what we celebrate by honoring Mary as Mother of God.

Through Mary’s “Yes” we are given the hope of better things to come. It is Mary who is the threshold between the Old and the New Covenant. 

By becoming the Mother of the Savior - the Christ - she allowed us to enter a new relationship with God, one of a light-filled, hope-filled future as children of God.  

Mary accepted God’s invitation for all of us.  

Yes, there is a link, a very strong parallel between New Year’s Day and the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God!  

So, this year as we see out the old year and welcome in the new, let us one and all be grateful for Mary, who was the vessel, the threshold though which came a tiny babe, destined to be our model, our savior, our brother, our God.

Have a wonderful New Year and celebration of Mary, the Mother of God.