Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mother of God
Nm 6:22-27; Gal 4:4-7; Lk 2:16-21
There is an old legend which goes something like this. When Mary went to visit her cousin Elizabeth who was six months pregnant, every morning she used to go to the nearby well to fetch water for Elizabeth. One morning as she was there by the well, she met an elderly woman who started grumbling. "Our Lord promised us through his prophets that he will send us a saviour. Now look at the state we are in. I see no saviour anywhere: my children still do not want to speak to me. I still have problems with my husband, I am still in pain with my arthritis in all my joints. Look at the state we are in!" Mary paused for a moment, not knowing what to say. She wasn't going to say, "Guess what? He's right here in me! Aha! I'm his Mum!" even though she was. In fact she said nothing. She simply helped this old lady carry her heavy jar of water and offered a listening ear to her.
The feast of the mother hood of Mary is not a mere devotion and neither is it just a complicated theological and Mariological twists and turns of how a created being can be the Mother of the Creator, which she indeed is. This very dogma in fact was the subject of controversy for hundreds of years almost as from the very beginning of the church. This is, incidentally, the reason why when we sing the Ave Maria in latin we say "Mater Dei" three times. This feast also has strong repercussions on our daily life.
First it reminds us that God became man. God emptied himself as we read in the second reading, becoming man like us so that he can become one of us and approach us better. He wanted to experience in his own flesh what we experience: not only physical pain but also the anguish that we pass through as part of our existence in this life. And in doing so, he redeemed our human condition, making us sons and daughters of God, and therefore sons and daughters of Mary too.
Second, just as Mary was the mother of God, and she is the perfect disciple and the model of the church, so we too can beget God into the world by imitating her in her discipleship and by keeping her as our model. There is a story of a recent Italian mystic who is on the path to sainthood. In one of her writings, she says that she once entered a church and her eyes fell on the tabernacle, and asked God this question. Why did you find a way of remaining with us in the Eucharist but came up with no other way to have Mary with us for ever here on earth?" At which point she felt something inside her telling her, "Because I wanted to see her in you." It was then that she realised that each one of us is called to be another Mary here on earth, that we too bring the Saviour in the world, as the elderly lady in the opening anecdote was hoping for.
Finally, we read that "Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart." In our busy schedules, which are full of interruptions and with no time for ourselves, let alone for God, let us make a resolution this new year to take time to imitate Mary in her life of interiority. Only then can the Word really take root in our life and turn us into life giving persons which our society is so much in need of.
There is one last thing worth saying. Today also happens to be world peace day. Peace is not automatic. We have to work hard for it and there can be no peace in the world if there is no peace in our hearts. Huge sacrifices must be done to cultivate a culture of peace but in the end it is worth it because the stakes of the lack of peace - be it in our families or in our communities or in the world - are too high to be risked. The Mother of God teaches us how to nurture these virtues in our hearts.
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