In the liturgy, as renewed after the Second
Vatican Council, there are only two octaves left, for the two main solemnities
of the liturgical year, that is, Christmas and Easter. Which means that these
two solemnities continue to be celebrated for eight days: it is as if on each
day of the octave it were Christmas or Easter. In the liturgy of an octave you
can find texts which say that “today” that mystery has been accomplished: for
instance, if you check your missal, you will see that one of the entrance
antiphons of this Mass precisely begins by saying: “Today a light will
shine upon us, for the Lod is born for us…” Even the gospel takes up again the
story of the shepherds. It is the same gospel as at the Mass at Christmas dawn.
But today’s selection adds a verse, to let us know what happened on the eighth
day: “When eight days were completed for his circumcision, he was named Jesus,
the name given him by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.” The
events we specifically commemorate today are the circumcision of the Lord,
according to the law, and the conferral of the Holy Name of Jesus.
Why should we celebrate Christmas and Easter
for eight days? Is just a day not enough? The mysteries we celebrate on these
solemnities are so rich, so profound that one day is not enough. We are invited
to contemplate with calm these mysteries, so that we may discover the riches
hidden in them. So, today we are still considering the mystery of the Lord’s
incarnation: as John says in his gospel and we repeat three time a day in the Angelus,
“the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us;” as we say in the Creed, “by the
Holy Spirit [he] was incarnate of the Virgin Mary, and became man.”
The wording of the Creed reminds us of a
character not marginal at all, the Virgin Mary, of whom the Word of God took
his flesh. Of course, the Son of God would have become man in a different way;
but he chose to become one of us thanks to Mary, through her, in her, from her.
The Blessed Virgin is a figure indissolubly linked to the mystery of the
incarnation. On this point, we read in the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
“‘God sent forth his Son,’ but to prepare a body for him, he wanted the free
cooperation of a creature. For this, from all eternity God chose for the mother
of his Son a daughter of Israel, a young Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee…”
(#488); “Called in the gospels ‘the mother of Jesus,’ Mary is acclaimed by
Elizabeth … as ‘the mother of my Lord.’ In fact, the One whom she conceived as
man by the Holy Spirit, who truly became her Son according to the flesh, was
none other than the Father’s eternal Son, the second Person of the Holy
Trinity. Hence the Church confesses that Mary is truly ‘Mother of God’ (Θεοτόκος, Theotokos)” (#495).
That is why the liturgy celebrates today the
solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God. It is no distraction of our
attention from the mystery we are contemplating; it is one of the aspects, not
the least, of that mystery. Indeed, it helps us to grasp the true identity of
the Child born of her. If we simply called Mary “the mother of Jesus,” his Son
could be a great man, a prophet, even the Messiah, but nothing more. Instead we
call Mary “the Mother of God,” thus confessing that her Son is the Son of God
as well, God himself. Invoking Mary as the Theotokos is a profession of
faith in the divinity of Jesus: if Mary is the Mother of God, it means that
Jesus is God. Through Mary we are led to the core of the mystery of the
incarnation.
It is wonderful to start a new year with the
light emanating from the Incarnate Word and under the patronage of the Holy
Mother of God. Let us turn to her, to ask for her protection. Of her we had the
Son of God; with him may she give us plenty of blessings.
Q
