Holy Mother of God – Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God – Sermon by Father Levine

Fr. Joseph Levine; Holy Family Catholic Church and Missions, Burns, Oregon; January 1, 2025

The Word, which was with God in the beginning, the Word, through which all things were made, became flesh in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Word, which God spoke to himself in the eternity of the Holy Trinity, he spoke to us through the Incarnation of the Word in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This means that Jesus Christ, who is at once the Son of God, born of the Father before the ages, and the Son of the Virgin Mary, born in Bethlehem of Judah, is also at once the eternal Word of the Father and, through his flesh, the Word also of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

St. Augustine tells us that the Virgin was “so full of faith that she conceived Christ in her mind before doing so in her womb, and said, ‘Behold the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” (Sermon 215.4)

When we speak words, they vanish in the air. We do not think much of the reality of words; deeds are what count. Our words our not substantial, but if they are true, they express an understanding of reality and without that understanding of reality, our deeds cannot be right and true.

God, however, speaks a real and substantial Word, equal to himself. The eternal Word not only expresses a true understanding of God; the eternal Word is God, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, the eternal Son of God.

When God speaks that Word to us, he also speaks a substantial Word, in the substance of the flesh that he took from the Virgin Mary. This Word, Jesus Christ, does not vanish, but is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. (He 13:8) This Word, Jesus Christ, makes God known to us. No one has ever seen God; the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has made him known. (Jn 1:18)

Well, despite all of our misunderstandings, we have some practice in understanding human words, which vanish in the air, but we are not used to listening to and understanding the substantial Word of God. The divinely inspired human words of Scripture help, but if we are to receive them in all their power, we must learn to grasp not just the words, but the reality signified, which exceeds all that the words can utter. We must not just grasp the reality with our minds, but the living reality needs to enter our hearts and dwell there and rule there.

Now, it was not easy either for the Blessed Virgin Mary, who received the substantial Word from God and has given him to us. We read in one place that she did not understand. (Lk 2:50) She did not always understand at first, but as we heard today, she always kept all these things reflecting on them in her heart. Keeping them in her heart, suffering them in her heart, led to understanding.

She would later reveal that understanding at the wedding of Cana, when she met with Jesus’ cryptic reply, What is it to me and to you, Woman; my hour has not yet come. (Jn 2:4) She understood now her role as the Woman prophesied in Genesis, the New Eve, the mother and helper of the New Adam, (cf. Gen 3:15); she understood that Jesus’ hour was the hour of the Cross, the hour of the sacrifice of Redemption; she understood her Son’s call to reflect on what the working of his first miracle would mean, a sure and definite step on the path that would lead to the Cross; she understood his implicit question, “Do you want me to take that step and follow that path?” She showed her understanding and gave her response when she said to the servants (and to us), Do whatever he tells you. (Jn 2:5)

If we want to understand, so as to live, we must turn to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Holy Mother of God, the Seat of Wisdom, that she might teach us to keep all the things of Jesus in our heart, to suffer them, to learn them, so as to be formed not just by the words on the pages of a book, even the holy books of Scripture, but by the substantial Word of God, whose very substance we receive in Holy Communion.

As a good Mother and Teacher, the Blessed Virgin Mary does not just wait for us to turn to her, does not just expect us to look, listen, and learn, she reaches out to us, she gives us a little tool of this holy learning, her Holy Rosary. In this way she teaches us to meditate not just on the words of Scripture, but to enter into the reality of the mysteries of Jesus Christ, the mysteries that are taught by Scripture.

She engages our body, our voice, and our mind and heart, our whole substance, so to speak; she places the beads in our hands, instructs us to pronounce the prayers with our lips, while keeping the mysteries of the life of Jesus Christ before our mind and heart.

The holy name of Jesus is at the center of the “Hail Mary,” as the tiny body of Jesus was in the Virgin’s womb, and as he lives always in her Immaculate Heart.

The Rosary is a contemplative prayer in which we look at Jesus with love; we look at Jesus together with Mary, learning from Mary, who knows Jesus the best, to know Jesus better. While we must pass from the words of Scripture to the reality of the mysteries, the Rosary is inseparable from meditation on Holy Scripture, because we should always return to Scripture, as to the source and fountain, to become familiar with the mysteries of Jesus’ life.

When we meditate on the mysteries of the Rosary we want first to remember and treasure all that Jesus did and said for our salvation. Remembering should bring forth gratitude and love in our hearts; how can we not love the one who loved us so? Love for Jesus opens the door to true understanding. From understanding we move to imitation, living as Jesus did, living from a heart that has been shaped after the pattern of his Sacred Heart.