NATIVITY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY 2022
Mi 5: 1-4
Rm 8: 28-30
Mt 1: 1-23
Christ’s ancestry in the Gospel of St Matthew is read a few times during the liturgical year, but most especially on two important days: on the eve of Christmas, obviously, and today, when we celebrate the Birth of Our Lady. Just as Jesus cannot be separated from His family, His tribe and His people, Mary is a member of the People of God. Through her parents as well as by her marriage with Joseph, she belongs to the people characterised by a unique history of relationships with God – the people of the covenant. It is through her that Jesus will become member of the Jewish people, son of Abraham and David.
But it would be inadequate, obviously, to see Mary as only one person in a group, one among many. Like each and all of us, she is unique. The characteristics of her family, her tribe and her people are realised in her in a way which is unique. She is entirely a Jewess and entirely herself. She represents Israel and she is herself.
This should not surprise us. We know that, in a similar way, each human person can be seen as representing all, the whole human race from the beginning to the end. In the mystery of our creation from God, each human being bears the image of God and thus the distinctive identity of Adam or Eve. In a sense, each man is Adam and each woman is Eve. Therefore, when God took flesh, He had no need to unite Himself physically to all human beings. It was enough for Him to become a man, that one man, Jesus. Thus a single man represented the whole human race. The Word was made flesh. He was made a man born from the Virgin Mary. In this way, He became the New Adam, the man who speaks for all of us whilst, at the same time, speaking for God. He is true God born from the Father, and true man born of Mary.
Mary is Israel incarnated in a woman who will give birth to the Messiah, the Son of Abraham and David, the Son of God who is the New Adam. Therefore Mary is Laetitia Israel, the joy of Israel. The expectation of Israel reaches its fulfilment in Mary who was born in order to give birth to the Messiah. In her birth, the joy of salvation is given to Israel.
Not only that: Just as she belongs to the People who is looking forward to the coming of the Messiah, Mary belongs, too, to the People of the New Covenant. All rejoice at her birth. There is one joy of the Church at Mary’s birth – one joy for those who came to the Church from the Jewish people as well as for those who were called from the peoples of the world. For the daughter of Abraham and David is the mother of all Christians. The daughter of Israel is the mother of the Church. She is the new Zion in whom, according to the Psalm, all were born:
“Of Zion it shall be said, ‘This one and that one were born in her’; for the Most High Himself will establish her. Singers and dancers alike say, ‘All my springs are in you’” (Ps 87:5.7).
The daughter of the first Adam is called to become the Mother of the New Adam. The daughter of Israel is the Mother of the Church. Her birth takes a universal and indeed cosmic dimension. She is the mother of the New World recreated in Christ. She fully belongs to the new creation, from the moment of her immaculate conception until her assumption into heaven.
Never before Christ has a birth brought so much newness into the world. Today’s joy is joy at the renewal of all things in Christ. He who sits upon the throne spoke and said, ‘Behold, I make all things new’ (Ap 21:5) and He began His work with Mary. Mary is the beginning of the universal restoration in Christ of our fallen world. Her birth gives us a glimpse of the beauty and joy of the world restored by God’s mercy.
Even more than her parents and her contemporaries, we can rejoice at Mary’s beauty. We join with the angel who salutes her: “Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee”. We share in his admiration and, indeed, fascination. Tota pulchra es, Maria: O, little Girl, you are perfectly beautiful; you are a pure ray of divine beauty.
We, who have begun to see the unfolding of Mary’s grace in the life of Christ and in the life of the Church, we pray that her unique grace and her amazing beauty might be made manifest ever more abundantly: here, at Quarr, in the life of our frail community; in the lives of all who frequent the abbey; in the life of the Church and the world.
May the grace of the little girl whose birth we celebrate today be ever more revealed to the world, that all may believe in Christ and receive salvation in His name. Amen.