The meaning of Christmas through Mary

Putting up the belen must signify something to us Filipinos. Here the figure of Mary adoring her infant son is as central to our celebration of the great event which has not ceased to capture the devotion of the faithful not only in our land but also in all the countries of the Christian world. Here in the Philippines, our cribs are not complete without Mary’s image.

We always think of Christmas as the virgin birth of Jesus. While St. Joseph stands guardian, we know by faith that down the centuries since Jesus was born of Mary we hail and bless the hour in which what happened at midnight in Bethlehem, in piercing cold is the reality of the Word of God with which the Angel Gabriel addressed Mary: "Hail, favored one; the Lord is with you... You will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you shall name Him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High... He will rule over the house of Israel forever and the power of the Most High will overshadow you, therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God" (Lk1:27.31-33).

Mary belonged to that part of the people of Israel who in Jesus’ time were waiting with heartfelt expectation for the Saviour’s coming. And from the words and acts recounted in the Gospel we can see how she truly lived steeped in the Prophets’ words; she entirely expected the Lord’s coming. She could not, however, have imagined how this coming would be brought about. Perhaps, she expected a coming in glory. The moment when the archangel Gabriel entered her house and told her that the Lord, the Saviour, wanted to take flesh in her, wanted to bring about His coming through her, must have been all the more surprising in her. "How can this be done, since I have no relations with a man?"

Mary, with a tremendous act of faith and obedience said ‘yes.’ "I am the servant of the Lord." And so it was that she became the "dwelling place" of the Lord, a true temple in the world and a door through which the Lord even now enters the world. There is not only the final coming of the Lord at a certain time. In a certain sense, the Lord wants always to come to the world through us. And He knocks at the door of our hearts. "Are you willing to give me your flesh, your time, your life?" This is the voice of the Lord who wants entrance in our age; He wants to the-enter human life through us. He also seeks a living dwelling place in our personal lives, to take on flesh, to be incarnated through us. This is the coming of the Lord; this is Christmas. Christmas is not Christmas without our participation in this incarnation of Jesus after the model of Mary who gave her momentous consent to God to conceive Jesus in her womb. Through our faith and humble obedience to His every will, Jesus comes among us. Everytime He does, it is Christmas.

At Christmas, the Word (Jesus, Son of the Father) is made flesh as in the womb of Mary, and dwells among us. It is the Holy Spirit Himself who formed Jesus, in the most pure womb of the Blessed Mother and it is the Holy Spirit who will effect the incarnation of Jesus in every human person who cooperates with faith and obedience like Mary’s. May Mary, the faithful virgin and mother, through her intercession create Christmas in our hearts, by grace which will enable us to give our ‘yes’ to God always. This way, Christmas will be ever with us now and forever.

Fourth Sunday of Advent, Luke 1:26-38.