The Sunday Sermon Archive

Dear Friends in Christ,

Today we honor the Virgin Mary as Mother. She is truly the Mother of God, just as God the Father is the Father of the Son. The paternity of Jesus is divine, and the maternity of Jesus is human. Today's Gospel clearly declares that Mary is His mother (Saint Luke 2:43-51).

Jesus' humanity is essential in the Divine plan of salvation. However, Jesus reminds us many times that our relationship with God is far more valuable than any worldly or human relationship. In human relationships, Mary and Joseph are set aside so Jesus can do His Father's work. Jesus even, apparently, expected Mary to know this. Jesus also tells us that all those who do the will of the Father in Heaven are His relatives. We are not so much blessed by our worldly ancestry or worldly advantages. Our supernatural origin and relationship matter more.

Jesus is not denying our familial duties; after all, He went down with Mary and Joseph and obeyed them. The two are not exclusive but rather inclusive. Our love for God includes love for others, starting with our parents and immediate family and extending outward.

Many are inclined to misread the Gospel texts and conclude that Jesus did not honor His mother or that He was dismissive of her. This is far from the truth. There is a "right order" expounded for us in the Gospels and more specifically in the Life of Jesus Christ. The first and greatest commandment is to love God with our whole being, and the second of the greatest commandments is to love others as we love ourselves. Even in loving our neighbors, there is a hierarchy. The first three of the Ten Commandments deal with our relationship to God. The fourth commandment is to honor our parents. Then follow all the other commandments that deal with our relationships with others. The hierarchical order is clear: 1.) God, 2.) Parents, 3.) Everyone else. The least may and often should be sacrificed for the greater, but we should never sacrifice the greater for the lesser. We can renounce our attachments to friends and families to give more of ourselves to God, but we should never sacrifice our relationship to God for our family and friends.

Mary is truly the Mother of Jesus — the Mother of God. In this way, Jesus has truly (humanly) become our Neighbor and Brother. Through this human relationship, Jesus advances us into a divine relationship. In the humanity of Jesus, we approach the divinity of Jesus. The perfection of our human relationship with Jesus naturally and logically develops into a divine relationship, and we become true children of God — an honor that was lost for us by our universal father in the flesh — Adam.

It is through the Sacrament of Baptism that we are incorporated into the Church — the Mystical Body of Jesus Christ and become true children of God. This Sacrament was created and given to us by Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was given to us when He was conceived in the Immaculate Womb of the Blessed Virgin Mother Mary. The humanity of Jesus Christ was created and taken up by the Son of God.

The Divine relationship includes the Human relationship, and the Human relationship leads to, or develops into, the Divine relationship. Whether we look deductively from divine to human or inductively from the human to the divine, we always find the Blessed Motherhood of Mary in the center.

To honor Mary is to honor her Son. To worship and praise Jesus Christ is to honor His most Blessed Ever-Virgin Mother Mary. As Jesus has come to us through her, so we must go to Jesus through her.

When Jesus was hanging on the Cross, He entrusted His Mother to us, and entrusted us to Her, in the person of Saint John. She is truly our Mother if we are truly God's children. Through her, Jesus becomes our Brother both physically and spiritually. If no one can ascend to the Father except through the Son, so it is that no one can approach the Son except through His Blessed Mother. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Light, and it is through Mary that we receive and are received by Jesus, inspiring us to deepen our trust in her maternal intercession.

As Jesus submitted, honored, and loved His Mother, we can never go wrong in imitating Him and likewise submit to, honor, and love His Mother.

The many anti-Catholics will suggest that Mary is inconsequential or irrelevant. They are very sadly mistaken. Nothing that God does is inconsequential or irrelevant. God's choice of Mary to be the Mother of the Son of God is very relevant as well as full of consequences.

May the Immaculate Heart of Mary inspire, guide, and protect us

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