The Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, Wednesday, January 1, 2025

Luke 2, 16–21

The shepherds went in haste to Bethlehem and found Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known the message that had been told them about this child. All who heard it were amazed by what had been told them by the shepherds. And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart. Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just as it had been told to them. When eight days were completed for his circumcision, he was named Jesus, the name given him by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

The day before he suffered and died for the redemption of the human race, the Lord Jesus reclined at a table with his Apostles.  He took bread, broke it, and gave it to his Apostles, saying, “Take ye and eat. This is my Body” (Matthew 26, 26).   In this way, he made the bread his Body and did it in a way conducive for the Apostles to consume it.  After the Apostles had eaten it, the Lord took the chalice filled with wine and said, “Drink ye all of this.  For this is my Blood of the new covenant, which shall be shed for many unto remission of sins” (Matthew 26, 27-28).  We know these words well for we hear them at Holy Mass.  We focus, though, on “Eat” and “Drink”.  But using these words, the Lord Jesus establishes a new covenant which replaces the old, broken so often by the children of Israel.  Jeremiah 31, 31–32: Behold the days shall come, saith the Lord, and I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah.  Not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers . . . But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel, after those days, saith the Lord: I will give my law in their inmost parts, and I will write it in their heart: and I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Jeremiah 31, 31-33).

The Lord, with these words and actions, makes a new covenant with all those who believe in him.  The old covenant was a sign which had served its purpose and become obsolete.  But the new covenant lasts forever.  The old covenant was ratified by the sprinkling of the blood of a sacrificed animal on the Hebrews in the days of Moses and Aaron.  This new covenant is ratified by consuming the Body and Blood of the Son of God made incarnate in the womb of the Virgin Mary.  That is, the sign of the ratification of the old covenant was the sprinkling of an animal’s blood on the exterior of the Hebrews, on their skin.  The new covenant that fulfills the old is ratified through receiving the Blood of Christ not on the outside of the body but within it.  This covenant truly is “written” on the heart.  And Christ died on the Cross in order to ratify it on the part of the Father.

What are the terms of the new covenant which the Lord makes with us?  That he will be our God and that we shall be his people — not only in this life, but in the life to come.

The Blessed Virgin Mary is the Mother of this Son who has the power to do this.  Gazing in awe upon what he has done for us, we also marvel at the woman whom God the Father chose to give birth to him.