Mother of God, Wednesday – 01st January 2020 — Gospel: Luke 2,16-21
Mary, a Model to Transcend
Inspired by the Holy Spirit, Elizabeth is the first person who calls Mary as the Mother of God (1,43). She, representing all the women of Israel who had longed for the coming of God’s Messiah, recognized Mary as the vessel of God’s Salvation. She praises God for the way he has chosen to bless Mary, who is ‘mother of my Lord’. She singles out Mary’s faith as the instrument of her blessedness (1,45). Mary is mother of God because she bore in her womb the second person of the Blessed Trinity, the Son of God. She gave birth not only to the flesh of God but to God in the flesh. She conceived someone who from the very first moment belong to God. Biologically, Mary was mother because everything that happens in motherhood took place in her: conception, gestation, nourishment of the embryo, and giving birth. Mary shaped the human reality of Jesus, who is the fruit of the Spirit, in his genetics and biological inheritance. By the reason of the divinity of Jesus, Mary’s motherhood by which Jesus was humanly generated, she also becomes divine. Her divine motherhood is exhibited through the Holy Spirit, under whose action Mary goes from being virgin to being mother (Lk 1,35; Mt 1,18).
Mary’s part in the divine plan began with the annunciation of Jesus’ wonderful birth. Her motherhood of Jesus ended at the foot of the cross. With unselfish love Mary devoted her entire life in loving her son, Jesus. She became his first disciple as she watched and learned the ultimate meaning of his vocation in God’s plan. She becomes our model to be imitated in following her son. She initiated a lifetime of pondering with her first encounters with her beloved son. She invites us to encounter Christ like her and to extend that encounter with others as one of his contemporary disciples. We request her, the Mother of Jesus and the Mother of God, to intercede in this journey of encounter with her son and in passing on to others.
