Pastoral Letter: Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, 2012

A new year begins today. Happy New Year. It didn’t always – the New Year – begin today, that is. The new year in England used to begin on the Feast of the Annunciation, March 25th, which is why the tax year begins in  April. Throughout what we now call Europe, countries began their new year at different times. Germany began it at Christmas, France chose Easter, and it wasn’t until Pope Gregory reformed the calendar in 1582 that we began to get some sort of uniformity. But even then England didn’t accept the first day of January as the new year until 1752. Agreeing diaries must have been difficult.

The Feast of Mary the Mother of God hasn’t been with us all that long, either. The feast used to be called the Feast of the Circumcision, after the reference in today’s gospel — “When the eighth day came and the child was to be circumcised, they gave him the name Jesus.” But then in 1960 it was called the Octave (or eighth day) of the Nativity of the Lord, until we decided that we didn’t really celebrate Octaves, and in 1969 it became what it is today.

So for a long time there was no special celebration on January 1st. In fact there was a very conscious move not to celebrate, mainly because the Romans used to celebrate their festival of ‘Saturnalia’, which was a pretty  rowdy, drunken affair, the sort of thing you will see in many of our city streets on a Saturday night. The name of the day is an odd coincidence. Christians were forbidden to take part, and there even used to be a special Mass on the Day to  atone for this excess and debauchery.

Now is any of this relevant? We’re still actually celebrating Christmas, and will continue to do so until next Sunday, the Feast of the Epiphany. For most people, of course, Christmas happened last week, or at least ended last week.  For many it began some time in November, and Christmas office parties, Christmas lunches and early Christmas dinners ran through December.

I was talking at an Advent service in the Cathedral in December and congratulating the schools there that we were not singing Christmas carols. I also reflected on the pressure to conform at Christmas and create expectations that we can’t always meet. I asked about what happened on Remembrance Day in November, when the whole nation felt it had to stop for two minutes at 11 o’clock, and even the English football team  threatened revolution if they couldn’t wear poppies.  I suggested this was organised sorrow, state-sponsored grief, and probably little to do with genuine emotion. The opposite is true at Christmas; here we have institutional joy, organised happiness, tremendous pressure to conform and provide lots of everything.

There is a great simplicity in today’s gospel, where the shepherds are aware that they have seen something of enormous significance, and go away happy and tell people about what has made them so happy. Mary, too simply “pondered these things in her heart,” wondered about what all this meant.

Two days ago we celebrated the Feast of the Holy Family, and together with today’s celebration it suggests that what creates family is at the heart of our celebration of Christmas. It is the celebration of the Incarnation, Jesus being born into a particular human family and into the broader family of all humanity. That is the great gesture of God’s love for each one of us, despite our shortcomings and proper lack of response to God’s love. And it points to what will bring the particular family and the broader family some degree of happiness. First of all we must simply love one another, in tolerance, compassion, patience and generosity — not always the qualities that emerge at Christmas. They are not things that are associated with possessions and acquiring more and more. Analysis of the riots and looting that took place last August suggests that they had little to do
with any fundamental collapse of society, but that most of it was opportunist and driven by greed; the most commonly targeted goods were trainers and TVs.  Greed, rather than anarchy or the loss of all Christian values.

When I wrote last in November, I spoke of the importance of poverty in Jesus’ message of salvation, and I do think that we are simply so distracted these days by the need to conform and surround ourselves with what we think will bring comfort and happiness. And even gifts can sometimes be an alternative to genuine concern and interest. Generosity should spring from love; it will not create love.

I hope that the year ahead is a happy one for you all. It’s not uncommon to use the greeting `Happy Christmas and prosperous New Year.’ I hope it’s prosperous enough, but above all I hope that it’s a happy year because of the bonds of love, charity, compassion and patience that bind us to one another and help to show God’s love and compassion for us all. That’s a very important message.

“May the Lord bless you and keep you.

May the Lord let his face shine upon you and be gracious to you.

May the Lord uncover his face to you and bring you peace.”

 

Bishop Kieran