THE NATIVITY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY: MARY...CHRISTMAS!

Introduction

Merry Christmas!

If a foreigner heard me greet you today, “Merry Christmas!”, he would be confused. September has barely begun and the Christmas season is still three months away. Even Advent is a long shot from today. But in the Philippines, where, ironically despite immense poverty staring at anyone straight in the eye, the longest Christmas season is found , even as early as September, it looks like Christmas, feels like Christmas, smells like Christmas, and sounds like Christmas. As the “Ber” months of September, October, November and December begin so are Christmas songs already heard over the radio, Christmas shopping already commenced, Christmas traffic already endured, and, even Christmas decorations already put up. This Christmas euphoria will not end until mid-January.

Merry Christmas!

It is spelt differently but it sounds almost the same: “merry” and “Mary”. The word for rejoicing and the name of the mother of Jesus sounds almost identical. Filipinos even made a joke out of it. They say that the middle initial of Jesus is “C” because the family name of Mary is “Christmas”. It is not totally irreverent but the joke obviously far fetched. People in the Bible, though quite often are identified in reference to their genealogy, are, interestingly, given no surnames. In the case of the Blessed Virgin Mary, even her genealogy is not recorded by any of the four Evangelists.

Merry Christmas! Mary…Christmas!

While “merry” is misspelled by “M-A-R-Y”, Mary, the woman chosen by God, certainly has a profound significance in the season we call “Christmas”. She is the mother of Jesus, the Reason for the season. It was of her that the man called, “Christ”, was born.

It is quite absurd to go around greeting people, “Merry Christmas”, in September, but if it were for the woman of Nazareth, Mary, that Filipinos anticipate Christmas three months away from December 25, we can find a starting point to reflect on whose birth we celebrate on September 8.

The Development of the Liturgy of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The Church does not celebrate the birthdays of saints. Feastdays of saints are either the day they pass away from this life to the next or an important date in their earthly lives. There are only two saints whose birthdays we celebrate: St. John the Baptist and the Blessed Virgin Mary. The great importance of these two saints in the history of our salvation is enough to explain why they are given this privilege.

The origin of the liturgy of the Blessed Mother’s Nativity brings us back to the 6th century when the Basilica of St. Anne was consecrated in Jerusalem. This basilica, which still stands today, was built on the same spot where once a basilica in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary stood but was destroyed. It was believed to have been the home of the Blessed Mother’s parents. When reconstructed it was dedicated to the Blessed Mother’s mother, traditionally named, St. Anne.

There is, however, nothing found in Scripture about Mary’s birth or her parents. The names, Joachim and Anne, purported to be the names of the Blessed Mother’s parents cannot be read in the Bible, but appear in the apocryphal “Gospel of St. James. According to this account, Joachim and Anne, the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary, were also beyond the years of child-bearing, but prayed and fasted that God would grant their desire for a child. This account, found in the apocryphal “Gospel of St. James” dates back to the 2nd century AD and is, however, not part of the authentic canon of Scripture.

In the 7th century, the liturgy of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary was introduced in Rome by monks from the East. By the 8th century, it began to be universally celebrated by the Church. Five centuries later, the same liturgy developed into a solemnity with a major octave and a solemn vigil which prescribed a day of fasting. But during the pontificate of Pius X, the octave was simplified. Pius XII abolished, however, abolished the octave in 1955 and gave the liturgy the rank of feast.

The Bible does not concern itself with the historical date of Mary’s birth. It first mentions Mary in the account of the Annunciation, the Incarnation of the Son of God in the womb of the Blessed Mother. But how did it come to be that we celebrate the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary on September 8?

September 8 was the former Byzantine New Year. Byzantine belongs to the Eastern Church where most if not all of our Marian feast originated. In the East, the Blessed Mother’s birth is celebrated as one of the twelve great liturgies. The title of this feast in the East is “The Birth of Our Exalted Queen, the Birthgiver of God and Ever-Virgin Mary”. The Church today still has in her keeping the oldest sermon for the liturgy; it was written by St. Andrew of Crete. Though the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary was celebrated on various dates throughout the centuries, September 8 predominated. In fact, even when Pope Pius IX instituted the annual celebration in honor of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in 1854, the September 8 feast of the Blessed Mother’s Nativity was the point of reference in determining that the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception be celebrated every December 8, exactly nine months prior to the traditionally held birthdate of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Mary in the Understanding and Teaching of the Church

This is not a complete course on Mariology. We cannot treat here each and every teaching of the Church concerning the Blessed Mother. We constrained our selves within the parameters of a general view of the Church on Mary so as to assist us in our reflection.

Lumen Gentium, The Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, penned and promulgated by the Second Vatican Council (1963-1965) contains the core teaching of the Church on Mariology. It situates Mary not outside, much less above, the Church, The People of God. It is in the Church that Mary belongs. Though first among equals, the Blessed Virgin Mary is one of us.

The arrangement of the chapters of Lumen Gentium, however, places the treatment on the Blessed Mother at its conclusion. It does not mean that she is the last among us. Rather, it implies that the unique role that the Blessed Mother has in the redemptive work of her Son completes the whole understanding of the Church about its true identity. It also brings to mind the teaching that “Mary is the Icon of the Church”. Everything that God desires the Church to be and all that the Church envisions itself to become have already been fulfilled in the Blessed Virgin Mary. Just as Mariology is a function of Christology, Ecclesiology – the study of the Church – is never complete without a word on Mary.

Moreover, it is interesting to note that the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council entitled this final chapter of Lumen Gentium, “Our Lady”. Presuming that the documents of the Second Vatican Council were carefully written, the Fathers of the Council must have deliberately chosen to entitle the last chapter of Lumen Gentium, “Our Lady” to emphasize that the Blessed Mother is one of us, ours, from us and for us.

Lumen Gentium, 55 has this to say:

“The sacred writings of the Old and New Testament, as well as
venerable tradition, show the role of the Mother of the Savior in
the plan of salvation in an ever clearer light and call our attention
to it. The books of the Old Testament describe the history of salvation,
by which the coming of Christ into the world was slowly prepared.
The earliest documents, as they are read in the Church and are
understood in the light of a further and full revelation, bring the figure
of a woman, Mother of the Redeemer, into a gradually clearer light.
Considered in this light, she is already prophetically foreshadowed
in the promise of victory over the serpent which was given to our
first parents after their fall into sin (cf. Gen 3:15). Likewise she is the
virgin who shall conceive and bear a son, whose name shall be called
Emmanuel (cf. Is 7:14; Mic 5:2-3; Mt 1:22-23). She stands out among
the poor and humble of the Lord, who confidently hope for and
receive salvation from Him. After a long period of waiting the times
are fulfilled in her, the exalted Daughter of Sion and the new plan
of salvation is established, when the Son of God has taken human
nature from her, that He might in the mysteries of His flesh free man
from sin.”

The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Light of Lumen Gentium

The birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary lies at the confluence of the Old and New Testaments. Her birth brings to an end the stage of expectation and promises concerning the Savior of the world. Her birth inaugurates the new times of grace and salvation in Jesus Christ, her Son. In this sense, Mary, the Daughter of Zion and ideal personification of Israel, is the last and most worthy representative of the People of the Old Covenant. At the same time, she is the hope and the dawning of a whole new world. In her the times are fulfilled and a new economy of salvation is established. Thus, the nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary is of immense significance.

Moreover, the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary is ordained in particular toward her mission as Mother of the Savior. Her life is indissolubly connected with that of Christ, partaking in a unique plan of predestination and grace. God chose her to be the mother of His Son even before she was conceived. This further strengthens the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. Mary was predestined to become the mother of the Redeemer of the world; thus, through the mystery of the Immaculate Conception, Mary was kept free from any stain of sin from the first moment of her conception onwards because she was the first to have been redeemed by her Son, Jesus the Christ, even before the actual events of the Lord’s Paschal Mystery. She has been predestined to be full of grace all throughout her life because through her Grace in itself shall appear. God’s mysterious plan regarding the Incarnation of His Son, therefore, embraces also Mary who is His mother. In this way, the nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary is inserted at the very heart of the history of salvation.

Conclusion

Merry Christmas! Mary…Christmas!

To remember the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary is to anticipate the birth of Jesus Christ, her Son. We see from a distance the Incarnation and Nativity of our Savior because we already stand on the day of His mother’s birth. Preparing for Christmas essentially includes rejoicing at Mary’s birth. Yes, indeed, Mary…Christmas. The birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary points to, leads to, and is ordained to the birth of the Lord.

Zacchariah, the father of John the Baptist, prophesied in his canticle, “The Dawn from on High shall break upon us, to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace.” Jesus is that Dawn. Mary is the horizon from where Jesus dawns. Jesus is that Light that shines on those who sit in a land of gloom and death. Mary is the vessel of that Light. Jesus is our Peace. Mary is our hope.

As devotees of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, we must strive to become what she has been in the economy of salvation. We are called to be the horizon from where Jesus dawns, the vessels of Him who is the True Light of the world, and the hope that brings peace and makes peace. Where we fail in these accounts, our devotion to the Blessed Mother is nonsense.

Because Mary is the Model and Icon of the Church, the Church must be a horizon for Jesus to permeate every human affair with the dawning of the Kingdom. The Church has to be ever-conscious of its missionary mandate to bring the light of Christ in all corners of the world. The Church, likewise, is ordained not only to be a sign of contradiction but, most importantly, always the sign of hope for every man and woman.

Because we are the Church, the Church becomes what we strive to be in cooperation with God’s grace. We are the Church, let us make the Church a mirror of our Blessed Mother’s love, fidelity, and obedience to its Lord and Master. The Church will not make us Marian. We make Marian the Church.

Mary…Christmas!