Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God

Today's Mass Readings

Today on the secular calendar, we celebrate the New Year. The traditional celebrations involve such things as champagne and football bowl games. But in the Catholic year, our new year began with the season of Advent, about one month ago. And the Catholic traditional celebration is to dedicate this first day of the secular year to the woman who made Advent and Christmas possible, namely, the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Such a Marian dedication is appropriate on this day. It is through Mary that we are brought new life in the person of Jesus, our savior. It is because of this privilege of closeness to Jesus that Mary is considered blessed. And inasmuch as we also strive for closeness to Jesus, we also find ourselves blessed. We are blessed through this blessed woman who brought Jesus into the world.

Today’s readings emphasize the theme of blessedness. The first reading, from the book of Numbers contains the beautiful blessing given to Moses from the Lord in order to bless the Israelites. This conveys the good will that God has for his people. God not only blesses his people but he communicates this blessing to them and invites the people to pray for his blessing. The psalm response, meanwhile, contains further prayer for blessing, and it indicates a confidence that God WILL bless his people.

The second reading from Galatians and the gospel passage from Luke, meanwhile, indicate how that ultimate blessing has happened. God has sent his son born of Mary, and so now we also can be called sons of God, with Jesus as our brother. We have become rightful heirs of the Kingdom of God because of this gift of Jesus, brought to us through the Blessed Virgin.

And as we complete our Octave of Christmas, we recognize that this blessing of salvation comes to us through humble origins, that is, through a small infant born in a manger in rural town in the Middle East. Shepherds – a lower class of society – are some of those to whom this message of the birth of the savior has been revealed, and the shepherds are not content to keep this event to themselves.
They celebrate, they rejoice, and they tell everyone in sight.

Mary’s response, meanwhile, is reflective, as she ponders in her heart. This is the most blessed of women, who will dedicate her life to Christ, walking with him and loving him each day until his death on the cross and even beyond that, to his resurrection. Perhaps Mary’s contemplativeness at this moment involves wondering how she, a Jewish peasant girl, has come to be at the center for God’s plan of salvation.

But this is how our God works: he lifts up the lowly, and brings our salvation into the world as a little baby, born of a woman. On this day, we praise God for the gift of Mary, our Blessed Mother! Her life is a model for us of dedication to Christ, and we are all blessed through her dedication to God’s mission on earth. Let us take the time today to say a Marian prayer, such as the Hail Mary, and thank God that Mary said yes to God!

- Maria Morrow