New Years, Madre Dei- Sanctify Time Like Mary

Today on January 1st, it’s all about sanctifying time.

Psalm 90:12 says, “Lord, teach us to number our days, that we may gain wisdom of heart.”

Romans 13: You know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.

There should not be a New Year’s Day that goes by that we don’t remind ourselves of that truth one way or another.

To illustrate this perspective numbering our days that we may gain wisdom of heart, author Calvin Miller tells about visiting with an old parishioner. The man was near death. “Do you think you will die, Ralph?” Miller asked this sick old patriarch, rather bluntly.

“Yes, replied to the old man, “but more important than that,” the old man said, “I think you will die too.”

This remark stunned Calvin Miller: He was twenty years old, and the old man was over ninety.

“As a matter of fact,” the old man said, “I'm pretty convinced that everybody who is living is going to die—some sooner, some later. And the only people who will really matter, when the dying is done with, are those who were good stewards of the time they have lived.”

Numbering our days that we may gain wisdom of heart as in the Hail Mary prayer: “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us now and at the hour of our death.”

Mary, the Mother of God is what we celebrate today.

Genealogy-wise, Jesus gets his line of David from Joseph, but he got all his genetic material from Mary.

An early heresy claimed that Mary was only a mother of the human part of Jesus, so the title Theotokos was adopted for Mary which is Greek for God-bearer or Mater Dei in Latin for Mother of God.

But amazingly, we celebrate today the time when Jesus who is God, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, was born of the Virgin Mary.

God was born, of whom there is no time.

God is subsistent being itself in the Holy Trinity

God is a reality that exists of itself.

“There is no time with God: A thousand years, a single day (2Peter 3:8).

Angelus bells rings, the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.

1.Jesus is God. 2.Mary is the mother of Jesus.

--Therefore, Mary is the mother of God.

As described by the Greek title Theotokos, which means "God-bearer" believed from the very beginning, Mater Dei in Latin for Mother of God.

In the Apostle’s Creed, we pray, “born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried; he descended into hell; on the third day he rose again from the dead.”

Timewise, the "climax" and "apex" of history has already come. The Alfa and the Omega. The structure of history is complete. Nothing can ultimately go wrong although it’s not fully played out yet, but Christ’s death and Resurrection already happened and its re-presented in the Mass, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. The faithful celebration of the Mass is all we have to do.

And, Jeremiah 29 says, “For I know the plans that I have for plans for your welfare and not to harm you, so as to give you a future of hope.

Paul’s Travel Plans- His journeys on land and sea took him primarily through present day Israel, Syria, Turkey, and Greece.

The Bible does not record that Paul the Apostle went to Spain, but there is a tradition that he did:

Romans 15:24, 28

In his letter to the Romans, Paul mentions his plan to visit Spain twice:

"I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain, and to be sped on my journey there by you".

"When therefore I have completed this, and have delivered to them what has been raised, I shall go on by way of you to Spain".

Church traditions

There are strong church traditions that Paul visited Spain, including the writings of Clement of Rome, the Third Pope, and the Muratorian Canon- The Muratorian fragment, also known as the Muratorian Canon (Latin: Canon Muratori), is a copy of perhaps the oldest known list of most of the books of the New Testament.

As theologian Adolf Holl (1930–2020) observed, St. Francis was born as people started measuring time by clocks instead of church bells.

But the Angelus bells still ring at 6 AM, Noon, and 6 PM to signal Catholics to pray the Angelus then and now.

Mary, our mother, is for us both an example and a way. We have to try to be like her, in the ordinary circumstances in which God wants us to live so we sanctify time.