Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means God is with us. The Church celebrates today the nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It is a feast that celebrates, as it were, the ‘humanness’ of Mary even as it affords us a reason to aspire to greatness in our life of faith. The feast is celebrated on September 8^th, not because of any historical fact, but rather because today’s date is exactly nine months after the Solemnity of Immaculate Conception. However, a lack of any historical backing to the choice of the feast’s date does not lessen the significance of the celebration.
Mary occupies a special place in the history of salvation because of her role as the mother of the Savior. As a matter of fact, most of her feasts are built around the mystery of our salvation, for she stands together with (rather than apart from) her son. Nonetheless, Mary remains her own individual even as she stands with her son in the salvific mission. And, to me, her remaining her own individual was the reason she was able to stand with her son until the bitter end. God did not spare her from being fully human. A celebration of her birthday is thus a recognition of this fact.
Among the Gospel passages that demonstrate the ‘humanness’ of Jesus is the genealogy accounts found in Matthew and Luke. Jesus is presented in the genealogy accounts as having human ancestors, men and women that played central roles in the salvific mission of Jesus. While some of these men and women were famous and carved themselves a niche in the history of their people (David, Solomon, Hezekiah, Ruth, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob), some were as ‘ordinary’ as they come. Mary can be said to have been among the ‘ordinary’ names that are found in the genealogy accounts.
God chose a human Mary to be the mother of God’s only Son. It was a choice that not only elevated Mary but also the human race as well. It is a choice that should fill us with joy and hope – joy because God has elevated the human race to a divine status; hope because no one can be said to be out of reach of greatness. God chooses the ordinary in order to accomplish great things. This is the story of Mary. This is our story as kinsmen and kinswomen of Mary.