“Mom” by Brian Flanagan, Fiat Ventures
Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God
This year the Christmas readings became more “real” to me. My wife and I had our first baby in October, so now when I hear about Jesus “wrapped in swaddling clothes”, I actually know what that means. It’s when you wrap your baby up like a burrito. We haven’t tried laying him in a manger though.
I feel like I can relate to Mary and Joseph in a new way. We were at a Christmas Party with our baby this past weekend, and anybody and everybody wanted to hold him and touch him. But the germs! Come on people! Mary and Joseph must have felt the same when this slew of shepherds and magi stopped by with no hand sanitizer in sight. And I can certainly sympathize with Mary what it must have been like for the Little Drummer Boy to come “play his best” just as she finally got him to sleep! My upstairs neighbors have a little drummer boy of their own. If he’s playing his best though, I’m not sure if I’d like to hear his worst!
It’s important for us to remember that Christmas is REAL. God becoming man in the Incarnation is REAL. It really happened. In a moment in history, God took on our human nature and literally became one of us. It wasn’t in some ghost-like way that he appeared into the world. He had a real cry when he was hungry. He had actual dirty diapers (and Joseph couldn’t just order more from Amazon Prime to be delivered via drone to the stable). Baby Jesus had a real smile as he grew and started to play.
God became a real baby, and he had a real mother. He had all the potential mothers in the world to choose from, and he chose Mary to be his mother. But we don’t just call her the mother of Jesus, we call her the Mother of God.
But God has been around for like a bajillion years, how can He have a mother? Well the title Mother of God actually refers more to who Jesus is than who Mary is. Mary is the mother of Jesus, Jesus is God, so therefore Mary is the Mother of God. Calling Mary the Mother of God highlights for us the fact that her son wasn’t just a great preacher or an insightful guru, but that he was truly God Himself, and Mary had the honor of bringing Him into the world.
With Mary, it’s never all about her. It’s always all about Jesus. In the Gospel reading for this Sunday, we catch the tail end of the Christmas story with the shepherds coming, and then we hear that “Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart.” She played a huge part in the story of our salvation, but it was very much a humble part. She watched, she prayed, she reflected, and her attitude was never “Look at me, God chose me to be his mother!” but it was always “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my savior. For He has looked with favor on His lowly servant.”
And think how much Jesus loved his mother. More than anyone else has ever loved their own mother. How peacefully he would have slept in her arms (except for the Little Drummer Boy incident). I look at my own baby and as comfortable as he is when I’m holding him, sometimes I can hold him, bounce him, and rock him all I want, but he won’t calm down until he’s in his mother’s arms.
Here’s where the story of Mary, Mother of God gets even better; Because on the Cross, Jesus gives her to us as our spiritual mother. When we need comfort, when we’re tired, when we’re spiritually hungry, we can always go to Mary our mother, and she can be “Mom” to us just like she is for Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.