The Birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary – Readings

Commentary on Micah 5:1-4 or Romans 8:28-30; Matthew 1:1-16,18-23

The Gospel reading is the genealogy of Jesus as given by Matthew at the beginning of his Gospel. It is largely an artificial composition divided into three sets of 14 generations—42 altogether. It begins with Abraham, the Father of God’s people and there follow many names from the biblical account in the Hebrew Testament.

It is a very mixed group of people, including the very good and the not good at all. There are also four women in the list, each of them with a special interest of their own. It represents the very diverse history of loyalty and infidelity which was the story of God’s people. Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, is truly identified with our world.

And the Word became flesh and lived among us…
(John 1:14)

He dwelt among all of us, the good, the bad and the indifferent. Mary, too, was born into this world and, like her Son, was without sin—though unlike him, she was fully part of this world. The ancestry leads down to Joseph, the “husband of Mary”. But it is of Mary that Jesus the Messiah is born.

There is a choice of texts for the First Reading. The first comes from the prophet Micah. He has been speaking against the rulers of Israel who are paying dearly for their sinful ways. In today’s passage he is speaking of the restoration of Israel through a Messiah. Just before today’s passage he speaks against Jerusalem (called Bat-gader, a symbolic name), which is under siege by the Assyrians. But in today’s passage he contrasts the powerful ruler of Israel under siege with the tiny city and clan of Bethlehem-Ephrathah:

…who are one of the little clans of Judah…

For, from this tiny, insignificant place:

… shall come forth for me
one who is to rule in Israel,
whose origin is from of old,
from ancient days.

His origins are from the royal Davidic line.

The Lord will give up these people until the time:

…when she who is in labor has brought forth;
then the rest of his kindred shall return
to the people of Israel.

“She who is in labor has brought forth” (i.e. ‘given birth’) is a clear reference to Mary, mother of the Messiah. And that Son with the strength of Yahweh:

…shall stand and feed his flock…he shall be great
to the ends of the earth…

The Gospels will show how all of these predictions are fulfilled in Jesus. And the birth of the Incarnate Messiah comes through Mary. It is not surprising, then, that we celebrate the birth of such a person in a very special way—and that she herself, in preparation for this, should be blessed with special favours and graces.

The second choice for the First Reading is from Paul’s Letter to the Romans. He speaks of how all are picked out specially by God:

We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.

This is an important statement for us to take on board. We see it in Mary’s acceptance of the angel’s invitation, even though she did not fully understand its implication at the time.

Like Mary, all of us have been called by God to be “conformed to the image of his Son”, so that he becomes the first among many brothers and sisters. Mary, too, was of course, even as Mother, totally conformed to the Way of her Son. The last words also apply in a special way to Mary:

And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

Mary, from the first moment of her existence, was totally conformed to the will of her Son, and so deserves the special glory which she merited after her death.

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Sunday of Week 4 of Advent (Year C)

Commentary on Micah 5:1-4; Hebrews 10:5-10; Luke 1:39-44

The birth of Jesus is now imminent. In just a few days’ time we will be celebrating the memory of that great event. Today’s Mass prepares us for the Christmas celebration. Each of the three readings takes up a different aspect of this great mystery to help us in our understanding and in our personal preparation.

Promise of things to come
The First Reading, from the prophet Micah, sets out the promise of great things to come. The unexpected starting point will be the obscure town of Bethlehem and not some other greater centre of Israel. But the one who will come from there will be the:

…one who is to rule in Israel,
whose origin is from of old,
from ancient days.

The one who is to come:

…shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord,
in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.

And his new people:

…shall live secure, for now he shall be great
to the ends of the earth.

And, very significantly:

…he shall be the one of peace [Hebrew, shalom]. (Micah 5:5)

A remote corner of Israel
This promise is magnificent, but how is it to come into existence and fulfilment? In the Gospel we come down with a bump into the real world. From the grand prophetic language of Micah we are brought to a small remote corner of Israel. Two unknown women, Mary and Elizabeth, seem to be the principal actors. There is no mention of Zechariah, the husband of Elizabeth, though he must have been around. But he had doubted the word of the angel and so he will not be able to speak until after the birth of his son.

And yet, the really important characters are the unseen children, Jesus and John. It is through their mothers that they are first brought together.

Though both women are with child, it is Mary who takes the initiative to visit Elizabeth. In a sense, that is right and proper because Mary is the younger of the two. On the other hand, we know that the status of Mary is higher because she bears within her the Son of God.

When Mary approaches, the child in Elizabeth’s womb reacts immediately. Already, before his birth, John is touched with the Spirit of Jesus. This, we might say, is his baptism. Although John will appear first on the public stage, Jesus is the real source of John’s role as prophet, and of his greatness.

At the sound of Mary’s voice, John experienced the presence of Jesus and is filled with the Spirit. Elizabeth tells Mary:

For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy.

But Elizabeth also is affected by the presence of Jesus. She bursts into praise for Jesus and his mother and says prophetically:

And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me?

And by implication, she is graced with a visit from the Lord himself. Surely it is only through faith and the inspiration of the Spirit that she recognises in her younger cousin the Mother of her Lord.

Spirit of service
Already we can see a major theme of Luke’s Gospel being unfolded at this early stage in the coming of Jesus, even before his birth in Bethlehem. For we are presented with the humility of the mother and her Son. It is they who go to visit and not they who are visited. There is no question of status or ‘face’ with these two people. Even before he is born, Jesus already comes to serve and not to be served. It is through service we will recognise him as Lord. Later on he will tell his disciples:

You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. (John 13:13-15)

It is the beginning of God’s great plan to bring salvation and wholeness to the world. God’s own Son is preparing to come and live among us as a human being. He will be like us in every respect except in his freedom from sinfulness and its source—our fears and insecurity. As we party our way through the Christmas season, let us not forget what it is really about—the coming of God among us to show us the greatest love that can be shown, the laying down of one’s life for one’s friends.

We should not, then, be surprised at the Opening Prayer of today’s Mass. It reminds us to look forward to the life of Jesus, a life lived totally in love that will end in suffering and death as the way to glory and everlasting life. Christmas might seem a strange time to be thinking of the suffering of Jesus. But Jesus’ life is to be seen as a seamless robe—birth in poverty to death on a cross as the essential way to new life and glory. We celebrate his birth because of the triumphant victory of his death. He emptied himself for love of us and the Father has raised him to the highest heavens.

Total submission
All that happened from the moment of Jesus’ appearing among us as a human person can only be fully understood in the light of the passage from the Letter to the Hebrews, which is our Second Reading for today.

It is by the total submission of the Son to the will of his Father that the fulfilment of the promise becomes possible. The Father, says the Letter, is not really interested in sacrifices and oblations of animals and things:

Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired,
but a body you have prepared for me;
in burnt offerings and sin offerings
you have taken no pleasure.

Instead, “a body” the Father prepared for his Son. And, united with that body as a true human being, the Son offered himself unconditionally to his Father:

See, I have come to do your will, O God…

The obeying of that will was effected by the total offering of his human self. This self-offering far transcends any other offering that could be made. No one can offer more than one’s own self.

That offering of himself will be seen in the whole life of Jesus as it unfolds in the Gospel pages, leading finally to the dramatic confrontation between love and greed, hatred and pride. Not without difficulty, Jesus will make the final offering of himself, saying:

No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. (John 15:13)

The outcome will be the Cross as the gateway to Resurrection.

An invitation to follow
Jesus does not only do all this for us while we sit back and wait to be ‘saved’. He invites us to say, along with him, to the Father:

See, I have come to do your will.

Mary herself has already followed her Son, though he is not yet born. Asked as an unmarried virgin if she is willing to be the mother of Jesus and assured that, with God, all things are possible, she has already said: “Yes! Let all this happen to me as you have planned it.” At this stage, she has no idea what is in store for her, but she has said her ‘Yes’ and she will be faithful to it.

An old advertisement once asked: “Have you said ‘Yes’ yet?” It is a question that the readings of today’s Mass are asking each one of us. We are about to celebrate Christmas very soon. Probably all our other preparations have been made, or we are up to our eyes making them. But have we made the most important preparation of all? Have we said our ‘Yes’ to the Father, our ‘Yes’ to Jesus, our ‘Yes’ to all that we will experience in the coming year—our ‘Yes’ to every call that God makes, and will make, of us?

Part of the meaning of Christmas is that, by contemplating the experiences of Jesus and Mary, we learn from them how to say an unqualified and unconditional ‘Yes’, because that is where the real joy and happiness of Christmas lies. All the rest is just tinsel.

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