The Birthday of Mary

The Birthday of Mary



Last December, we celebrated the feast of the Immaculate Conception. Nine months later we observe the Mary’s birthday.


The Roman Lectionary offers the church a choice of first readings and I have chosen the passage from Saint Paul’s letter to the Romans:


We know that all things work for good for those who love God,
who are called according to his purpose.
For those he foreknew he also predestined
to be conformed to the image of his Son,
so that he might be the firstborn
among many brothers.
And those he predestined he also called;
and those he called he also justified;
and those he justified he also glorified.


Saint Paul describes God’s choice of his holy people as part of the process of Jesus’ becoming the “firstborn of many brothers.” Lest we become too big-headed about God’s election, we should remember Salvation History is all about Jesus. You and I were chosen to come along with him, and we’re grateful for that.


Saint Paul, true to his Hebrew teaching, believed that God could not be frustrated in what he set out to do: “All things work for good for those who love God.” If we are impatient for his kingdom to come and his will to be done, if we think what is happening is not quite the “good” we expected, that is a failure of our imagination, not God’s.


Paul goes on to describe the process of grace from good to better: God’s foreknown people are predestined, called, justified and finally glorified. This process is just as sure as the sun coming up in the east and descending in the west. It cannot fail.


Concerning Mary’s place in Salvation History, the Franciscan school of thought teaches that God intended from the outset that Jesus should be born a human being. It is absurd to suppose that a small thing like Adam’s sin, or the sins of all humanity, caused the Lord of the Universe to alter his plans. True, our pathetically sinful condition cries out to heaven for relief; but that was simply one small matter for Jesus to attend as he fulfilled God’s plan. More importantly, Jesus would satisfy and perfect God’s self-expression in the astonishing beauty of all creation. In the glory of the entire universe; amid the marvelous diversity of the living forms of earth; within the mysterious, enchanting setting of human life: Jesus shines like a brilliant diamond set among precious stones.


To be born a human being, of course, Jesus required a human mother. Who could that be but someone worthy of receiving such a grace? She (necessarily a she) should be someone whose entire life is without blemish. She should be utterly and perfectly saved from sin from the moment of her conception until her last earthly breath. Not merely guiltless, she should grow from grace to grace, as God intended for all human beings, as Jesus would grow. And so she runs in the same path you and I must walk; she was predestined, called, justified and glorified.


Mary is that singular human being who is worthy to receive the infinite grace of God. And, by association, she makes the universe worthy to receive God’s gracious gift. Immersed in our sins, we often find it hard to imagine that anyone or anything might be worthy to “contain” God. Jesus and Mary, this man and woman, assure us that escaping sin is no more difficult than breaking out of an eggshell into the gloriously beautiful world of God’s blessed creation. They teach us how to inhale beauty and exhale glory.