A SPECIAL NATIVITY
The theme for our meditation today is: A Special Nativity. The Catholic Church celebrates today the feast of the nativity of Our Blessed Mother, the Virgin Mary. This celebration has a long tradition on how Christians gave their respect and devotion to Mary. In today’s feast, we want to ponder the mystery of her birth and to know the story line of her families. At the beginning of the Gospel of Matthew, there is an account about Mary who gave birth to Jesus, and Joseph as the legal adoptive Father of Jesus, descended from the family of the King David.
The very first reason we celebrate the Virgin Mary's birthday is because she is associated with Jesus Christ. It is reasonable and well acceptable that if Jesus is indeed a glorious Lord, the Son of God and the Redeemer of mankind, then the mother who had conceived and had given birth to Him must also be a noble and a holy woman. If the birth of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, has been greatly believed and remembered throughout the ages, then the birth of His mother must also have the same honor and best memory from all the believers.
There is another reason which is in relation with her very particular gift from God, that the Virgin Mary is full of grace. If the fullness of grace had been established by God from the first moment of her conception, and therefore, Mary was immaculate from her mother Anna's womb, then the following stages such us during 9 months of life in the womb and then the actual birth itself, Mary should had also been full of grace. We celebrate the glorious birth of Our Lady today is to mark the continuation of giving honor to the Lord for what had happened to Mary by the divine intervention, namely her conception that was immaculate or free from the original sin.
This special nativity of Mary indeed reminds us of a number of special births as narrated in the scriptures. We mention just three of them that happened before Mary herself. Isaac was born to Abraham and Sarah who were already very old to have a child. God is understood to have make the offsprings of mankind with a very special way. In the book of Judges chapter 13, it tells the story of Samson who was born especially because God had planned to help the Israelites through the role that Samson would undertake. Then the prophet Isaiah revealed himself that he had been specially formed by God from the time he was in his mother's womb (Is 49.5). These all illustrate that a special birth must be through God's work and with God's decisive will.
For us Christians, our participation and being adopted sons and daughters of God through the Lord Jesus Christ really make us special. This means that each of our birth into the world is also special. It is impossible to think of a person born special and gifted with divine grace, but he or she was not in connection with the Lord who is the source of all graces . We were actually born special, because God gave us also special vocation for each to be realized in life.
Let's pray. In the name of the Father ... O most loving God, may with this special feast of the nativity of Virgin Mary, we will become more faithful children of Our Lady following the example Jesus Christ, our Lord and savior. Glory to the Father ... In the name of the Father ...