Mary Mother Of God

01-01-2018 HOMILY FOR SOLEMNITY OF MARY MOTHER OF GOD

SCRIPTURAL READING:

1. Num. 6:22-27
2. Ps. 67:2-3.5.6.8 (R. V. 2a).
3. Gal. 4:4-7; Accl: Heb. 1:1-2
4. Gospel Luke 2:16-21

Preamble:

Please dear friends I would like you to repeat these words after me;

Lord Jesus, Lord Jesus, I give my heart, help me welcome you.

Lord Jesus, I give you my ears, help me hear your voice,

Lord Jesus, I give you my mind, help me understand.

Holy Spirit rekindle in me the fire of your love. Amen.

THEME: MARY MOTHER OF GOD

On a Sunday in the year 429, Nestorius (a great preacher, born at Germanicia, near Antioch in Syria, and the Archbishop of Constantinople), he preached a sermon in the Cathedral Church on the subject of the Nature of Jesus. In veiled terminology he said that there were two persons in Jesus, the Divine Person and Human Person. According to Him, it was the Human Person, the Man Jesus, who was born of the Virgin Mary and died on the cross. This was a strange teaching even to very ordinary people for they knew as well as the whole Church that in Jesus there was only one person, the Divine Person and that he had two natures, the Divine and the Human.

The immediate result of his heretical teaching pointed to the Blessed Virgin. According to Nestorius, Mary was not the Mother of God (Theo-tokos), but she was only the mother of the Man Jesus (Christo-tokos). He told the faithful on that Sunday that the title Mother of God (Theo-tokos) for Mary was heretical and that it should not be used by anyone of his flock whether bishop, a priest or Laity.

Soon after this, Nestorius wrote a letter to Pope Celestine who was the present Pope at that time to report the condition of the Church in Constantinople. In this letter he told the Pope that among some of his bishops, priests and good lay people, there was some misunderstanding as to the belief in Christ and his nature. He told Celestine that in their confusion, they blindly and heretically believed that Christ was both God and Man at the same time.

Hence they spoke of God having been born, God being dead, and buried. According to them, he wrote in his letter, the Virgin Mary was the Mother of God. He said that he had forbidden such heretical utterances and had punished many even with excommunication those who refused to obey. The use of the word Theo-tokos, he said, was heretical and hence he had forbidden the use of it in his Church.

Unlike today’s modern means of transportation which could get us to another part of the world in shorter time and in less stress. At that time, Constantinople was some one thousand miles away from Rome and it took nearly six months for the letter of Nestorius to reach the Pope on a horse which was far more the means of transportation then. Meanwhile a few bishops and monks left the city of Constantinople to visit Cyril in Alexandria in order that the heretical doctrines of Nestorius could be studied with the help of a theologian like Bishop Cyril.

With the permission of Pope Celestine, a council at Ephesus in 431 Ad was convened. Ephesus is near present-day Selcuk in Turkey. This was the third ecumenical council convened to defend and maintain the teachings of the church on the Divinity of Jesus.

The major thrust of the council of Ephesus which met in June and July of the year 431Ad was to formally uphold the teachings of the church contained in the Nicene Creed and condemned the teachings of Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople, who held that the Virgin Mary may be called the Christo-tokos, which means the “birth Giver of Christ” but not the Theo-tokos which means “Birth Giver of God.”

The Council decreed that Jesus was one person, and not two separate persons, yet possessing both a human and divine nature. The Virgin Mary was to be called Theo-tokos a Greek word that means “God-bearer” (the one who gave birth to God).

The Council declared it “unlawful for any man to bring forward, or to write, or to compose a different faith as a rival to that established by the Holy Fathers assembled with the Holy Ghost in Nicaea.” It quoted the Nicene Creed as adopted by the First Council of Nicaea in 325, not as added to and modified by the First Council of Constantinople in 381Ad.

No one who respects the king or the Governor will ever treat his Mother with disrespect or deny her as having any privilege. Why because she is the one who gave birth to the king or the governor or president. Today, so many people give honour to the Mother of former Governor of Lagos State, Dame Fashiola. Why? Not only because she is a devout catholic and a member of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal of Nigeria but also because she gave birth to and raised and supported the former Governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Raji Fashiola who is currently the federal Minister of Power, works and Housing.

Dear friends, if we can honour the mother of a mortal man how much more the Mother of God. Once you have the mother of a king on your side, you have everything going easy for you. This also goes for our Blessed Mother. Once we connect to her, we shall have ourselves joyful and grateful to God. There is no one who has implored the fervent intercession of the Blessed Mother that ever went home sorrowful.

The story is told of what happened in Ubuluku in Delta State during the last Charismatic annual convention. They were in a deliverance session and a little boy began manifesting. Upon fervent intercessory prayers, it was discovered that a powerful Spirit possessed the boy and it was Satan himself who spoke through the boy. He said that he has always sent his agents to come and destroy whatever the Charismatics were doing because each year they come into that territory, their shrines will constantly be on fire because of that name they always call. On this note, their mission was to attack and destroy everything they were doing that was why he came personally to attack them. With a wave of hand, the musical instruments went numb, people fell, in fact there was some commotion and panic. The priests took the deliverance team into the chapel of perpetual adoration and for five hours they kept praying. During their prayers, they got a message that they should sing the hymn, Ave Maria…Ave… as soon as they began to sing that song, sanity returned and victory was granted over the powers of satanic kingdom.

My dear brothers and sisters, we have a loving mother who comes to the aid of those who truly honour her and acknowledge her as the mother of God.

Another story is told of a Muslim woman whose son was seriously ill, she went before the grotto of the Blessed mother, it was a grotto built in honour of the Immaculate Conception. She went there day after day and cried to our lady saying…mama catholic… if you help me heal my son I will worship you for the rest of my life. On a faithful day, she had scarcely finished that prayer when news reached her that her sick son has become well again.

Beloved in Christ, our mother is always ready to intercede for us each time we beckon on her. Here in St. Augustine Catholic Chaplaincy Akoka we also need the presence of our blessed and loving mother in our compound and that is why in union with my councils and people of faith, I announce by the special grace of God we have a Grotto in Honour of our Blessed Mother here within our vicinity before the feast of St. Augustine. I will ask the Legionaries to commence with no further delays the recitation of the Rosary everyday for the actualization of this project. I ask that every family is to participate actively by giving whatever they can to see that this project is actualized in due time. the finance council shall give us a further direction on how we may make our donations. In the main time we shall make use of the Chaplaincy project account for this sole purpose kindly refer to the last page of the  Christmas bumper bulletin. Whatever you have kindly give so that we are able to accomplish this project in due time. Let us also note that It wouldn’t disturb our already project but would set the tone and pace for the realization of the projects in this part of the Church. I respectfully ask that everyone be fully involved in this project.

Finally beloved in Christ, let us cultivate the habit of a daily recitation of the rosary both in our families and as individuals either as we drive to work or are home or whenever we make a visit to the chapel of perpetual adoration.

I pray that our blessed Mother will always obtain abundant of graces to do the will of God in our chaplaincy, in the Lagos, in Nigeria, and the world at Large in the name of Jesus. Amen!!!