The Year of Our Lord 2017

The year of our Lord 2017 is upon is. I am guessing that such an expression is one that you likely do not hear frequently in the second decade of the twenty-first century. Quite frankly, for myself, it is a reference that I suppose I only have heard in books and movies set in the past that observe important events prefaced with “in the year of our Lord….” The fact remains, whether we acknowledge it outright or not, that every year is the year of our Lord.

As Catholics, it is yet another of the wonderful blessings of having the rhythms of the liturgical year to help us in the spiritual life that, as we began our calendar year on January 1, we commenced that very first day with the Solemnity of the Mother of God and soon after that we celebrated the Epiphany. This year we observed Christ’s manifestation to the gentile Magi on January 8.  The common thread woven into the beginning of the tapestry of each year is that we inaugurate each fresh year with a focus on the Christ Child and his mother Mary with these two great feasts.

Whatever might befall us in the coming year, I find comfort as each new year dawns that January 1 is accompanied by a keen and ever -fresh reminder of our redemption celebrating the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, recalling the “New Year” of life in Christ that commenced with Mary’s fiat. The Gospel passage that day finds the shepherds in awestruck adoration and Mary pondering, as always, the mysteries of the Christ, her son and God, in her heart.

Saint Augustine noted many centuries ago that Mary conceived Jesus in her heart by her great faith, hope, and love, before she conceived him, by the power of the Holy Spirit, in her womb. Salvation began with Mary’s “yes” to becoming the Mother of the Word made flesh. Mary’s yes echos down through time and in Christ we are present with her as she says “yes.” In turn, she helps us to say “yes” to God at each moment.

As the longing sighs of mankind for a Savior grew, the Christ suddenly emerged in human history. As the dark and cold of winter descend and each old year ends, the Christmas Season arrives, a season which is still very much being celebrated as the calendar turns upon the first weeks of January and only recently ended. The light of the Christ Child illuminates the new year ahead and in these first weeks of January, we should allow the graces of Christmas only recently passed to carry us forward in a spirit of charity and courage as the year progresses.

What was Mary really thinking at such moments as the Gospels tell us again and again that she ponders the Word of God, the mysteries of the life of Christ, in her heart? It is interesting that two of her titles that are so well known are that of “cause of our joy” and yet at the same time “Mother of sorrows.” They are not irreconcilable to one another, however. She experienced each in different moments of her life. Epiphany found the gentile wise men adoring the Savior God on the lap of this humble, trusting Mother, bringing gifts befitting this king of kings (gold and frankincense), yet also foreseeing the high doom written on the Christ Child as he is also offered bitter myrrh, like unto that with which he would be anointed at his burial.

And when her son is only eight days old, Mary, who is so filled with the majestic joy of that first Christmas, is told in no uncertain terms that her heart will be pierced with a sword. In this Simeon was prophesying Christ’s sacrificial death that would be a spiritual passion for her Immaculate Heart as her Son’s Sacred Heart was indeed one day to be lanced wide open. Mary’s life was a life ever full of joy, for she keeps Christ Jesus always in her heart, even when he physically disappears from her attentive, adoring presence for three days as they sought him in Jerusalem.

In becoming the “cause of our joy” by her yes to Salvation from the first moments of the Annunciation given her by the Angel Gabriel, she herself became fully animated by that Joy in all circumstances, whatever the exterior storms of life brought her. Yet in the midst of this joy she is ever “Our Lady of Sorrows.” Mary it seems endured and embraced the long goodbye of Christ’s Passion, predicted eight days into his 33-year life, for the full course of those 33 years. This lance that pierced his heart broken with love for the human race was anticipated in her soul from his first days.

And yet she trusted. She listened to and kept the Word of God in her heart. In both joy and sorrow before her God and king who is yet also her son, she deeply pondered the Almighty and his great ocean of Mercy year after new year. And in this light, we can see that later apparent deflections of honor away from Mary by Jesus were actually further elevations of her honor by him. In his emphasis on listening to, keeping, and doing the Word of God over the importance of biological motherhood, he was underscoring that indeed Mary above all others listened to, kept, and did the Word of God, a fact noted repeatedly about her, above all present in her fiat at the Annunciation.

Mary, we can easily surmise, was no stranger to uncertainty of the future, yet she trusted and loved God at each moment, living in the present moment, the present moment being the only thing that we have a hold upon. We are not promised tomorrow. The past is no longer available for our maneuvering or correction. I’m sure as each new year begins you have uncertainty, even worries about what is to come, and regrets, too. You may regret that the Christmas Season was not everything you hoped it would be in the preparation that was Advent; or perhaps you have regrets that the past year or years seem like an ever-accumulating pile of wasted time, broken hearts, and crushed dreams. Now maybe that is not the case for you, but for me, this has all too often been the story of my life. The champagne and fireworks that suffuse every New Year’s Eve midnight celebration are quickly replaced by the dark, cold days of January for many, a time of post-holiday loneliness, depression and disappointment.

In this life we will have pain and suffering. We won’t escape such sorrows in 2017. This world is not our home. We are pilgrims on a journey in a fallen world, and journeys are full of unpredictability. Let us not forget that they are also full of adventure and the potential for growth and wonderful surprises. We must trust that our God is a God of wonderful surprises because He is. As much as your heart may ache this year, as often as you may feel ill or ill-used by others, never forget that you are not alone. In this, the Year Of Our Lord 2017, remember that Christ Jesus has gone before us in all things, redeeming human life from the first moments of conception to the last breaths of his death. Christ came among us, sanctifying and raising to new life that which we call human life in all its grime and glory.

And from the first moments of every new year, we have Mary, the Mother of God, walking every step of the way with us, desiring that we contemplate the mysteries of the life of Christ in all their joyful, sorrowful, luminous, and glorious splendor with her. I have read that the saints have pointed out that in the twinkle of an eye, in the first moments of Heaven, in those first enthralling seconds of the face-to-face vision of God, if “seconds” we can call them outside of earth’s time, all this life’s sufferings and pain are forgotten. Let us go forth with hope, joy, and trust in Jesus and with Mary, the Mother of God, who is our Mother too, into the unknown days of the year that is nevertheless, amidst our uncertainty, The Year Of Our Lord that we call 2017. I wish you all a Holy, Happy, healthy New Year!