New Year’s Day
Happy New Year. One lady said, “I will be happy this year if I can survive my daughter’s senior year of high school!”
In the ancient non-Christian culture dating from around the time of Christ, people would go to oracles and soothsayers.
E.g. A late-third century papyrus that was discovered actually gives the inquirer a numbered-list of suggested questions to ask concerning the future, e.g. “Question 72. Shall I get my pay? Question 79. Shall I get the money?....82. Is my property to be proscribed?...85. Am I to be sold as a slave? 86. Shall I go into exile? 88. Am I to become a town councilor? 89. Is my escape cut off? And Question 91. Am I under a spell?”
Our First Reading gives us all a blessing for the New Year. It’s taken from the Book of Numbers, Chapter 6, verse 22. Sirach 50:20 describes the high priest’s daily blessing; he would come down and raise his hands over all the congregation of Israel. The blessing of the Lord would be upon his lips, the name of the Lord would his glory. The people would again fall down to receive the blessing of the Most High.
God’s blessing signifies a sharing in God’s life and power. To be blessed by God means not only to be endowed with spiritual grace; it is also to receive material abundance. Like fertility and the gift of land. It also brings prosperity and peace. To be blessed by God is to be strengthened to live as true human beings, images of God.
God is granting us access to his Name for the purpose of these blessings.
St. Paul said, “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). He explained that this peace came “through his blood, shed on the cross” (Colossians 1:20).
Mary is the Queen of Peace and the mother of Jesus because she not only carried Jesus in her womb but also supplied all of the genetic matter for his human body, since it was through her—not Joseph—that Jesus "was descended from David according to the flesh" (Rom. 1:3).
Since Mary is Jesus’ mother, it must be concluded that she is also the Mother of God: If Mary is the mother of Jesus, and if Jesus is God, then Mary is the Mother of God. There is no way out of this logical syllogism.
As Queen of Peace she prays that our lives be ordered according to her son, Jesus.
St. Augustine called peace “the tranquility of order.”
An ordering is a kind of patterning. When we say to God: please, oh please help me get my life in order, that is an appeal for divine assistance to get things sorted out, to understand what is important, what thoughts and motives need to be thrown out, what matters to put at the top of the priority list, what good habits to develop and stick with. Peace has to be a pattern that we seek.
If we want peace, we must obey God's Word
As simple as what it may sound, we need to just do what the Bible says. For example, in the Liturgy of the Hours, Psalm 119 says, "Abundant peace belongs to those who love Your instruction; nothing makes them stumble. . . . I obey Your decrees and love them greatly" (Ps. 119:165, 167).
