Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Today is the day the Church celebrates the birthday of Mary. We honor Mary in many different ways because she is so essential to God’s plan of salvation for us. Her willingness to have her life changed so radically when God asks her is an inspiring and humbling witness to her faith. Mary models so much for us, including discipleship, selfless love, and courage. She is the first disciple because she said yes to Jesus before he was even born; she is selflessly loving, putting the salvation of others before her own comfort by saying ‘yes’ to God; and she is courageous in both these things, willfully opening herself to scorn and stigma by essentially becoming an unwed mother in a time when this almost surely meant social exclusion.
Today’s Gospel reminds us that Joseph possessed great courage, too. God asks Joseph to place his faith in the plan for salvation by going through with his marriage to Mary. These two people together show us the power of faith in our families and that there is much grace in even the toughest of situations that we may face together.
The end of the Gospel reading reminds us of why their choices were so necessary. Mary is to give birth to a son and name him Emmanuel, “which means ‘God is with us.’” We should never lose sight of how powerful this statement is, that God is with us in the midst of both our joy and our suffering. This is the Good News of our Gospel. Although we do not read this part of the story today, we know that Mary and Joseph will become refugees in order to give Jesus a safe birth. So much of the suffering in our world today concerns that of migrants and refugees in search of a place of safety for their families. May we see in their faces the faces of the Holy Family and be Christ to them when and where we can.
- Katherine Schmidt