Homily for the Feast of Mary, Mother of God 2022

This past week, I preached at the funeral of a friend and mentor of mine… Fr. Sam Diotte. What an honour and privileged it is to be asked to preach at a priest’s funeral. And what did we do, we gathered (in limited numbers) to praise and thank God for giving us Fr. Sam to bring God’s love to the people he served. Sam said yes to God and so it began… 50 years of service as a priest to so many people. But more than that, Sam’s ‘yes’ or his call to follow Jesus began at his baptism where he served God in so many capacities before coming an ordained minister of the church.

Today we begin our year with the Mother of God, she who gave birth to Jesus so that Jesus might be born in us. In the Gospel, Mary is pondering, and realizing that God was with her through it all… the unplanned pregnancy, unplanned trip for taxes and the unplanned lodgings needed for her to have the baby. God gave Mary the peace and faith to face an uncertain future. Sounds familiar? It should because that is our call to ponder as well. Like Mary, like Fr. Sam, we need to know and realize that God is with us too here, now and in the future.

Mary is our companion as we contemplate Jesus, born for our joy. As we being this new year, with it’s many unknowns and ‘unplanned’ situations may we ask Mary to help us to know Jesus more clearly, to love him more dearly and follow him more nearly in prayer and active service of our neighbours.