Catholics throughout the world begin a new year with the priestly benediction in Numbers 6:24-26, echoes in Psalm 67, responsorial Psalm, while solemnly honoring Mary as the Theotokos, the Mother of God. We begin a new year on the new year’s day in receiving this priestly blessings, invoking God three times. How nice it is, indeed, to begin a new year with such a benediction for God’s be kept in His love, mercy, and peace, facing our shining face to His, in glorifying Him, in our praises with raised hands.
On this feast day to honor Mary as the mother of
God, the Theotokos, the Gospel
Reading (Luke 2:16-21) is about the latter half of the Nativity narrative and
the description of Jesus’ Abrahamic covenant circumcision (brit milah) with the Father, reflecting Genesis 17, on the 8th
day from his birth. The ending verse of the Gospel Reading for this solemnity
of Mary’s motherhood, Luke 2:21, reminds us that the incarnated Christ was
circumcised and named as Jesus on the eighth day from his birth, as Abraham
received this name as the new name, replacing his old name, Abram (Genesis
17:3-5), and was circumcised for the visible sign of God’s everlasting covenant
in his flesh (Genesis 17:9-14, 23-27). The fact that baby Jesus was circumcised
on his eighth day of life in accordance with the dictate of Genesis 17:12,
reaffirms that he is a son of Abraham, as shown through Joseph’s lineage
(Matthew 1:1-17) and as shown through Mary’s lineage (Luke 3:23-34).
Upon his birth, newborn baby Jesus, the incarnated Christ
in theophany, was wrapped in a swaddling clothes and placed in a manger (Luke
2:7), reminding that God the Father sent His only begotten Son to poverty. In
his homily for 2020 Christmas Midnight Mass, Pope Francis tells us that the
Nativity of Christ is rich in love, with a focus on the manger in which newborn
baby was placed, as God’s sign of His love in sending His Son (John 3:16) with
these words in his homily:
The
angel proclaims to the shepherds: “This will be a sign for you: a baby lying in
a manger” (Luke 2:12). That sign, the
Child in the manger, is also a sign for us, to guide us through life. In Bethlehem, a name that means “House of
Bread”, God lies in a manger, as if to remind us that, in order to live, we
need him, like the bread we eat. We need
to be filled with his free, unfailing and concrete love. …
….That
manger, poor in everything yet rich in love, teaches that true nourishment in
life comes from letting ourselves be loved by God and loving others in turn.
The manger is not just an indication of Jesus’ birth
to poverty – God sending His Son to poverty but a clear sign of His love that
works through poverty and darkness of humanity. And, this love of God, with a
sign of its object in the manger, is reflected in the parental love of Mary and
Joseph to Jesus.
Mary and Joseph pour their love on baby Jesus in
their care for him to ensure that he grows healthy, wise and strong, as this
baby born of Mary to poverty calls us to serve other (John 13:14) and love one
another as he does (John 13:34-35; 15:12).
The reality at the Nativity scene is more than poverty,
and as Pope Francis reminds, we need to focus on love in that scene of the
Nativity in poverty, beyond what is written in Luke’s Gospel Nativity narrative.
Perhaps, what is written in Luke’s Gospel – baby Jesus in a manger – is rather
symbolic to allude to the fact that he came to this world by his birth from
Mary’s womb is to become the Living Bread of Life (John 6:51), as a manger is a
feeding trough for livestock animals. No, Jesus, as the Living Bread of Life,
is not sent from heaven to feed animals but to feed the sheep of his Father, as
the Good Shepherd (John 10:11a, 14). And he offers his whole body and flood not
only to keep the sheep of his care alive but lead them to eternal life (John
6:51-58; 10:18). For us, this newborn baby, place in a manger, has been sent to
us, in poverty, rich in God’s steadfast love, chesed, and enhanced with the parental love of Mary and Joseph. So,
he has come to us to lay his own life for us (John 10:11b), to ransom us
(Matthew 20:28), and to give himself to redeem us from all wickedness to purity
so that we belong to him and serve one another with love as his disciples
(Titus 2:14).
This is so well reflected in the Orthodox icons of
the Nativity, as the manger in which Jesus is placed is described like a
coffin, and the swaddling clothes that wrap Jesus’ bod looks like burial
clothes for the dead. In the Orthodox tradition, the Nativity of Christ is
directly linked to his Death and Resurrection. Therefore, it is not just a poor
baby in a manger but to remind that the birth of Christ means the imminence of
our salvation through his Death and Resurrection. To save us, Christ has to
offer up his body and blood on the Cross and die once, so that he can show his
victory over death, by his Resurrection.
Christ was born to die for us, because he is the
embodiment of the ultimate love (John 10:18; 15:13), namely God (1 John 4:8,
16).
So, the Nativity is not only the first day of the
incarnated Christ’s life outside Mary’s womb but the very first day leading up
to his salvific suffering, death, and resurrection, revealing God, who is love,
in Christ’s Paschal Mystery. For this reason, He sent Christ the Son out of
love (John 3:16).
Now, how do we honor the motherhood of Mary to
Jesus, the incarnated Christ, in recalling the Nativity, which exposes in the
very love of God, which is coordinated with Mary’s maternal love? We need to go
beyond what is written in the Lucan Nativity narrative by applying what David
Tracy and Andrew Greeley call “Catholic imagination” in analogous correlation
to the Gospel narrative text.
First, imagine the Nativity scene, as described in
Luke 2:16-20….It is cold and dark as the sun has not risen yet. The incarnated
Christ is already born. Joseph is busy keeping the fire for warmth and light,
to ensure the safety and wellness of his wife, Mary, and baby Jesus.
As written in Luke 2:7, the incarnated Christ is
wrapped with swaddling clothe and placed in a manger, reflecting his birth to
poverty, the poor Holy Family, as well as his mission to fulfill Isaiah
52:13-53:12, through his Death and Resurrection, revealing the Paschal Mystery
in him.
Wrapping baby Jesus in swaddling clothes and placing him in a manger was the
best thing Mary and Joseph could do, in their given situation in poverty.
Nevertheless, as Pope Francis reflected in his Christmas Midnight Mass homily
in 2020, there is richness in love, and the love of Mary and Joseph to Jesus,
as the Holy Family, is reflected in Colossians 3:12-17, as this narrative is in
the Second Reading for the feast of the Holy Family.
So,
focusing on love in our Catholic imagination in the scene of Luke 2:16-20,
after the homage of the shepherds, who came and rejoiced in witnessing the
newborn incarnated Christ at his Nativity left to share their testimony with
others. Mary was lying to rest, as any mother upon giving birth does. And, she
is casting her motherly eyes of love and care on the very baby, the incarnated
Christ, whom she just gave birth to. She felt rachamim (compassion cf. splanchnon:
innermost part of the body, seat of emotions) for her Son, placed in a manger,
after coming out of her rechem – metra (womb). Though wrapped, it is not
warm enough. And it is a pity that he is put in the manger, which is for food
for livestock animals to be placed. So, though still tired due not only to
giving birth but also to a long journey from Nazareth, Mary took baby Jesus out
of the manger. She now holds baby Jesus
in her arms and brings him to her soft and warm breast for nacham-parakaleo (comfort). Her maternal instinct senses that her
baby needs her breast milk. He cannot be left in the manger, which is not a
place of comfort. Baby needs mother’s comfort and breast milk to survive and
thrive. So, Mary exposes her breast filled with her love and milk to breastfeed
her Son, who is the Son of God, baby Jesus.
The eyes of Jesus cannot see fully yet, as he was
just born. Nevertheless, baby Jesus immediately recognizes his mother’s breast
and begins sucking her warm milk. Now, Mary is providing another her feminine
part of the body, breast and its milk, after providing him with her womb to
grow until his birth. And, this is not a problem with Jesus’ divinity and
purity because Mary is the Immaculate Conception, filled with grace
imperviously against any corruptive effects of the Original Sin, from the
moment of her own conception.
Holding this milk-sucking newborn baby Jesus, once
again, Mary casts her motherly gaze upon him and contemplating all the things
about the baby and things relating to him (Luke 2:18)….recalling what Angel
Gabriel said about him at the Annunciation (Luke 1:26-38)…what was all about
the shepherd coming and overjoying over her baby boy (Luke 2:15-17).
It was before Mary was told by Simeon about her suffering because of this baby at presenting him to God in the Temple, fulfilling Exodus 13:12-15 (Luke 2:22-35). So, she must be just wondering how this special Son, the Son of God, just born of her, will grow up to become – just as any mother does in holding her newborn baby in her breast. And, while holding and breastfeeding him, keeping him comfortable and warmer with her motherly love, during that cold predawn hours, Mary gives benediction to him, perhaps, reflecting the priestly prayer in the First Reading (Numbers 6:22-27).
So imagine Mary holding and breastfeeding
milk-sucking baby Jesus giving this priestly benediction (Birkat Kohahim) to him:
The
Lord bless you and keep you!
The
Lord let his face shine upon
you,
and be gracious to you!
The
Lord look upon you kindly and
give you peace. (Numbers 6:22-24)
Let us also remember that the Holy Spirit on
Pentecost makes us the body of Christ with many parts, representing many gifts
of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:1-31; Ephesians 4:1-6). And he is always
with us, as our Emmanuel (Matthew 28:20), because he is also in this one body,
one Church, as its head (Colossians 1:18).
As God the Father has sent His Son, who is Theos-Logos(John 1:1), incarnating (John 1:14) through the Immaculate Conception,
Mary, the Mother of God, we become God’s adopted children, forming one body of
Christ, through the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. Christ, who pre-existed before time
and Creation, was sent out of God’s love, so that we also become one with His
beloved Son, so that Mary, the Mother of God, also become our mother, as well.
So, let us be held in Mary’s arms, enjoy her motherly
love, which represents Yahweh’s maternal love for comfort and consolation (nacham) (Isaiah 66:13, echoing Isaiah
12:1-2;49:13; 51:3,12; 52:9; 57:18; 61:2; cf. Jeremiah 31:13; Zechariah 1:17; 2
Corinthians 1:3).
The maternal love of Mary, pouring on baby Jesus,
the firstborn of Mary, represents the חֶסֶד/
chesed with רַחֲמִים/rachamim of
Yahweh, to bring תַּנְחוּם /nacham.
The chesed
of Yaweh is His everlasting covenant love-kindness with mercy, which is
masculine. And chesed has a strong
component of rachamim, which is
feminine and emotional, meaning compassion and mercy, to bring us nacham, which is feminine, meaning
comfort and solace. Rachamim is,
indeed, Yahweh’s motherly love for comfort, as this Hebrew biblical word is
associated with rechem, which means
womb of mother. Mary’s rechem (womb) symbolically represents
God’s rachamim (compassion and mercy)
for her firstborn Son to enjoy nacham
(comfort) until his birth. And, upon his birth, Mary’s breast serves as the
primary source of nacham (comfort)
for baby Jesus. Thus, through Mary’s womb and breast, the incarnated Christ
enjoys all the benefits of his Father’s chesed
with rachamim for him, as His beloved
Son. And, as the Mother of God, Mary serves as Yahweh’s handmaid to let His
will be done on to her – on to her womb and breast for baby Jesus, according to
His Word (Luke 1:38).
As one with Christ, held in his mother’s arms to her
warm breast, sucking her breast milk, let us also enjoy the same comfort that
baby Jesus enjoys in his mother’s arms, through the maternal love of God the
Father, embodied in Mary, the Mother of God, as well as our spiritual mother.
Mary is our spiritual mother, through the incarnated
Christ. As baby Jesus needs her breast milk to live, we do need pure spiritual
milk to grow in salvation (1 Peter 2:2) until we mature in Christ to fully
understand his teaching (Hebrews 5:12-13). And, Mary, who is the mother of the
incarnated Christ and of us, can always help us understand the teaching of her
Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ, through her spiritual milk. She points us to
listen to and do what her Son, has to say (John 2:5) and has given us the Holy
Rosary, to draw us closer to her Son. Through her apparitions, Mary, as the
Mother of God, as well as our mother, calling us, “children”, to make sure we
are one with him. In order to fully digest Christ’s teaching in our heart and
action of love, we always need the spiritual milk through Mary’s spiritual
breast.
May this new year, 2021, be graced with Mary’s
motherly comfort (nachum) of the
divine steadfast love (chesed) of
Yahweh with His mercy (rachamim), as
Mary the Mother of God is His blessed and favored handmaid to bring all of
these through her firstborn Son, named Jesus.
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