FEAST OF MARY’S BIRTH  

September 8, Wednesday

TWENTY-THIRD WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

 

The Bible, including today’s readings, sees Mary in function of her Son; nothing more is said about her in the gospel than what illustrates and serves Christ’s mission. Her inconspicuous and self-effacing service is very telling about her character and role – and at the same time about our mission: to witness quietly to the pre-eminence of Christ, to serve him, to be open to his salvation, to live for others.

 

First Reading: Romans 8:28-30

Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.

God knew what he was doing from the very beginning. He decided from the outset to shape the lives of those who love him along the same lines as the life of his Son. The Son stands first in the line of humanity he restored. We see the original and intended shape of our lives there in him. After God made that decision of what his children should be like, he followed it up by calling people by name. After he called them by name, he set them on a solid basis with himself. And then, after getting them established, he stayed with them to the end, gloriously completing what he had begun.

 

Gospel: Matthew 1:1-16, 18-23

The family tree of Jesus Christ, David’s son, Abraham’s son:

Abraham had Isaac,
Isaac had Jacob,
Jacob had Judah and his brothers,
Judah had Perez and Zerah (the mother was Tamar),
Perez had Hezron,
Hezron had Aram,
Aram had Amminadab,
Amminadab had Nahshon,
Nahshon had Salmon,
Salmon had Boaz (his mother was Rahab),
Boaz had Obed (Ruth was the mother),
Obed had Jesse,
Jesse had David,
    and David became king.

David had Solomon (Uriah’s wife was the mother),
Solomon had Rehoboam,
Rehoboam had Abijah,
Abijah had Asa,
Asa had Jehoshaphat,
Jehoshaphat had Joram,
Joram had Uzziah,
Uzziah had Jotham,
Jotham had Ahaz,
Ahaz had Hezekiah,
Hezekiah had Manasseh,
Manasseh had Amon,
Amon had Josiah,
Josiah had Jehoiachin and his brothers,
    and then the people were taken into the Babylonian exile.

When the Babylonian exile ended,

Jeconiah had Shealtiel,
Shealtiel had Zerubbabel,
Zerubbabel had Abiud,
Abiud had Eliakim,
Eliakim had Azor,
Azor had Zadok,
Zadok had Achim,
Achim had Eliud,
Eliud had Eleazar,
Eleazar had Matthan,
Matthan had Jacob,
Jacob had Joseph, Mary’s husband,
    the Mary who gave birth to Jesus,
    the Jesus who was called Christ.

The birth of Jesus took place like this. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. Before they came to the marriage bed, Joseph discovered she was pregnant. (It was by the Holy Spirit, but he didn’t know that.) Joseph, chagrined but noble, determined to take care of things quietly so Mary would not be disgraced.

While he was trying to figure a way out, he had a dream. God’s angel spoke in the dream: “Joseph, son of David, don’t hesitate to get married. Mary’s pregnancy is Spirit-conceived. God’s Holy Spirit has made her pregnant. She will bring a son to birth, and when she does, you, Joseph, will name him Jesus—‘God saves’—because he will save his people from their sins.” This would bring the prophet’s embryonic sermon to full term:

Watch for this—a virgin will get pregnant and bear a son;
They will name him Immanuel (Hebrew for “God is with us”).

 

Prayer

Lord our God,
we thank you today for giving us Mary
as the Mother of your Son.
In her you show us how strong your grace is
and how surprisingly near you are to people.
Give us a firm faith
in the great things you do for all of us
and help us to respond to your gifts
with joyful and receptive hearts.
We ask you this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

REFLECTION:

Writing straight through crooked lines
Today the universal Church honours the Blessed Virgin Mary as we joyfully celebrate her nativity. The Church celebrates the story of God accompanying us, the humanity, the crown of his creation and chooses one of us to be the Mother of God the Son.
Today’s gospel passage regarding Jesus’ lineage looks so insignificant: This person begot that person, that one begot this one, this one begot that one…. It’s a list. Yet, it speaks of the story of God’s journey among his people. In this journey, God walks with both good and bad people, and therefore, on this list there are saints and there are sinful criminals.

Along with the names of male ancestors listed, Matthew mentioned four women: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Bathsheba. All four women were foreigners. One of them gets pregnant from her father-in-law; another one was a prostitute and a third became king’s wife after the king getting her husband killed in a war. Among the male ancestors, there were murderers and cheaters.
And that is the significance of this passage. This list of God’s plan of salvation is not limited to holy and saintly people; God’s list also contains names of sinful and unholy ones. However, that does not stop God from walking with his people. During his journey with his people, God fills them with hope.
This is the closeness of God. Moses spoke about it to his people: “Think about it: what nation has a God as close as ours?”. The people of Israel dream of being set free, because it was promised to them. And the dream continues with Joseph and his dream is a summary of the entire history of God’s journey with his people.
But going through the genealogy of Jesus, we begin to realise that not only the people of Israel or Joseph had dreams but even God dreams. God our Father has dreams, and he dreams beautiful things for his people, for each of us, because he is our Father and as a Father he thinks and dreams of the best for his children. In spite of all the failures and infidelities of the people, God holds them all together and draws out a plan for their salvation – a salvation from their sinfulness. During his public ministry, we would find the public sinners, the tax collectors, the despised and rejected of the society becoming close friends of Jesus.
The nativity of Our Mother is an occasion of great Joy and Hope – because this feast day reminds us that we are all included in the divine plan of God. And God wants us to respond to his plan, to His dream and to participate in His mission of reconciliation and salvation of the world.

 

Video available on Youtube: Writing straight through crooked lines