Holy Name of Jesus/Solemnity of Mary:

Numbers 6:22-27; Psalm 8; Galatians 4:4-7 OR Philippians 2:5-13; Luke 2:15-21

Manigong Bagong Taon! Feliz Año Nuevo! Happy New Year!

In the liturgical calendar, there are two entries for New Year's Day. This first is the Holy Name of Jesus, also intended to commemorate Jesus' circumcision, as he was one born of a woman, born under the law (Gal 4:4). In some traditions, most notably the Roman Catholic, this first service/Mass on New Year's Day is designed especially to give honor to the name of Mary. I read just yesterday a Roman Catholic writer ( Hans Küng) on Marian devotion. He recognized that it is a significant problem between Catholics, Protestants, and Orthodox, this special position given to Mary as co-redeemer and queen of heaven. Küng admitted that this is not found in the New Testament, but is a much later theological development, and so he issued a call for reevaluating it in light of the pressing need for ecumencial dialogue and cooperation. He was writing this in 1974 (interestingly enough, the year of my birth), so the book On being a Christian was a hefty contribution to the important conversations about ecumenism that had been going on for some time, but were codified in the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). I have spoken in some of these other posts about approaching a devotion of Mary, though I am not at all prepared to make the step that my Catholic brothers and sisters have.

In any event, devotion of and even prayers to Mary have been the subject of much strife between Protestants and Catholics even as far back as the Reformation. Protestants and Catholics are more in agreement, though not any less concerned with, the Jewishness of Jesus. If we confess, as we do in the Creed, that Jesus became a human, then we have to say that he lived in human history, at a particular place, at a particular time, within a particular religious/political system. The eighth day was the day of circumcision for Jewish males, and so on January 1 that is what we commemorate. That's why I like the Galatians passage for today; Jesus was born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those under the law. Paul says elsewhere in this letter than the law was the "school master" until Christ came, and because of the coming of Christ all of the traditional distinctions are done away with. This is an important point for ecumenical dialogue, for although Paul certainly did not have in mind the tragically fractured state in which the Church of Jesus Christ finds itself in the morning of the 21st century, he was dealing with class, social, racial, gender, and other sorts of divisons operating throughout 1st century CE Hellenistic society.

The priestly blessing in Numbers 6 is one of the really cool texts of the Old Testament. It was also one of the first I learned to recite in Hebrew. The blessing of Yahweh, it is my prayer, should be upon everyone in this new year. This is a typical sentiment when the calendar turns over, but it's not trite or hackneyed for being typical. For while it might be expected among religious people to invoke the blessing of the higher power or the fates or wisdom or whatever, and for those in the Judeo-Christian tradition specifically to invoke the name of Yahweh, this is not at all how people in "the world" do things. They'll celebrate with fireworks or with drinking or revelry or whatever it is they do, and they'll deal with the appropriate consequences the next day, whether cleaning up burnt stumps of firecrackers or nursing a hangover. Then they'll go on with their lives, empty and yet thinking they are fulfilled. What sort of blessing are you looking for this year? Amen.