A local priest elaborated on the Blessed Virgin Mary’s role of reminding the faithful about how life has no true meaning apart from God, during a Mass on the eve of the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, on December 31, 2017.
“….In Mary’s life, the one thing she cannot go without is God. This is why she is the ‘God Bearer,’” said Fr. Xavier Balbuena, a guest priest at Saint Peter Parish Shrine of Leaders on Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City. “For Mary, if there was no God, life will have no meaning, no sense and no value.”
According to Balbuena, it is only when a person lives in the presence of God can he find meaning. “Man’s life loses its meaning without God.”
Mary, the ‘God-bearer’
“People nowadays have come to think that ‘I will be happy, I will be successful even without God…I can live life even without God!’ But is that so? Mary tells us, ‘No! And it can never be.’”
The Blessed Virgin Mary’s title as Mother of God, which means “God-bearer,” he said suggests that “she always lived with the presence of God.”
He also noted that the very name “Emmanuel,” which means “God is with us” actually instructs Christians to “live in the presence of God.”
Balbuena lamented the reality that people nowadays have more time for the nonessentials than for God.
“You have a lot of time for Facebook. You have a lot of time for your cell phone. You have a lot of time for mall. You have a lot of time for your work. You have a lot of time to engage in rumor-mongering. You have a lot of time for drinking bouts. Yet your time for God is very little. That cannot be!” he stressed.
Best New Year’s resolution
The priest emphasized the need to have more time for God and to become a contemplative like Mary who “pondered everything in her heart”—two virtues he hoped the faithful could resolve to do this 2018.
“That’s why I hope that these are the first things we desire to do this 2018: I have to spend more time with God…in prayer. That’s the most beautiful New Year’s resolution,” Balbuena added.
“I also hope that you would put in your mind and heart that ‘life can only be lived meaningfully if our life is lived in the presence of God. Having God in our life makes life meaningful and worth living.’” he said. He later asked those present to seek the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary for these graces in the coming year.
Image credits: Minnie Agdeppa