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January 2, 2025On the eighth day after Christmas, we joyfully celebrate Mary Mother of God. On this day we also begin a new year, 2025, a year marked for us Christians by the Jubilee of the Lord, in which we are called to be pilgrims of hope. Jesus is in fact our hope. Rooted in him we look towards the future with confidence knowing that he is the Lord of the cosmos and of history.
The Gospel presents us with the joy of the shepherds who go to the cave where the baby Jesus is between Joseph and Mary. The shepherds tell them what they have heard from the angels about this child. The scene is full of joy and wonder. But Mary kept all the events of her son, meditating on them in her heart. We too must imitate Mary in considering the events of Jesus and keeping them in our hearts. The Mother of God helps us to grasp the connection between all the events that happened in our life in which Jesus makes himself mysteriously present. In fact, Jesus didn’t speak only in the past. He speaks to us through the word of God proclaimed, in the life of the Church, in the unity of the believers and in the poor. He speaks to us through the events that happen to us in our day-to-day life. It is in time, in everyday life, that Jesus makes himself known to us.
But time is a mysterious reality. Especially at the beginning of a new year, the question arises in our heart: what is the meaning of this passing of time? Saint Augustine, the great father of the Church, said in his book of Confessions that if you do not ask me what time is, I think I know what it is, but if you ask me about it, then I realize I do not know.
Let us look at this fact: the past is no longer there, the future is not yet here, and the present cannot be held, it is passing. But the past remains in our memory and recollection, the future is anticipated in us in the expectation and hope of the fullness that satisfies the desire we have in our hearts. Time is therefore mysterious for humans, it needs an ultimate meaning, a goal. Only God can give meaning to time.
Saint Paul in his letter to the Galatians answers this enigma and speaks of time starting from its fullness; the incarnation of the Son of God who is born of a woman, Mary. In this way the apostle makes us understand that the decisive time is not the chronological one, the one indicated by the clock where the moments follow one another equally and indifferently. The true time, the one significant for us is the one linked to the events that mark our personal history and that of humanity.
Chronological time ultimately makes us slaves; the fullness of time, that is in Jesus, Emmanuel, God among us makes us free. Jesus teaches us that the meaning of time is the gift, it is love. He is the fullness of time because he is the fullness of the gift of God to us. Therefore, St. Paul invites us to pass from being slaves, crushed by the weight of passing time because time is never enough, we lose time, to being children and heirs, who is, capable of receiving the gift of God and making it bear fruit in us for eternity.
Dearest people, time is given to us by God to receive his gift, to welcome it and to give it to others in turn. The meaning of time is love, to love and be loved. Without love, time remains incomprehensible; life remains without meaning.
Therefore, it is so significant that the Church begins a new year celebrating the divine motherhood of Mary, the birth of the Son of God in time: in this way we too are invited to be reborn to the life of the children of God.
Finally, it is equally significant that the Church celebrates the world day of peace on the first day of the year under the protection of the Virgin Mother. We know very well the great need for peace the entire world has, torn apart by wars.
In the context of the Jubilee of Hope, Pope Francis has chosen the theme for this day: Forgive us our trespasses: grant us your peace. In this way, the Holy Father reminds us that we are all debtors before God, we all need forgiveness and mercy. If every human person is aware of this, there would be less arrogance in the world, and we would learn to forgive one another.
Pope Francis reminds us that: “The cultural and structural change needed to surmount this crisis will come about when we finally recognize that we are all sons and daughters of the one Father, that we are all in his debt but also that we need one another, in a spirit of shared and diversified responsibility. We will be able to “rediscover once for all that we need one another” and are indebted to one another.”
Dear Brothers and Sisters, let us therefore pray for peace and that the mercy of God prevails in our hearts; let us learn to treat everyone as brothers and sisters because we are all children of God.
In the first reading we heard Aaron's blessing on the people of Israel, so that the Lord may show his face and give grace and Peace. Let this also be our prayer. May the Lord bless us, bless every day of this new year. May it be a year full of hope and peace.
May the Mother of God, mother of every new beginning, accompany us during this new year so that it may be a year in which we experience reconciliation with God and among people, beginning with our hearts, our families and our communities.
