Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God
We celebrate this weekend
the Solemnity of Mary, Theotokos,
Holy Mother of God, whom St. Elizabeth called blessed among women (Luke 1:42).
As we learn from the priestly blessing described in the Book of Numbers,
to be blessed is to know that the Lord
lets his face shine upon you and is gracious
to you. Mary, full of grace, was certainly blessed by God; because of such a
blessing, Psalm 67 suggests, God’s way
can be known upon the earth and all the peoples may praise the Lord and make
known his salvation.
In Luke’s Gospel, when the shepherds go in haste to Bethlehem, they
too are blessed, and that blessing means that they too have seen God’s face shine upon them. They too
contribute to making God’s way known upon
the earth, and go forth glorifying
and praising God. As a result of their visit, Mary’s maternity becomes a
locus of contemplation, as she kept all
these things, reflecting on them in her heart. And there is much to reflect
upon. St. Paul reminds the Galatians
that since Jesus was born of a woman,
he partakes fully of our humanity; Mary’s physical body is thus the link of
salvation between God and humankind, ultimately enabling all humankind to
participate in the kingdom of God by their adoption
as sons and daughters.
By contemplating Mary’s
maternity – as Mary herself did, and must have done at every step of her life
journey with her Son – we too can come better to understand how much we are
loved by God, who sent his Son into
our world, and who sent the Spirit of his
Son into our hearts. We can, in
other words, appreciate more fully how much we ourselves are blessed, and rejoice in the face of the Lord shining upon us,
knowing that salvation is ours, and making
known that salvation to the ends
of the earth…
Image source: Wordle
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