CHURCH IN FOCUS:
The Birth of Virgin Mary
04 September 2011

Our Focus on the Church Programme is on the celebration of the Feast of the Nativity of Mary, the mother of Jesus and our Mother. This feast, like that of the Assumption of Mary, originated in Jerusalem. The Feast of the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary originally introduced by the Eastern Monks, has been an important Marian feast in the church held in Syria and Palestine from the sixth century. This was accepted and adopted by the Roman Church at the end of the seventh century. By the twelfth century, however, it was observed among all Christian nations as one of the major feasts of Mary, and remained a holyday of obligation until 1918. This feast was reduced to a simple one during the reform of St. Pius X and was abolished altogether under the reform of Pius XII in 1955. The present Calendar characterizes the Birth of Mary as a simple feast in honour of Mary. In many places of Central and Eastern Europe and some parts of Asia the Feast of Mary's Nativity is traditionally connected with ancient thanksgiving customs and celebrations. This is one of the three birthdays in the Church Calendar namely, the Birth of Jesus, the Birth of John the Baptist and the Birthday of Mary. All three were born without original sin, although Mary and Jesus were conceived without sin, and St. John was cleansed of original sin while in the womb at the Visitation of Mary. Luke tells us that the infant John leapt in her womb when Mary approached her soon after the Annunciation. Mary because of the infinite merits of her Son Jesus was conceived and born immaculate and full of grace. Through her, Queen of heaven and of earth, all grace is given to men.
The birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary announced joy and the approaching salvation of a lost world. Mary was brought into the world not like other children of Adam, infected with the contagion of sin, but pure, holy, beautiful, and glorious, adorned with all the most precious graces fitting for the One predestined to be the Mother of the Saviour. Never did she have the slightest inclination towards anything other than the absolute and immediate Will of God. She appeared indeed in the weak condition of all mortals, but in the eyes of Heaven She already transcended the highest seraphim in purity, humility, charity, and the richest ornaments of grace. God had created her in the original grace, as in the beginning Adam and Eve had enjoyed that ineffable privilege; after original sin, it was lost for all Adam’s posterity, until the time of the Redemption dawned in Mary.
The celebration of the Feast of the Birth of Mary provides us with an occasion for praise and thanksgiving in honour of the personal sanctity and vocation of the Blessed Virgin Mary as the mother of the Lord Jesus. There is nothing contained in Scripture about the birth of Mary or her parentage, though Joseph's lineage is given in the first chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. The names of Mary's parents, Joachim and Anna, appear in the apocryphal "Gospel of James", a book dating from the 2nd Century AD, not part of the authentic canon of Scripture. According to this account, Joachim and Anna were beyond the years of child-bearing, but prayed and fasted that God would grant their desire for a child. According to one tradition, the house in which Mary was born in Nazareth is the same one in which the Annunciation took place. By another tradition, the Annunciation site is beneath the Crusader church of Saint Anna in Jerusalem, under a 3rd Century oratory known as the "Gate of Mary”. Tradition also says that Mary was offered in God's holy temple and remained there, showing to all a great example of zeal and holiness, withdrawn from frivolous society. When she reached full age and the law required that she should leave the temple, she was entrusted by the priests to Joseph, her bridegroom, a steadfast observer of the law from his youth.
There are many Marian feast days celebrated in the Catholic Church, but the principal ones are the Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God, the Presentation of Our Lord in the Temple, the Annunciation, the Assumption, the Immaculate Conception and the Nativity of our Lady. The Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, is the oldest Marian feast. The Nativity of Mary is an important feast in the church because it is ordained in particular toward her mission as Mother of the Saviour. Her existence is indissolubly connected with that of Christ: it partakes of a unique plan of predestination and grace. God's mysterious plan regarding the incarnation of the Word embraces also the Virgin who is His Mother. In this way, the Birth of Mary is inserted at the very heart of the History of Salvation. The theme of joy pervades the whole of this Feast's liturgy. There is the joy in the birth of the mother of the saviour as there will be joy in the birth of the saviour himself. The birth of Mary is ordained in particular toward her mission as Mother of the Savior. Her existence is always connected with that of Christ: it partakes of a unique plan of predestination and grace. God's mysterious plan regarding the incarnation of the Word embraces also the Virgin who is His Mother.
St Paul speaking to the Romans tells us that Jesus descended from David according to the flesh that is he became a human person, and was declared to be Son of God with power according to the Spirit. This summarizes the Feast of the Birth of Mary as predestined by the Lord God who called her to be the Mother of Jesus, God incarnated. As affirmed by the Holy Bible, the Blessed Virgin Mary was a virgin when she gave birth to the Lord Jesus. And as affirmed by the teachings of the Church since its early days, Mary has remained an immaculate until she was taken up to Heaven at the end of her earthly life. Created as a new creation, the Second Eve, Mary was immaculate in nature from the moment of her conception. Mary was created holy, gave birth to the Son of God in holiness, lived a holy life in the Presence of the Lord God and was taken to Heaven in the fullness of her holiness. Truly, she shall be blessed every generation.
The feast of the Nativity of Mary celebrated on the 8^th of September is closely connected with the Immaculate Conception of Mary. Mary, who is prepared by divine providence to be the Mother of Jesus the son of God, is conceived without the stain of sin. In the church her birth is considered as a solemn event and is described as "the hope of the entire world and the dawn of salvation". That is why the Liturgy of the day says: "Let us celebrate with joy the birth of the Virgin Mary, of who was born the Sun of Justice. Her birth constitutes the hope and the light of salvation for the whole world. Her image is light for the whole Christian people". St. Augustine connects Mary's birth with Jesus' saving work. He tells the earth to rejoice and shine forth in the light of her birth. She is the flower of the field, the precious lily of the valley. Through her birth the nature inherited from our first parents is changed. The opening prayer at Mass speaks of the birth of Mary's Son as the dawn of our salvation.
The Feast of the Nativity of Mary has two aspects: first, the Heaven's view that enables us to enter into God's plan for the salvation of the world; and the second, what happens on earth has the freshness of dawn and of a first morning. As seen from Heaven it is a Trinitarian Feast: it is the first moment in the preparation of the Alliance which will unfold between Heaven and earth. She is the future Mother of the Word of God who will make His home in her. At the Annunciation her decisive yes led to the coming of the Holy Spirit. On the other hand the Feast of the Nativity of Mary affects our Christian life. It is Mary who built a Christian family with Jesus becoming part of it and is an example for all our Christian families. At the ecclesial level the Feast of the Nativity of Mary is a Feast of hope for the renewal of the Church.
In celebrating the nativity of Mary, Christians anticipate the Incarnation and birth of her Divine Son, and give honour to the mother of Our Lord and Saviour. This Feast provides us with an occasion for praise and thanksgiving in honour of the personal sanctity and vocation of the Blessed Virgin Mary as the mother of the Lord Jesus. We contemplate with the Church, when, even on this day, She proclaims the Divine Maternity and unites in Her chants of praise the birth of Emmanuel and of Mary, our Mother of love and of holy hope. He who, being Son of God by essence willed to be also Son of man, had, before all other designs, decreed that He would have a Mother. Such consequently, was the character of that title of Mother, that, in the eternal decree, it was one with the very being of the chosen creature, the motive and cause of her existence, as well as the source of all her perfections, natural and supernatural. We too, then, must recognize Mary as our Mother and the mother of Jesus and celebrate the birthday by honouring our Lord.
The Birth of Mary is an event which belongs at the very heart of the History of Salvation. She is the symbol of the hope and expectation of God’s faithful people and at the same time she is the beginning of a new hope, the beginning of the dawn of that newness which her Son would bring for all creation. With Mary's birth, sorrow and darkness begin to be dispersed. That is the spirit in which we enter into our pilgrimage. Each of us comes here with our hopes and aspirations, with our problems and with the concerns and anxieties which trouble our hearts. As we begin our pilgrimage we must allow Mary to change our hearts. We ask her to put behind us those concerns and pre-occupations which only help to close us in on ourselves. We ask Mary for the gift of that freedom which she would show in her willingness to accept the word of the Angel. In that sense we accept the call of Jesus, her Son, knowing that through a similar response to that of Mary we can enter into that history of healing which is the history of salvation, we can dispel the darkness in our hearts and enter into the light of God’s path of which Lourdes is a symbol.
Mary’s birth is the fulfilment of the faith of the Church. Faith is the gift that comes from God. One of the favourite stories in the Gospels is the story told in the Gospel of Saint Mark of the visit of Jesus to his own town and his own people. Jesus visits his own home town but his townspeople do not accept him. They knew him too well and could not expect great things from him the one with whom they were so familiar. Mark notes that Jesus was amazed at their lack of faith and that therefore he could work no miracle there. But Mark adds that even after this he cured some sick people by laying hands on them. But we have the response of Jesus when Mary and his cousins visit him and he says his family is the one which hears the word of God and keeps it. This applies to Mary who always listened to the word and meditated in her heart and that is her faith now reflected in the birth of the child.
That message of faith given to us on the Nativity of Mary challenges all of us. It challenges our society. There are times when our self sufficient society would willingly banish the sight of suffering into hidden corners. In Lourdes Mary has created a city where the sick and the weak are the privileged partners of our care and concern. That is a sign from Mary also of the type of society we should be building. Today our economic situation has changed and tough corrective measures and spending cuts are needed. The aim must not however to get back to business as before, be to restore a past model of society and economy whose weaknesses are now more clearly to be seen. The task, even amidst the necessary cost-cutting measures, is to create the beginnings of a new model, a new vision of society, and the signs of which people experience in Lourdes is a sign of hope for us the children of Mary. Therefore we ought to experience the presence and the faith of Mary in our lives in these days. Here Mary gives us her disposition to serve Jesus and help us experience the freedom which can come alone from such faith.
September 8 is also a special day to remember all over the world. It marks the end of summer and beginning of fall, this day has many thanksgiving celebrations and customs attached to it. In the Old Roman Ritual there is a blessing of the summer harvest and fall planting seeds for this day. In many places this day is the celebration of the harvest festival where the new corn is blessed in the church and later shared over a meal. The winegrowers in France called this feast "Our Lady of the Grape Harvest". The best grapes are brought to the local church to be blessed and then some bunches are attached to hands of the statue of Mary. A festive meal which includes the new grapes is part of this day. In the Alps section of Austria this day is "Drive-Down Day" during which the cattle and sheep are led from their summer pastures in the slopes and brought to their winter quarters in the valleys. This was usually a large caravan, with all the finery, decorations, and festivity. In some parts of Austria, milk from this day and all the leftover food are given to the poor in honour of Our Lady’s Nativity.
As we celebrate today the birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary we are reminded that each of us comes into this world loved by God, and destined for greatness destined to share in the merits of the death and resurrection of Jesus. Mary, the beloved child of Nazareth, herself, was always fully open, by God's special grace, to be full of the fruits of the redemption of Jesus, her own Son, from the moment of her conception. May we honour Mary on her day by doing as she would have us do: keep our eyes focused on her Son: he is the focal point of all history, and rightly so ought to be the focal point of the histories of our own lives. To honour the mother is to honour her Son. Hail Mary, you are blessed among women. Pray for us now and at the hour of our deaths. As we celebrate Mother Mary’s birthday may we also be reminded that our life is God’s gift to us. May our love for Mary bring us all to the realization that there is a God who cares for us and who loves us in spite of our own unworthiness. Through her, by the will of the Trinity, the unbelieving receive the gift of faith; the afflicted are tendered the works of mercy; and the members of Christ grow in likeness of their Head. In Mary all human nature is exalted. We rejoice in her birthday, as the Church has done from the earliest times. Let us be thankful to him for giving us such a beautiful mother who cares for us and is concerned about us. May her presence be a constant protection of us in time of our need in this world, Amen.

Fr Eugene Lobo S.J.