23rd Week of Ordinary Time C – Monday – Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Birthdays are a very special occasion because they allow us to reflect on the gift of life. The gift, however, which is even greater to be a part of his salvific plan. In other words, we're born into this world, but we still have to be born into the next. And so, God has a plan to make that happen for us if we cooperate with him.

Saints Joachim and Saint Anne, the parents of the Blessed Virgin Mary, cooperated with God in a way where they placed their trust in him. Given that they were sterile, they couldn't bring forth an offspring and they were crushed because of this. Both in society, they were shunned among their peers but they also felt that perhaps, maybe they were even accursed by God, because to not be able to bring about an offspring meant that the Messiah, the long awaited one, would never come through your marriage, and so people thought of you as useless.

And so, God, even as we see in today's first reading from the prophet Micah, chooses the least likely to manifest his great power. Micah says,

You, Bethlehem-Ephrathah,
too small to be among the clans of Judah,
From you shall come forth for me
one who is to be ruler in Israel;
Whose origin is from of old,
from ancient times.

 In other words, He (Jesus) is the First and the Last. Like King Melchizedek, we do not know precisely of his true origins. Bethlehem is where he's going to be born, but his origins are from everlasting, because he is God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God.

 And the one he chose to be his mother, He also had her in his eternal mind and heart before she was even conceived in the womb of Saint Anne miraculously after much prayer. He knew our Blessed Mother from eternity. Saint Joaquin and Saint Anne gave themselves to prayer and to penance, begging for the gift of a child. An angel finally appears to Saint Anne and says to her that not only will she give birth to a child, but that this child would be spoken of until the end of time by all peoples.

Saint Anne made a promise right there and then, that if this came to pass, she would dedicate the child in the temple to the service of God and so it was, according to the Protoevangelium of Saint James, which is an extra biblical document, but nevertheless important in the eyes of the church.

 We know that Saint Anne and Saint Joachim took their beautiful, precious daughter and presented her to the One that is all beauty, the One who is all good, the One from whom all holiness springs. And they bring her to the temple, into the custody of the priests chosen by God to serve him, and to teach the little ones according to the faith. She's brought up fearing God, loving him, but forming a true and personal relationship with him, even in her young and tender age.

 My dear brothers and sisters, Mary is a miraculous gift not only to her parents, but to the entire world as we know. Her last words to us in Scripture, the greatest homily of all, were these words: “Do what he tells you.” This is the key to a life full of beauty and meaning and purpose here on earth, and the key that will open up the gates of heaven for us if we cooperate with what he has done for us by listening to his counsels, listening to his directives, listening to his word. There's no wiser woman or man in this world than the woman or man who heeds the words of our Blessed Mother to listen to her Son, and may she bless you this day. In the name of the father, and of the son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.