New

I know that the feast of the octave of Christmas has gone through different emphases over the years, but I appreciate celebrating the motherhood of Mary on New Year's Day.

So many people, myself included, want to make new beginnings for new year, to begin again to do the good they know they want to do and to let go of the habits they know make them miserable. That's where the birth of Jesus Christ comes in.

The virginity of Mary points to the Lord's birth as a break in human history, as a motherhood that is outside and beyond the cycles of generation that have been rolling along ever since God blessed the union of Adam and Eve.

The humanity of Christ, then, is a new beginning, a new creation, a fresh start for the human person. And if we only let his humanity become ours through prayer and holy communion, we can be created anew as well. Paul said that what really matters is that we become "a new creation" in Christ. The motherhood of Mary makes it possible.