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September 10, 2023: Happy Birthday to the Mother of God
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This past Friday they were singing Happy Birthday in heaven. Even though she’s a little shy at the age of about 2040, Blessed Mary still enjoyed the rendition of Happy Birthday as sung by the best of the best, the choirs of angels. I heard through the heavenly grapevine the angels actually practice their singing quite often in preparation for this special day. Not that perfection needs practice. They just enjoy coming together to join hands and voices once a year (even though there’s no time in eternity) to venerate, as we do, the Mother of God. One would think Mary’s nativity is as joyful as their own day of creation.
I’ve written it a few times already, so pardon me if it sounds familiar or boring, but the Nativity of Blessed Mary is one of my personal favorite liturgical celebrations throughout a year full of awesome celebrations in our faith. It is so good and blessed to be Catholic, a part of God’s Church that celebrates the many facets of what and who brings the Lord’s spiritual home together in praise, thanksgiving, and worship. As we know in our Catholic faith, and it would be nice if all others knew the same, the virtue of worship is reserved for God alone. Meaning the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Trinity – the Three Persons in one God – are the only Persons we extend our worship to.
We know this can be a serious issue with the temptations that surround us in our daily living. We can and will be tempted to worship, say, money. This is a temptation many folks have going on. I must admit, I have to be aware and very careful myself that I do not fall into this worldly trap. My prayer life must be steadfast and constant, true and focused on the command of Jesus, that one cannot worship and serve both God and mammon. Our job here, if you will, is to be humble enough to enjoy and see any monetary gain in this short life as a blessing, and not as something that we control, or controls us. It’s a fine, tricky balance to figure out and live what I would call a religious comfort level with finances, to the point where we do not worship the greenbacks, but use them wisely and in a Christian way of living.
I consider the life of a person I know who recently died. I was blessed to come to know him rather well over the past 15 years. He was what we would consider to be a wealthy man. Worked hard his entire long life that extended well into his 90’s. Amassed a goodly amount of green paper. But, if you were blessed to meet this guy, take a close look at him, and consider what his finances might be, you would never see him as the Rich Man in the Gospel story of the Rich Man and Lazarus. You know, the guy who was so rich in family, with many brothers, as well as rich in finances, that he lost all capacity to address the simple needs of a poor man who sat begging at his front door. The gentleman I refer to would have noticed the poor man sitting there, and would have addressed the situation prompto. He dressed simply, spoke without airs, was in love with his Catholic faith, had no internal need to control an entire city or town, let alone his family. His life was the combination of being financially rich through his hard work, alongside the virtue of humility accompanied with a profound faith in Christ. Not many can combine all these parts of human living and be successful at it. He did not worship money. He worshipped his Jesus, and did so in faithful obedience.
So, when we consider the most blessed life of our Blessed Mother, the truest, most precious feminine pearl in human form, we see Our Lady not in terms of worship, but in what we call veneration. To venerate is not to worship. They are very different ways of addressing someone. To venerate any person is to show the utmost respect toward them. To admire said person with the deepest form of adoration we can muster, in this case, in our spiritual lives. Our Blessed Mother, God has determined, is most worthy of the highest form of veneration. There is no one else on her level, if you will. Mary is number one on the veneration list of human beings. As it should be. Is anyone else the Mother of God, as determined by the Council of Ephesus in 431? Can there be a “higher” mother than the Mother of God. I think not! Can there be any greater human relationship with God than that of being the Mother of the Son of God who became flesh to save us from our sins? I think not! To venerate our Blessed Mother is to address her and love her in the healthiest ways. Ways that God has made possible and expects from all humanity. Everyone. For there is only one Mother of God. She has no equal in this matter of how God has been born through her, come into the world He created, taking care of the business of salvation. It was made possible through the person of Blessed Mary of Nazareth. For us Catholics to have an active, healthy, devoted relationship with Our Lady is to embrace and accept in our hearts what God has given to us with his Divine authority. And, calls us to be part of the joyful singing on her day of birth, where the singing voice of no Catholic is silent toward Mary.
In terms of veneration and worship, and who receives either one, the Gospel of the wedding at Cana is the perfect story for understanding these two forms of human attention. After telling her Son that the wine has run out, and the Son telling his Mother that his hour had not yet come, Mary tells the servers to “do whatever he tells you.” She lays the serious issue of a Jewish wedding running out of wine, which could be akin to an Irish Pub in Dublin running out of beer, and Mary lays the crisis onto the lap of the One who wants to take on all our issues. He’s not a Savior who runs away from homeless, poor, desperate, hungry, sick, addictive people. Jesus says, “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.” He has the power to address all the world’s affliction and that of every individual all at once. If only we listen to Mary’s words, “Do whatever he tells you.” In other words, Mary’s foremost desire is that we give our attention to her Son. But not only our attention in times of great need, but more so our worship. Where there may be any hint of personal worship directed at Blessed Mary, she deflects all of it to its proper place; the heart of her Son Jesus. “Do whatever he tells you” is a summons on the part of Our Lady to humbly kneel down and allow Jesus to be God for us. He’s the one who can turn our dirty water into delicious wine.
You may ask, “What about miraculous events that happen through the intercession of any Saint in the Communion? Are they not the ones who are cause for such grand power and healing?” Well, yes and no. God allows us to use their incredibly holy lives as lives of intercession before him through our prayers. There is not one Saint who stands on their own, and this includes Blessed Mary. They are all part of God’s Communion of sub-intercessors – which is God’s creation and doing – whom the Lord allows to participate in the intercessory love that God has for his most prized creation, the human person. The perfect humility of Mary allows Our Lady to “know thyself” in the perfect awareness of her being the one who points to the “Godness” of her Son. All prayers prayed to Blessed Mary always end up in the lap of her Son Jesus, who hears the pleading of his Mother on our behalf. As they say, what Son can say no to his Mother? And this is Mary’s joy, a joy that fulfills her continued, and unique mission in salvation history.
The nativity of Mary, September 8, the date that falls exactly nine months after her Immaculate Conception in St. Anne’s womb, is – and should be - a special day each year for all Catholics for obvious reasons. It was the day long ago when God shifted things into high gear regarding the redemption of our human brokenness and our broken world. It was the day when our movement back to God took one humongous, giant step forward. Could God have saved us without the plan he had in mind with Mary as Mother of Jesus, bringing forth into the world “a child to be born for us?” Of course. God can and will do whatever he wants to do whenever he wants to do it. Who can stop the will of God from fulfillment? No one! But Mary of Nazareth was the central figure on the initial blueprint of God’s masterpiece drawing on bringing the human race back to God. After the second Person on the Holy Trinity and the third Person of the Holy Spirit, Mary remains the most pivotal figure of drawing human souls to God our Father. However, all worship is due to God alone. This is a fundamental Catholic teaching in the part of our faith known as Marian theology.
So, when the angels prepare for weeks and weeks in anticipation of singing the most glorious version of Happy Birthday to the Mother of God, even though there’s no time in the eternal realm of heaven, they belt forth their version of this famous tune every earthly September 8 in the most perfect way of veneration. We are welcome to join in their chorus.