happy birthday
Today we celebrate the birthday of the Blessed Mother. This is a unique celebration because birthdays are not usually celebrated in the church. When we celebrate the feast of the saints, we do not celebrate their day of birth but their birthday to eternal life – their death, in short.
But there are three exemptions to this rule.
First, we have the birthday of the Lord himself, then the birthday of John the Baptist, the precursor of the Messiah, and the birthday of Mary, the Mother of our Lord. The last two birthdays are related in intent – the birthday of John the Baptist and most especially the birthday of Mary are celebrated because they announce the dawn of redemption – their birthdays are directly related to the coming of the promised messiah. Their births announce the beginning of the fulfillment of the promise.
Now this is an important thought we often miss. If we celebrate this beginning of the fulfillment of the promise, it is because ours today is nothing but a promise. Why are some of us going to mass everyday, why do we struggle to avoid sin and grow in virtue everyday – because Jesus promised us eternal life with him in heaven, where all our struggles and dreams will find fulfillment. Everything in our life of faith revolves in a promise. All hope, all Christian waiting, all Christian joy, all our acts of faith, and charity are all hinged on a promise as it was before among the Jews. For those who came before the messiah – these two feasts, the birthday of John and the Blessed Mother, celebrates the beginning of the fulfillment of the promise. While we who came after, and we who look forward, hold on to the same celebration of these two birthdays, for the strength of the promise in which all our hope rest now, come from this fulfillment. If God was true to his promise then, he will be true to his promise now.
It is something to be thought about deeply, something we often forget – that ours is a belief on a promise, and it is a promise assured by the fulfillment of a promise in the past, a promise made true beginning with the birth of Mary and the birth of John the Baptist.
Think about this today – our strength, our love, our persistence in virtue, our sometimes painful and burdensome struggle in the parish, our hope, is founded and motivated by a promise. This promise was made by a God who two thousand years ago made good his promise in Jesus beginning with the birth of Mary.
But there are three exemptions to this rule.
First, we have the birthday of the Lord himself, then the birthday of John the Baptist, the precursor of the Messiah, and the birthday of Mary, the Mother of our Lord. The last two birthdays are related in intent – the birthday of John the Baptist and most especially the birthday of Mary are celebrated because they announce the dawn of redemption – their birthdays are directly related to the coming of the promised messiah. Their births announce the beginning of the fulfillment of the promise.
Now this is an important thought we often miss. If we celebrate this beginning of the fulfillment of the promise, it is because ours today is nothing but a promise. Why are some of us going to mass everyday, why do we struggle to avoid sin and grow in virtue everyday – because Jesus promised us eternal life with him in heaven, where all our struggles and dreams will find fulfillment. Everything in our life of faith revolves in a promise. All hope, all Christian waiting, all Christian joy, all our acts of faith, and charity are all hinged on a promise as it was before among the Jews. For those who came before the messiah – these two feasts, the birthday of John and the Blessed Mother, celebrates the beginning of the fulfillment of the promise. While we who came after, and we who look forward, hold on to the same celebration of these two birthdays, for the strength of the promise in which all our hope rest now, come from this fulfillment. If God was true to his promise then, he will be true to his promise now.
It is something to be thought about deeply, something we often forget – that ours is a belief on a promise, and it is a promise assured by the fulfillment of a promise in the past, a promise made true beginning with the birth of Mary and the birth of John the Baptist.
Think about this today – our strength, our love, our persistence in virtue, our sometimes painful and burdensome struggle in the parish, our hope, is founded and motivated by a promise. This promise was made by a God who two thousand years ago made good his promise in Jesus beginning with the birth of Mary.
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