INSIDE america

A New Year
Our hopes rest on the reality of Divine Providence revealed 
in and through the presence in the world of Christ, recognized by faith

On January 1st, when the secular society celebrates the beginning of the new year, the Church, still celebrating the Christmas season, turns her attention to the mystery of Mary as Mother of God. The attention of the citizens is directed toward the implications of the passage of time, wondering what kind of future awaits us in the new year. The attention of the people of God is also directed toward the present and future consequences of an event that changed the meaning of the passage of time.
In Puerto Rico, where I am from, when I was growing up we celebrated, on January 2nd, the “Feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Divine Providence, Patroness of  Puerto Rico.” (On January 1st at that time, the Church celebrated the Solemnity of the Circumcision of Our Lord, an ancient feast emphasizing His Incarnation as a member of the Jewish people. Today, the Feast of Our Lady of Providence is celebrated on November 19th, the day of the discovery of Puerto Rico by Columbus.) The celebration of the relation between the Virgin Mary and Divine Providence at the beginning of a new year does indeed turn our attention to the future as the fruit of our faith.
The word “Providence” designates a looking forward, a going ahead with confidence in God as the Lord of Time.  Divine Providence designates God’s fidelity to His Promise to lead His people to His Kingdom–indeed, to make present this Kingdom in this world. In this way, the hopes of the people of God and the hopes of the citizens of the secular society for a  new year of greater justice, peace, and freedom meet. The desires of the human heart are the same for all; the difference is in the ground upon which the hope for their fulfillment rests.  Our hopes rest on the reality of Divine Providence revealed  in and through the presence in the world of Christ, recognized by faith.
The key word here is Presence. For us, the future is built as a free response to a Presence. For the secular society, hope for a better future is based on our resources and efforts.  It is a matter of a certainty based on a Presence vs. the design of an utopian future: Presence vs. Utopia. But how is this Presence manifested in our world, our flesh? The answer is through the motherhood of Mary, Mother of Divine Providence. That is why the first Liturgy of a new civil year is the Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God.
The readings from the liturgical celebration of the Blessed Virgin Mary as the Mother of Divine Providence emphasize this point. The first reading tells the story of the Ark of the Covenant and how it contained, so to speak, the manifestation of Divine Providence accompanying God’s people on the way to the Promised Land. In the New Testament, the evangelist Luke frequently uses exactly the same words to narrate the Annunciation and Mary’s visit to Elizabeth. Elizabeth’s reaction mirrors perfectly that of King David before the Ark. Even the geographical place and the duration of the visit to the hill country of Judea are the same for both Mary and the Ark. The Responsorial Psalm, the Magnificat, emphasizes Mary’s trust in God’s promises for the future of His people. The second reading from Galatians underlines Mary’s motherhood as the way Christ became present in the world to set us free from the failure of utopian thinking  to achieve the desired freedom, justice, and peace. The Gospel account of Cana’s wedding feast links Mary’s intercession to the sign performed by Jesus to point to the eschatological nuptial feast.
In this new year, we will be seeking to understand hope born from faith, and how it is that the passage of time is transformed into a deeper recognition of the fruits of Christ’s presence in the world now. Mary is the personification of this path of hope. The Mother of Divine Providence will be our companion on this journey.