September 8 is marked as the feast of the Nativity
of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It comes in the
9th month from the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the
Blessed Virgin Mary, December 8. The birth of Mary, along with her Immaculate
Conception in St. Ann’s womb, is indispensable to God’s salvific plan for the
humans.
She
stands out among the poor and humble of the Lord, who confidently hope for and
receive salvation from him. After a long period of waiting the times are
fulfilled in her, the exhalted Daughter of Sion and the new plan of salvation
is established, when the Son of God has taken human nature from her, that he
might in the mysteries of his flesh free man from sin (Lumen Gentium, 55).
Though Matthew (1:18-25) and Luke (1:26-56, 2:1-7)
describe how Mary gave birth to Christ, upon conceiving him by the Holy Spirit,
there is no description on how Mary was conceived and born in the canonical
scriptures. However, the Protoevangelium of James, an second century apocryphal
gospel, gives an account of how St. Ann (Anna) and St. Joachim became the
birthparents of Mary. The narratives of Mary’s conception and birth are found
in the first five paragraphs of the Protoevangelium.
The path that Ann and Joachim had to go through to give birth of Mary was rather rocky – as to be reflected in the challenging path for Mary and Joseph to bring Jesus to this world.
According to the Protoevangelium of James, Joachim
was a wealthy and pious man. However, high priest, Rubim, rejected Joachim’s sacrifice
offering in the Temple with these harsh words, “It is not meet for thee first to bring thine offerings, because thou
hast not made seed in Israel” (Protoevangelium of James, 1). Thus, Anna and
Joachim grieved greatly over being childless as a sign of God’s displeasure.
However, Joachim realized that childless was not necessarily a sign of curse as
even Abraham and Sarah were childless for many years, upon consulting the
registers of the twelve tribes of Israel. Then, he went to the desert alone and
fasted for 40 days and nights, saying to himself, “I will not go down either for food or for drink until the Lord my God
shall look upon me, and prayer shall be my food and drink”(ibid. 1).
In the meantime, Ann was in painful grief, thinking
that she would be a childless widow, as her husband, Joachim has left her and
went into the desert, saying, “I shall
bewail my childlessness. And the great day of the Lord was at hand”(ibid.
2). To this, Ann’s maid-servant, Judith, said, “How long dost thou humiliate thy soul? Behold, the great day of the
Lord is at hand, and it is unlawful for thee to mourn. But take this head-band,
which the woman that made it gave to me; for it is not proper that I should
wear it, because I am a maid-servant, and it has a royal appearance”
(ibid.), as to support her in her grief. However, Ann rejected Judith’s care,
saying, “Depart from me; for I have not
done such things, and the Lord has brought me very low. I fear that some wicked
person has given it to thee, and thou hast come to make me a sharer in thy sin”
(ibid.). Ann sure was in her worst grief, deeply sunk into self-pity, similar
to Job’s struggle (Job 3-31) and Peter’s rejection of Jesus (Luke 5:8).
Nevertheless, by the grace of God, Anna came to her senses, just as Job did
upon (Job 42:1-6), and began to pray to God, “O God of our fathers, bless me and hear my prayer, as Thou didst bless
the womb of Sarah, and didst give her a son Isaac (ibid.). Of course, God
heard her plea in prayer and responded through an angel, “Anna, Anna, the Lord hath heard thy prayer, and thou shalt conceive,
and shall bring forth; and thy seed shall be spoken of in all the world
(Protoegangelium of James, 4), and Anne replied, “As the Lord my God liveth, if I beget either male or female, I will
bring it as a gift to the Lord my God; and it shall minister to Him in holy things
all the days of its life”(ibid.).
Then, an angel also spoke to Joachim, saying, “Joachim, Joachim, the Lord God hath heard thy prayer Go down hence;
for, behold, thy wife Anna shall conceive”(ibid.). And, he came out of the
desert and returned to Ann. In seeing
him, coming to her, Ann said, “Now I know
that the Lord God hath blessed me exceedingly; for, behold the widow no longer
a widow, and I the childless shall conceive”(ibid.).
Following the above-described difficult path that
Ann and Joachim had to go through in trusting God’s providence, the paragraph 5
of the Protoevangelium of James describes that as Joachim was justified by God
with his offering accepted this time, Ann
gave birth to a girl, named Mary. On that day of Mary’s birth, Ann’s soul was
magnified. Upon the fulfillment of the purification, she gave her breast to
Mary.
As the Protoevangelium of James 1-5 tell, the birth
of Mary was, in a way, similar to the birth of Isaac ( as Joachim prayed for)
and the birth of Samuel (1 Samuel 1:1-11).
Just as Isaac and Samuel have their special places, respectively, for
the coming of Christ in the lineage of the Abraham-David, Mary also has her
special place in bringing Christ to this world, as reflected in the Gospel
reading in celebrating the Nativity of Mary (Matthew 1:1-16, 18-23). To better appreciate the Gospel reading to
contemplate on Mary’s birth, it is helpful to read the Protoevangelium of
James, 1-5. At the same time, we will develop an insight on rather a convoluted
path to fulfill all the Old Testament prophecies of salvation of the humans
through Christ by understanding where Mary and her birth fit in this convoluted
path.
