THE BEGINNING OF THE WORLD OF GRACE

FEAST OF THE BIRTHDAY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

Rom 8:28-30; Ps 13:6-7; Mt 1:1-16,18-23

She was found to be with Child

We celebrate the feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary's birth. As in all our celebration and veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we rejoice exceedingly in the fulfilment of God’s loving promise to mankind. As the Scripture reveals, the promise of the woman is the original promise God made to the fallen man and woman. Though the promise came with that of her Offspring, which preceded the promise of the woman in principle, the promise of the woman ranks first in time and as pertains to our living condition. Though she is nothing without her Son, she is the beginning of the new dispensation of grace, for which all the ages of men hope. She is the beginning of a new world without sin and any allegiance to the devil. Because she is the principle or beginning of the world of grace, she is the mother of all the redeemed. Her birth is the birth or actualisation of the promise of redemption for all. She was conceived without sin because God promised it would be so, when he declared the divine intention to put enmity between her and the serpent. Again, that she would populate the new world of grace, we understand in the extension of the enmity to her Offspring and the offspring of the serpent.

Subsequently, through the Blessed Virgin Mary, God populates the new world as the old world was populated through Eve and Adam, but without sin. The birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary is therefore the birth of the new world of grace. The physical or natural genealogy of the author of grace, Jesus Christ our Lord, who is the new Adam, is given to us in the Gospel first, before the spiritual. So, it started with Abraham, the man of faith, so we know that grace comes first in the form of faith in the word of God. “A genealogy of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham: Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, …” In this regard, God first granted a yearning for salvation through faith in his word. Thus, faith in the word of God prepares and enables us to receive the gift of salvation. God prepared a perfect and worthy human receptacle of divine grace in the conception and birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This is what these words of the Scripture mean: His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph; but before they came to live together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.” The preparation of the receptacle and the gift of the author of grace were God’s work with human cooperation through faith. But the spiritual genealogy of Jesus Christ is just one: the Holy Spirit.

Scripture also leads us to understand that Mary gives birth to the new world of grace. This is clear from the words of prophecy and their fulfilment. “Now all this took place to fulfil the words spoken by the Lord through the prophet: ‘The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and they will call him Emmanuel, a name which means ‘God-is-with-us.’’” This name is personal and communal. It is the name of the second Person of the Blessed Trinity in human nature; it is also the name of the mystical body of Jesus Christ, the community of believers. The passage from Romans clarifies the mystical meaning of the name. “We know that by turning everything to their good, God co-operates with all those who love him, with all those he has called according to his purpose.” Thus, God is with all the redeemed through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and the abundance of grace they possess for cooperative living with God. The Blessed Virgin Mary is the world or ocean of graces; hence, she is called ‘full of grace.’ God generates the Son of Man in the two senses of the name Emmanuel. “They are the ones he chose specially long ago and intended to become true images of his Son, so that his Son might be the eldest of many brothers.” If they are brothers, then they are from the same Woman, Mary. Therefore, we celebrate the birthday of our Blessed Mother, Virgin Mary.

 Let us pray: Impart to your servants, we pray, O Lord, the gift of heavenly grace, that the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin may bring deeper peace to those for whom the birth of her Son was the dawning of salvation. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.