Dear friends, in our Canadian Church we have only two Holy Days of Obligation each year, other than the Sunday; days in which we are obliged to come together as the Church and celebrate the Eucharist. And they both occur within this past week. The first is Christmas, the celebration of the Birth of the Lord and the second is today, the Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God, the Octave Day, the Eighth Day of Christmas.

The Church does something peculiar in this week we are concluding today: it celebrates Christmas Day for eight days. For eight days Catholic people are called to bring themselves into the company of the Blessed Virgin Mary and, with her, to ponder the words we have heard and the events that have been told to us about the birth of Jesus. As St. Luke tells us in his Gospel, the Shepherds, having heard the message delivered to them by the Angels, went to Bethlehem and told Mary and Joseph what the Angel told them. Everyone was amazed.“But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.”

It is not easy for us to do this. It is very difficult for us to take some time each day and join Mary in a time of prayerful thinking about what Christmas means for us, a time each day to ponder how Jesus is God the Son for us and how he comes to save us. To do that we need to step away from the world that surrounds us. It is a world that demands all our attention and all our time. When we listen to the news what is it that we hear every day? Once the litany of various tragedies has been read, what we usually hear about is the economy.

Our economy is governed by consumerism. Consumerism is based on the belief that people must get the greatest amount of profit possible by getting people to buy as many things as possible. In our society, it is almost like a religion whose commandments are: shop, shop, shop and buy, buy, buy. And the most frantic and frenzied observance of this economic “religion” take place around the holy season of Christmas.

The implied message presented to us, is that if we do not buy things there is something wrong with us. If we do not give tons of gifts, we are not loving and worthy people. Consumerism is an oppressive and enslaving way of life that has a very powerful hold over us. It causes great harm to people as it monopolizes our time and our energy and its effects are very wide spread as people are called to spend beyond their means. All the glitter and lights in the Malls at this time of year only mask the darkness that is hidden underneath.

In the midst of this frantic activity of “The Holidays,” within the hearts of Christian people, there shines a truly “heavenly peace.” Today, on the Octave day of Christmas, we are invited to see before us the radiant image of the Virgin Mother and Child. “All is calm, all is bright.” God, in his love for us, calls us to enter into this calm, to enter into this brightness.

While this Feast Day is that of Mary, the Mother of God, the religious observance of this day does for us what Mary always has done and continues to do for us: it turns our attention to her son, Jesus who is God the Son. Mary is the Mother of God because Mary is the mother of Jesus and Jesus is God. When we turn our attention to Jesus, God the Son, we are filled with hope and promise. Christmas teaches us that Jesus is our Saviour. Jesus saves us from the world of darkness and brings us into the world of brightness, of hope, of meaning, of purpose, of love and of life forever.

The Entrance Antiphon for today’s Mass gives us this message of hope:“Today a light will shine upon us, for the Lord is born for us; and he will be called Wondrous God, Prince of peace, Father of future ages: and his reign will be without end”.

These are bright assurances for us as we begin the New Year. Because we imitate Mary’s faith in her Son, we see the times ahead of us with confident hope. God is not distant from us; rather Jesus is God with us in each of our days and each of the moments of our lives. We are never alone. Jesus is the “light that shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”

May God help us to welcome this brightness into our lives in the year ahead. May God help us to welcome his blessings and be filled with grateful thanks. And may the face of God shine on all our days bringing us love and peace.