January 1, 2026 at Saint Peter the Apostle Church in Naples, FL
Numbers 6: 22-27 + Psalm + Galatians 4: 4-7 + Luke 2: 16-21
Is this feast about Mary or about God? We ought to think about that. When we say that Mary is the mother of God, the focus should shift to the identity of her son. Just seven days after we celebrate the Birth of Christ, we are proclaiming his identity.
Not long after Pentecost and the birth of the church, there began to be trouble over the true identity of Christ. Even among important leader/bishops, the challenge of how to understand and express the nature of a man who was both human and divine caused a lot of polarization. It got the point in some places where violence erupted, and communities were torn a-part. Was Jesus only acting like a human because he was so divine or was he a human that assumed or was granted some divine powers. The issue became so serious that the very unity of civil/political society was at stake.
By the year 381, the Emperor, Constantine had had enough, and he ordered all the Bishops to a small town out in the middle of nowhere away from their urban comforts. He ordered them to sort it out, and eventually they did, but not without a lot of trouble. The result was the Creed that we recite on Sundays and special occasions. It settled the identity of Jesus by declaring that by the Holy Spirit, the Son of God became man born of the Virgin Mary.
You might think that would be the end of it, but it wasn’t. Now the status of Mary became the point of dispute into the 4th century when another Council was called, this time at the urging of the Bishop of Rome. Ephesus was the place, and it was 451. Finally, at this Council it was affirmed that Mary was the Mother of God hoping to put a stop to those who called her the Mother of Christ. Of course, pronouncements never really settle anything if you are the opposition, and the controversy took a long time to settle down.
For every one of us, there is still the need to clarify the identity of Jesus Christ and get ourselves in line with what has been revealed. In these days, it seems to me that the Divine Nature has become primary in the faith of too many when in truth neither human or divine is primary. We run the risk of still throwing the identity of Christ, fully divine and fully human out of balance. When that happens, we forget what it really means for God to enter into human life. We forget that God knows how we feel, how we suffer, how we struggle, and what we fear.
The fracture of the Christian Community is still a cause of shame, and for me, Mary is our hope for unity. Like any mother who sees her children at odds, not speaking to each other, and refusing to come together it is my hope that she will call us back together. Today we take time to clarify our own faith in Jesus Christ while at the same time call upon the mother whose children are still not at peace with the hope that we may all be one and joyfully celebrate the mystery that God has chosen to be one with us.