This is a reflection on the Mass readings of the day.
Today’s readings celebrate the culmination of God’s radical, ingenious plan to reopen the door to heaven, slammed shut by the decision of human freedom, without circumventing or reversing that freedom. They describe His revolutionary, explosive, unexpected, unmerited intervention in human history, which He executes in a world darkened by human freedom, without curbing that freedom in the least.
How does He do it? How does He reverse what human freedom has chosen, while respecting that freedom?
The answer: It is human freedom that gives Him the permission, the perfect “yes” that welcomes Him and the eternal destiny He has desired for the human race back into the realm of the world. It is the express, verbalized, concrete “yes” of a specific person, a young maiden in about the year 0 BC in a little settlement in a middle-eastern province of the Roman Empire. It is this maiden whom the Fathers of the Church call the “new Eve,” because the exercise of her pure, perfect, unhindered freedom allows for the reversal of the damage done by the free choice of the original Eve.
In today’s gospel, we see in human, earthy terms the genealogy of Christ, the eternally-planned lead up to the moment of God’s radical intervention through Mary’s “yes.” Today’s Old Testament reading predicts the place, and the end of the gospel ties the Incarnation of Christ back to Old Testament prophecies. All of Scripture points toward and hinges on this pivotal event in history.
Today we celebrate the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the figure who enables the revolution of God. She is not the protagonist of that revolution. But she is the model of the facilitation of God’s infinitely powerful and effective divine plan and action. As we contemplate the birth of this little baby girl to Sts. Joachim and Anne, as we look down on the beautiful face of this sinless child, we contemplate the most unique embodiment of the victory of Christ’s death and Resurrection. For it is by the application of the grace He merited, reversed in time, that Mary comes forth into the world free of the taint of Eve’s initial choice. Since the creation of man, this baby girl is the freest creature who has ever lived.
Among all the mind-blowing virtues displayed later in life by this simple girl, one that shines forth as critical for our imitation is the simplicity of her trust embodied in her “yes.” Do I believe that if I give such a free and complete “yes” to God, He will leverage that as He did hers to launch His revolution in the souls of today?
Ideas for conversation with the Lord: Contemplate Mary as a baby, no more noticed by the world than any other child. Contemplate her simple, earthy upbringing. Compare this unremarkable reality to the remarkable destiny that is hears as Queen of the Angels, partner in Christ’s redemption. Now, contemplate the earthy reality of your existence. Is God unable to make of your life a catalyst of salvation, as He did Mary’s? Ask him to enlighten your heart and mind so that your life may be as gloriously meaningful in His plan of salvation as He has designed it to be.
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