what do we celebrate during birthdays? birthday of BVM

What do we celebrate during birthdays?  We celebrate life, we celebrate achievements, we celebrate the gifts of persons and friends, the gifts of health and wealth, the gift of surviving and enduring for another year.   And for whatever reasons, during our birthdays, we give ourselves a break, become the star for a day, become the object of appreciation and affection and even adulation, until the day after when everything comes back to normal again. This is what we celebrate during birthdays.

Our liturgy however does the opposite.  When the liturgy celebrates a person’s achievements and giftedness and endurance; when the liturgy shows appreciation and affection and adulation to a person for a life well lived, it does not celebrate birthdays.  Rather it celebrates death.  And that is the reason why we celebrate the feast of saints on the day they died.  In death, we as a worship community, celebrate death, the death anniversary.

However, when the church celebrates a birthday, which is very seldom, it celebrates purpose – it celebrates the why of their births, the why of their lives, the reason they were born.  In a birthday we celebrate God’s plan for the person.  This is the kind of birthday celebration the church celebrates. Mary’s birth is the dawn of salvation, Mary’s birth is the appearance of the morning star announcing that the sun is about to shine in our darkness.  Mary’s birth makes us look forward with eagerness to Christmas, to the birth of the Savior, Jesus, when the long-promised God made man, word made flesh, the Emmanuel is to be finally fulfilled.  This is celebrating purpose, this is celebrating the reason of her birth. In our first reading from the letter of Paul to the Romans God called us according to his purpose, God foreknow us he already knows us even before we were formed in our mother’s womb, and God predestines us, God guides our destiny, everything that happens in our lives so that we can fulfill our purpose.  Again, this is the kind of birthday celebration the church celebrates. 

In celebrating purpose, in celebrating what God predestines us to do and to be, is not however as if we are robots programmed to do God’s bidding and purpose. No.  Like Joseph we can still discern and choose either to flee from the impending tragedy of the scandal of an unwed pregnancy or face it as a righteous person would, unwilling to expose her to shame.  

Like Mary we are not programmed robots doing God’s bidding and purpose. No.  We can still discern and choose either to deny God’s invitation to become a mother thereby freeing ourselves from the burden and responsibility or we can choose to embrace it together with the sword that pierces the heart as we say our own, “let it be done unto me.”

And so how do we celebrate our birthdays?  Is it merely about long life or is it how I have lived my life, long or short, in the service of others?  

How do we celebrate birthdays?  Am I merely celebrating wealth and success and prestige or is it a celebration of kindness, of altruism, of generosity and sharing beginning with my family, overflowing to those who work under me, kindness overflowing to my co-workers, my neighbors and most especially to those in need. 

How do we celebrate birthdays?  Is it merely a celebration among family and friends and kin, or is it a celebration with the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind, people who cannot repay our kindness?

In a birthday celebrating purpose we are not merely celebrating for a day. In fact we are celebrating an attitude, a mindset, a way of acting, a way of doing things, a way of relating.  We are after all predestined to be conformed in the image of God’s Son, Jesus - to be with him to be like him, to act and decide like him – again in our first reading from the letter to the Romans - to be conformed to the image of his Son.

So how are you today?  Nahidlaw man ako sa inyo after sometime nga wala gid ako makamisa diri. If you ask me how I am, I am one of the 10.9 million who are unemployed in the Philippines.  Wala ako assignment.  So a parish asked me to organize somewhat their social apostolate programs.  A week ago may isa ka scholar nga nangdaya.  Nanay niya labandera, tatay niya no where to be found. Imbes nga 5,000 ang ibayad niya sa iskwelahan from the parish ginbayaran ya lang 300 kag gin-bulsa ang nabilin kag ginsulat-sulatan ang resibo.  Bisan sa modus niya bal-an mo gid nga manol sia mangawat.  In other words wala naanad mangawat.  Inday gin-ano mo ang kwarta?  With tears in her eyes she said Sir Padre (she keeps on calling me sir padre) first time ko makakapot sang amo to kadako nga kwarta, daw mabuang ako, pinanghagad ko ang akon mga utod, apat sila, nga makaon – sa jolibee, sa Mcdo, sa Mang inasal, tapos namakal tshirt.  

After reading newspapers everyday pangawat diri minlyon diri, minilyon didto makapasalamat pa ako sa Dios nga ginbendisyonan pa kita sang sini nga sahi sang mga tawo sa aton palibot - a reminder that there is still innocence, there is still naivete in practice of vices, and that there are still people so poor 5,000 pesos is jackpot.

The church today celebrates the birthday of our Blessed Mother.  We are celebrating her purpose, her reason for existing.  

So how do you celebrate your own birthday?