The Birth of Mary

The Catholic Church today celebrates the feast of the Birth of Mary. While I know that not all who follow this blog share my Catholic faith, or perhaps its devotion to Mary, I think that September 8 is an important celebration for all Christians.

The Birth of Mary (1470) by the Master of the Life of the Virgin

Today's feast marks the birthday of she who is, in many ways, the dawn of our salvation. Indeed her Son's birth is called just that in the Proper of Saints today. Jesus Christ is, of course, the reality of the Christian life, the pinnacle of all history, the Word-made-flesh, the One whose divinity we ask to share in because he humbled himself to share in our humanity. And yet, it is with Mary that God first begins to fulfill his redemptive promise to mankind. Creating for himself a "house of gold" through which to enter our human world, God effects in Mary the perfection of humanity. Immaculately conceived and perfect in her response of Fiat to the invitation of God's love, Mary represents for us Christians both the model and the promise of our lives. She becomes for us the example and the guide by which we are to live out the words of her Son.

Mary, along with John the Baptist, also marks the transition from the Old Testament adherence to the Law to the New Testament conviction of the Spirit, he whose power overshadowed her to bring Christ into the world. She is, as St. Andrew of Crete writes in today's Office of Readings, the point at which "[d]arkness yields before the coming of light, and grace exchanges legalism for freedom.... [M]idway between the two stands today's mystery, at the frontier where types and symbols give way to reality, and the old is replaced by the new." That which had been foreshadowed, prophesied, and promised -- namely, the salvation of mankind in Christ -- now begins to dawn upon the world in the person of his mother Mary. Indeed, unlike all other saints, the Church celebrates the birthdays of Mary and John the Baptist, not their dates of death, because it is with their births that each gives witness to the saving action of Christ. Mary, then, should be for us not only an example and a guide in our Christian life but also a source of continuous joy for it is through her that Christ comes to us. This joy is a spiritual virtue, to be sure, but one that should animate us no matter what our current circumstance or difficulty, for as we know, "the world and its desire are passing away, but those who do the will of God live for ever" (1 John 2:17).

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With that said, certainly we cannot forget about the present circumstances in which we live. Thoughts and prayers to those being affected by the nasty weather, especially Aunt M in Louisiana. Mary, hope of Christians, pray for us!

Finally, for those interested, here is the full English translation of Pope Benedict XVI's address on the day that I and the other New Men at the NAC visited him at Castel Gandolfo.