Year A
Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Micah 5:1-4a or Romans 8:28-30
Psalm 13:6ab. 6c
Matthew 1-16. 18-23
The Body God took
Today we celebrate the feast of the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary our Mother, who is daughter of God the Father, Mother of God the Son and Spouse of God the Holy Spirit. Today is exactly 9 months after the SOLEMNITY of her Immaculate Conception celebrated on 8th December. Indeed her whole life from her birth to her Dormition, Assumption and Queenship was all pointing us to God. Whatever the Church teaches about Mary is ever and always in the service of what must be said about Christ.
Although the birth of Mary cannot be found in the morden Canon of Scriptures which canonicity began around 399 A.D, there are text from the second and third centuries which talk about her birth. The earliest known account of Mary's birth is found in the Protoevangelium of James (5:2). It is the late second century apocryphal text which talks about the wonders surrounding her birth. Her parents are known as Saint Anne and Saint Joachim.
According to the account, Mary's father Joachim was a wealthy member of one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. Joachim was deeply grieved, along with his wife Anne, by their childlessness, but “he called to mind Abraham, that in the last day God gave him a son Isaac.” The two began to devote themselves extensively and rigorously to prayer and fasting, initially wondering whether their inability to conceive a child might signify God's displeasure with them.
The account continues that, an angel revealed to Anne when he appeared to her and prophesied that all generations would honor their future child: “The Lord has heard your prayer, and you shall conceive, and shall bring forth, and your seed shall be spoken of in all the world.”
The birth of Mary is also narrated in the third sura or chapter of the Qur'an named after her father Imran and refer to her mother as Hannah. It says that Hannah prayed to God to fulfil her desire to have a child and vowed, if her prayer was accepted, that her child thinking the child would be a Male, would be dedicated to the service of God. But as the child turned out to be a female, she prayed for her child to remain protected from Satan. So Muslim tradition records a hadith, which states that the only children born without the "touch of Satan", were Mary and Jesus.
In the first reading from Romans, we are reminded that God conform all humanity to the image of Jesus Christ the Second Adam who imprinted his image and likeness on the first Adam. Today in a special way we look at God’s redemptive call which can take place before birth or even conception (Jer. 1:5; Gal. 1:15). Base on this let's reflect on the body Jesus Christ, who is the Word made flesh took.
It is wierd when those who bash the Catholic Church for honoring Mary, and go to the extent of arguing that God only used Mary's womb to come in human form, hence all the titles and honorings the Catholic Church gives her is wrong or outright idolatry, also celebrate the "Last Supper " in their Churches forgetting that its from her alone Jesus received his human nature or flesh and so the body he gave us is also from the body of Mary.
I think this is the point that the Genealogy in the gospel reading stresses, God became human because he took flesh in the womb of a woman. Thus when we honor this woman, we say something important about God. This woman knows and understand the Eucharist more than anyone of us because is not only her flesh that she allowed God to take, so that he will offer it up for the forgiveness of our sins, but she offered her whole life to God.
It's obvious that when Jesus gave her Mother to the Apostle whom he loves under the Cross (John 19:25-27), he gave her to the Church. But it is equally so because as Christians who are members of the body of Christ (cf. 1 Corinthians12:27), this body was taken from his Mother Mary and hence if we are parts of Christ Body, Mary is our Mother.
To Criticize Mary is to Criticize the Body of Christ, to Criticize the Body of Christ is to Criticize the Church, and Christianity which was founded by the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ. And while doing so by Criticizing the new Adam, you end up criticizing all of humanity which Christ came to redeem. So I repeat that whatever the Church teaches about Mary is ever and always in the service of what must be said about Christ.
She is the daughter of God the Father, and did the will of the Father by totally surrendering her life to him, just as Jesus the Word of God and the only Son of God surrenders his whole life to doing the will of the Father.
She is Mother of God the Son and his first disciple, for she listened and accepted God's word and made it physical and practical, and with his whole life followed the Word who became his Son and the Word also became obedient to her (cf. Luke 2:51).
She is the Spouse of God the Holy Spirit, and had the Overshadowing of the Holy Spirit twice in her life; at the annunciation (cf.Luke 1:35) and at Pentecost (cf. Acts 2). It is interesting because the same Evangelist who wrote Luke wrote Acts and accounting that Mary had the Overshadowing of the Holy Spirit twice should tell us who this woman is to the Holy Spirit.
With chest lift high, let's always pray the Rosary and when we say "Hail Mary full of grace the Lord is with you..." let's remember that the Lord who is with her is God the Father who she is his daughter, God the Son who she is his mother, and God the Holy Spirit who she is his Spouse, and hence since she is very close to God, when we pray this prayer we are asking to be close to God also.
By Sylvester Amakye-Quayson
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