31 December 2023 – Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God | New Year’s Eve

by Fr Joachim Robert

Dear friends,

As we gather here this evening to celebrate the passing year 2023 and  to welcome the year 2024, we cannot but be amazed of how quickly this whole year has been. It was just like in a glance that we have just journeyed through 2023. But as we look back on this whole year, we are grateful for all the blessings that God has given to us. And all our Readings today reminds us of the blessing God gives His people. Even the Responsorial Psalm says: O God, be gracious and bless us.

And this whole year of 2023 has been all but blessings that comes from the author of all goodness. The author of life who gives us every good blessings so that we are able to embrace that blessing and live a life that is worthy of His call.

But I am sure amidst all the blessings that we receive, there has also been challenges, difficulties, obstacles that have come along the way. And as we look at the Feast of today, the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God, and as we celebrated the Holy Family this morning, we are invited to look at Mary and Joseph as the icon of a disciple where when they said ‘Yes’ to that promptings of the Holy Spirit in their life, they did not know what that whole plan of salvation would mean. But they said ‘Yes’.

But amidst all the challenges, obstacles that they had to endure, they still trusted God. They still was able to persevere all through that journey of life, even in this morning’s Reading where they presented the child Jesus in the temple. Even at that moment of so many obstacles and challenges, they chose to bless God with every part of their being, to be obedient to the Commandments of the Law and to say ‘Yes’ to where the Lord was calling them and to give their part of their story in this whole history of salvation.

And as we entrust this coming year to God once again, year 2024, we also learn to reflect on moments that God has graced us. And I would like to point out four things here. First of all, that Mary was a woman who knew how to REST. R-E-S-T. She did not sleep all the time but she was able to rest in God.

The first ‘R‘ is for Reflect. She was able to review her life and reflect her life in accordance to God’s will and God’s plan so that she is able to attune herself, her life, to that promptings of God in saying ‘Yes’ to Him. And in that same way, dear friends, as we go through this transition of 2023 and 2024, we too are called to reflect and review our life like Mary. To ponder all these things that has happened with a heart of gratitude and to bless God with all those challenging moments and all the joyous moments of life as well so that we can recognise God’s guiding presence in our lives.

The second is ‘E‘. To Encounter, to Explore and to Express ourselves in the way that God wants of us. Because in each and every single moments of life, dear friends, God chose to give Mary and Joseph that encounter of God. By allowing them to be parents, He was indeed encountering them in a deep and profound way. In the same way of how you and I are called and invited to encounter God in the realities of our human life. In the normal circumstances of life, the Lord invites us to encounter Him, to experience Him and to express our love for Him in a deep and a profound way.

And the third thing is ‘S‘ which is to Share our faith and to Support our faith with one another. And as we share and support our faith with one another, we need to realise that the sharing of our stories of God, the sharing of our experiences of God makes us magnify His miracles in our lives. Because as we share and as we support one another, we are indeed glorifying and magnifying the work that God is doing in our life. In everything that we do, we need to realise that God’s purposes and God’s plan will be accomplished.

And the last is ‘T‘, to Treasure each encounter, to treasure each experiences of life in the way that Mary treasured all these things in her heart. Because when we are able to treasure these things, dear friends, these are moments which we bring to ourselves and make that our own experiences of life. And when we are able to treasure those experiences of God in us, it gives us a whole new orientation of life altogether. 

Because like Mary, she did not entrust her life into a person who is just an idea. She entrusted her whole life because she treasured that relationship with Jesus and with God. And because she treasured that relationship, her whole conviction of life, her whole journey of faith took a whole different dimension altogether. So like Mary, as we approach 2024:-
Can we rest? Can we reflect?
Can we explore and encounter?
Can we share and support?
And can we treasure?

And as we take a look at these four REST, R-E-S-T, we come to a deeper realisation of God’s mission and God’s purposes for us. And doing so, we have Mary, the Mother of God and we call her, the thotogos, which is the God-bearer, to bear Jesus in every situations of life, in every circumstances, in every challenging moments so that we are able to entrust our whole life unto God just like Mary entrusted her whole life to God in a whole journey of faith.

And later, I am sure all of you will wish each other ‘Happy New Year’. So what makes this year happy? And what makes 2024 even happier? Even though we go through all the journey and challenges of life, like Mary and Joseph, they learn to entrust themselves to God, trusting God’s providence in their life, trusting that God knows what is best and they moved on, marched on further with a conviction that God will provide for them.

In the same way, dear friends, as we march from 2023, trusting in God’s accompaniment all along the way in 2023, we know and we can be certain of God’s faithfulness in our lives because He is a God who will provide, He is a God who will sustain, He is a God who will continue to love.

And if we want to make our new year, this year, happy and the following year happier, we need to be happy because this year is full of God’s blessings in our life. And we must be able to recognise God’s blessing in each and every moment, because through our accompaniment of God, through the blessing that God blesses us with their experiences of life, we know that the blessings that God gives us, as what is expressed in the First Reading of today, is that to connect us to that source of blessings. And because we are connected to the source of all blessings, God continues to bless us even more abundantly. And that is the greatest blessing that we can give one another, to wish God’s blessing upon us as Moses expresses in today’s First Reading:

May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord let His face shine upon you and be gracious ot you. May the Lord uncover his face to you and bring you peace.

That is the first thing that we have to do, dear friends. If we want our year to be happy, we need to acknowledge the fullness of God’s blessings in our lives.

The second thing that we need to do as well is the fullness of peace that God provides for us. And as we celebrate the World Day of Peace on the 1st of January every year, we are reminded of the peace and harmony that the Lord continues to bring because of our relationship with Him. And because we know that Jesus brings peace into our lives, we learn to respect each other, not to treat each other as slaves as what Saint Paul tells us in the Second Reading but to acknowledge each other as brothers and sisters in Christ.

And as we look towards others and respect each individual as a blessing that God has blessed us with, we too indeed express that same love that we have received from God because we acknowledge the presence of God in the other. And doing so, we are able to bring about love, peace and harmony.

And lastly, dear friends, as we approach this year, we need to remind ourselves. To be happy, we need to be full of Jesus in our lives. In every areas of our life that God brings us into, we configure ourselves more and more into that image of Jesus in our lives. And just like Mary and Joseph kept their focus on Jesus every step along the way, you and I are called to keep our focus on Jesus once again.

And as we take this step forward in faith, we walk in this path of unity because if we say that we believe in Jesus, our words, our action must reflect of the unity of life that God brings into us. If we speak Jesus, if we live Jesus, and as we celebrate Jesus in our life, we too are called to be Jesus to one another.

And let us pray, dear friends, that as we celebrate this conclusion of this  year 2023, let us praise and thank God for those blessings that He has given to us with a heart of gratitude, with a heart of thanksgiving and look forward towards 2024 full of blessings, full of peace and harmony and full of Jesus in our lives. Because when we are able to find blessings, peace and Jesus in our lives, then we also can rest like Mary with Jesus.

Let us pray. Let us pray that this year 2023, with the many blessings that God has given to us, may fill us with gratitude, will fill us with areas of life that we need to grow. And learning from 2023, let us step forward into 2024 with confident hope in this God who loves us and journeys together with us.

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

Click to live-stream Mass on 31 December 2023