01 January 2024 – Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God | World Day of Peace | New Year’s Day

by Fr Francis Anthony

Dear friends,

For the last an hour almost, we have been wishing each other ‘Happy New Year’ and wanting the best for everyone. And it is very symbolically in the Island of Penang, the sun is so bright, beautiful. Augurs well the aspiration that is in all of us that everything would be as how we want. But the Readings takes us to another sphere. It is not just our wishing and hoping the best to each one but what is the plan of God of us?

As we are beginning this year, 2024, what are we looking for? And in the First Reading from the book of Numbers, it says three things:-

First, ‘May the Lord bless you and keep you‘. 

And the second, ‘May the Lord let His face shine on you and be gracious‘. That the friendship of God be with us always. The face shine on you and be gracious.

And third, ‘May the Lord uncover His face and bring you peace‘. Yes, the peace, not necessarily like what we are praying for in Ukraine or in Gaza. The peace within us, that is tranquility and we can be sure to be able to walk forward with the blessings of God. To be what we have to be.

And in the Second Reading, it goes further. Yes, what God is giving us is  a thousand times more than our wish for one another. The Spirit has been given to us. As the text says in Galatians. And that Spirit in us is allowing us to call God ‘Abba’. Yes, the Aramaic word for Father. Call God in a relational way. The Spirit has been with us and led us long, that all of us right through to the year of 2024 would be in terms with God and our relationship with God is not forgotten, that He remains our Father and I remain a child.

And in the Responsorial Psalm, it speaks of ‘The Lord has spoken to us.‘ Yes, it is not FA or Fr Joachim talking to you about the mystery of God’s love. God himself has spoken to us when we handle the scriptures, the bible. He is speaking to us but at times, we take it ‘Well, it is a bible’ but do we realise when we touch the bible, we are touching God and we are listening to Him personally reaching out to us?

Let us be people who have the enthusiasm of the shepherds. When they heard the message of ‘A Saviour having been born for us’, they just did not turn round and say: “Okay, good. God is coming.” The shepherd as in today’s Gospel, they hurried to see baby Jesus as announced by the angel.

Let us have that enthusiasm through our prayer life that we would be people who are hurrying to meet Jesus. Not necessarily at the crib, the tabernacle. We meet Jesus and He is the one who has given me the Spirit to call Him ‘Father’. He is the one who is blessing me. He is the one who has cared for me. And let us begin this new year under this frame of ‘God being close to us.’ It is a thousand times more than all the wishes of all the people together telling ‘Happy New Year’.

It is God who is fulfilling. And when we wish each other, we are sharing in that love of God. Let us ask God for the whole year of 2024 that we will be people who realise that we have the Spirit, that we will people who realise that God himself has blessed us, and He is drawing us towards His Son. God reveals Himself in the scriptures, in Hebrews, in various ways but in this last days, He has revealed Himself through His Son.

So let us ask God to help us to see Jesus in our daily action, that we would be people who represent God wherever we are. We bring the joy of God to all the people.

At the same time, let us pray for peace. The situation in Ukraine is getting from bad to worse. Yesterday and today, the foreign news is highlighting the disaster in Ukraine. Let us pray to God that they would experience the blessings of God.

My dear friends, many people are beginning the new year in fear, in anxiety, abandoned, ridiculed. Let they see the horizon of hope, that God is with them though they are not able to see the presence, the love of God due to the situation they are in. The five million over people in Sudan who are dying of starvation and very often we are wasting our food. And it can happen and will happen on feast days like New Year and Christmas. Please let us be conscious of the millions who are dying of starvation. May God touch them and they be able to see the love of God.

And for all of us, we are so fortunate to begin the year in the church, praying. There are millions of people who are not able to do that because of the fighting that takes place and this is in Northern Nigeria, in Boko. Let us pray that they experience peace. They are far away from us but they are our brothers and sisters. Let us have concern for them.

Click below to listen to the homily and watch the video:-

Click to live-stream Mass on 01 January 2024