Friday in the 22nd Week of Ordinary Time, September 8, 2023

The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Romans 8, 28-30

Brothers and sisters: We know that all things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined he also called; and those he called he also justified; and those he justified he also glorified.

The earliest evidence we find for the celebration of the Birth of the Virgin Mary comes by way of hymns used in the region of the Holy Land in the 500’s.  This coincides with the dedication of a basilica built on the spot where Mary was thought to be born in Jerusalem, and named for the Feast.  Later, the the Church of St. Anne was built in that place.  The feast commemorates the mortal origins of the Blessed Virgin who was to conceive the Son of God in her pure womb so that his Flesh was entirely drawn from her and from no man.  Today we celebrate the gift of this most holy woman to the world by Almighty God to be our Mother also.

In the First Reading used for the Mass of this Feast, St. Paul teaches the mystery of Divine Providence: “All things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.”  From before the beginning of time, Almighty God designed the plan whereby he would create the universe, create the human race and put it in the world, and bring those who love him and do his will to eternal life.  The Virgin Mary was key to this plan.  Our first parents brought sin into the world and caused the wounding of human nature.  The members of the human race descended from them fell into sin themselves and wandered far from God’s will.  Yet Almighty God continued to love his creatures and worked through their sins in order to bring about a great Redemption.  And through the twists and turns of the millennia, beginning with Adam and Eve, a way was made for a woman of singular virtue, created without the stain of the Original Sin and herself blameless of any personal sin.  She would continuously carry out the will of God through her indomitable will to do so and the help of grace.  And in the fullness of time, of the house of David, the Virgin Mary was conceived and born.  She is “the glory of Jerusalem, the joy of Israel, the honor of our people” (Judith 15, 10).  The Son of God smashed the head of the ancient serpent with her foot.  She comes forth “as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in array” (Song of Songs 6, 9).

An early tradition of the Virgin’s birth, recorded around the year 100, is found in the apocryphal “Gospel of James” who tells of how the righteous and elderly Joachim and his wife Anne desperately wanted to have a child, then how an angel promised them a child “who will be spoken of through the whole world.”  According to this tradition, her birth was a simple one, unattended by marvels or heavenly displays.  We also learn from this work the charming detail that at six months the baby Mary had grown strong enough to stand and to walk seven steps to her mother Anne.

Paul says, “Those [God] foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son.”  Paul teaches us that knowing from all eternity who would choose to obey him and who would disobey him — despite many, many opportunities to repent — Almighty God disposed to provide the graces necessary for the salvation of the just, for no one can be saved by his own efforts but only in conformity with God’s will assisted by his grace.  Mary received, at the very instant of her creation, the fullness of grace in light of the choices she would make to serve God without reservation.  Because of this abundance of grace, she could carry out her mission “so that [Christ] might be the firstborn among many brothers.”  By “firstborn”, Paul means the “head” of those whose nature he would share and who would do the will of God after his model, fulfilling the words of the Lord Jesus: “For whosoever shall do the will of my Father, that is in heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother” (Matthew 12, 50).  

“And those he predestined he also called; and those he called he also justified; and those he justified he also glorified.”  We humans have the ability to choose to do God’s will.  It is not forced on us nor is choosing it made so difficult as for it to be nearly impossible for us.  We can see God’s will for us and to prefer it as a good, and grace assists us to make the actual choice to do it.  Further grace enables us to perform it.  This is the proper Christian understanding of predestination.  God foresees the work of our wills and aids them to accomplish his.  The first assistance we require the Church calls “justification”, by which a person’s sins are forgiven and he is filled with sanctifying grace making him fit to be glorified in heaven and predisposing him to do good works.  The Virgin Mary was prepared by grace to give her consent to God’s plan for her, first to live as a Virgin and second to be the Mother of his Son.  And she did give her consent freely and joyfully.

You and I are likewise called to eternal life in heaven and through the intercession of our Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, may we also conform ourselves to the will of her Son.