Mass readings for the Solemnity of Mary, The Holy Mother of God:
Numbers 6.22-27 Psalm 67.1-2, 4-7 Galatians 4.4-7 Luke 2.16-21
The arc of Mary’s story is amazing. We may say of Our Lady that she is remarkable as being vouchsafed from original sin and filled with grace, but that is a state of being that is difficult for us to comprehend. We all by baptism were released from original sin, but by our continuing sinfulness, we often lack grace – to be like Mary is to be our common ambition; and being more like her, to draw near to our Lord Jesus Christ.
No, it’s her story I’m focussed on today; that of her starting out as a mere unmarried girl of the village, then fiancé of a local tradesman, to being the Lord’s handmaid, then she is Mother of God, and then Queen of Heaven. Not bad for a girl from a backwater like Nazareth! I would hope that my story, and your stories will share a similar narrative trajectory. That we go from spiritual rags to riches, from zero to hero, from the outskirts of nowhere in this world to the heavenly banquet hall of our divine king.
We know that this is accomplished by God’s grace; but we look at Mary, and we know it also depends upon our response. She responded in obedience, and in doing so famously says, “Behold, the handmaid of Lord…” She accepts the calling of God, as a servant would, but God does not reduce her to servitude. This is not an act of submission per se; rather it is an exercise of virtue – she does the right thing. It’s a difficult choice she is presented with; and the consequences of it unimaginable in the moment, but she knows that her problems don’t amount to anything when set beside the salvation of all humanity through the coming of Christ – to do the right thing is to do good. The right thing to do is to say ‘yes’ and then deal with what follows. The right thing to do, is of course, the only thing to do – Mary, could do nothing else because of her intense desire to please God, to know, love and serve Him in this life so to be with Him eternally in the next.
And she’s had her trials already – the suspicious pregnancy that may have set tongues wagging, then late in pregnancy being dragged across country with Joseph for the registration; giving birth, not in the comfort of her home, surrounded by her female relations, the village midwife, but effectively on her own, in a stable, with few or none of the things she had likely prepared for the day of her child’s birth. Yet already in the story we hear today, for all that was so distressing, there is encouragement: the shepherds arrive to tell their fantastic story. Her assent to serving God as human mother of the incarnation is already having its positive, salvific effect. Poor shepherds have had an incomparable experience similar to hers: angels have spoken to them and given them the Good News. It’s starting, and spreading, and all by her obedience, not to some dread lord, not some tyrannical king, but obedience to what is right and good, in service to the one who is the source of all that is justice, truth and love: God.
And in doing the right thing, even as she will struggle to comprehend who her son is throughout the story we have in the scriptures, and doubtless this was something that continued for the rest of her days, she nonetheless is someone who continues to do the right thing. This elevates her, bestows dignity upon her that surpasses all earthly honours.
Today is a day of holy obligation. We come together in obedience to the Church’s summons to worship, but I would hope more in joyful response to the greater call from God. I know many struggle with the obligations. The obligation of Sunday mass, of Holy Week, and then there are these two additional days: Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. Is it not enough to be obedient to the moral code as laid out in our tradition, to be the good person in relation to others; to not cheat or steal, to not gossip and so malign others, to put in our day’s work, attend to our families, especially when we have the extra time allowed us by the holiday season? Why not let us all alone? Why this further obligation?
We come here because before all other moral obligations, we have an essential and foundational obligation. We are to observe weekly, and in coming today, we fulfil it annually. That is the obligation to recognize there is a God, and that He is the source of all that is good, right, just and true. And the first good thing, from which all the good we do flows, is to know consciously that good is of God; and to live intentionally in God’s service is good for us. We come here today, not because its convenient, or because we had the time available; we come because it is the right thing to do.
Our young people struggle with this. I did as a teenager and young adult because I thought that in my knowing right from wrong, I would live my life accordingly; and choose the right. That sadly proved to not be the case.
Very often, choosing the right thing to do is difficult. The pressures to relent, to compromise, to even do what we know to be wrong and evil because, well, that’s the way society is going, or because your continuing employment depends on it; or the government is saying “do it or else.”
We need to practice doing the right thing, even in these modest exercises of our spiritual muscles in getting here for an hour or so, and confessing the truth of God not just privately, but quite publicly, and seeing around us, that we’re not alone in the struggle to do the right thing, to live virtuously, to seek holiness.
Doing the right thing has had consequences for me; it’s brought me inconvenience, but more severely, times of distress and suffering. It’s brought me into conflict with others, and often when I’ve felt very much alone in that conflict, feeling that because of my obedience to the teaching of Christ, I was going to lose everything. I don’t know how many of us have been in such dire circumstances, but it happens to Christians all the time, around the world, even as I speak somewhere there is a brother or sister in faith being pressured to turn from what is right and good, what is of God, for the sake of career, family, or their very lives.
As I said, our ambition is to be more and more like Mary. To not only say ‘yes’ to our God but to find ourselves joyful in that we could never have said ‘no’. To then engage in life’s struggles, to endure the trials, but also be alert to the miraculous signs of encouragement; to those who come to us with their own stories of encounter with God, of their hearing the Good News for the first time, to ponder these, not in puzzlement, but in wonder at God’s love, and how he has done right by us.
Amen.