9 months from the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception (December 8) is the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (September 8). Thus, the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a natural sequence to the Immaculate Conception.
Based on Bl. John Duns Scotus’ logically sound
argument on Mary being preserved from a stain of the Original Sin for the
universal primacy of Christ in his Ordinatio
III in Lectura in Librum Tertium
Sententiarum, Vol. XX. Pope Bl. Pius IX issued the doctrine of the
Immaculate Conception on the Blessed Virgin Mary in Ineffabilis Deus (1954). In its paragraph 1, Pope Bl. Pius IX
wrote:
This
he decreed in order that man who, contrary to the plan of Divine Mercy had been
led into sin by the cunning malice of Satan, should not perish; and in order
that what had been lost in the first Adam would be gloriously restored in the
Second Adam. From the very beginning, and before time began, the eternal Father
chose and prepared for his only-begotten Son a Mother in whom the Son of God
would become incarnate and from whom, in the blessed fullness of time, he would
be born into this world. Above all creatures did God so loved her that truly in
her was the Father well pleased with singular delight. Therefore, far above all
the angels and all the saints so wondrously did God endow her with the
abundance of all heavenly gifts poured from the treasury of his divinity that
this mother, ever absolutely free of all stain of sin, all fair and perfect, would
possess that fullness of holy innocence and sanctity than which, under God, one
cannot even imagine anything greater, and which, outside of God, no mind can
succeed in comprehending fully.
In the above excerpt from Ineffabilis Deus, Pope Bl. Pius IX explains that God the Father had
chosen Mary to be the mother of His Son in sending him to us incarnated in the
human flesh of Jesus to let him dwell among us (John 1:1, 14), even before time
began. Thus, with her Immaculate Conception, as planned by God the Father
before the Creation, it is evident that Mary was chosen to collaborate the
salvation and the redemption through the Son of God, the Christ, who
pre-existed and was predestined to be sent also as the head of the Church
(Colossians 1:15-18). Thus, Mary was conceived without any influence of the
Original Sin, as the Immaculate Conception and born of Anna in the fullness of
time, as described in Protoevengelium of James, in the context of the primacy
of Christ, who comes as the Second (New) Adam (Colossians 1:15-20). Therefore,
the Immaculate Conception and birth of Mary, the Blessed Virgin, is for the
coming of Christ as the Second (New) Adam, to serve as the Second (New) Eve, in
order to reverse degenerating effects of the Original Sin. And this is to
fulfill God’s prophesy against Satan in Eden:
I
will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers;
They will strike at your head, while you strike at their heel (Genesis
3:15).
The firstborn among the offspring of the woman is
Jesus the Christ, the firstfruit of Mary’s womb, and we, the follower of Christ
as his disciples, are among the offspring of Mary the woman, for she is not
only the Mother of Christ but also our mother, as well (John 19:26-27). Therefore,
we are, as the offspring of Mary, the Second (New) Eve, we fight the offspring
of Satan and his offspring (i.e. Ephesians 6:10-17; 2 Corinthians 2:8-11; 1
Peter 5:8-10; cf. Revelation 11:19-19:21) until Christ returns and destroys
Satan (Revelation 20:7-10).
Because it is not written how Mary was conceived and
born in the canonical scriptures, those who subscribe to the doctrine of sola
scriptura may find it uneasy to believe that Mary was conceived
immaculately without any trace of the Original Sin and to celebrate her birth
as a feast – although these sequential events of Mary are in the context of the
salvific and redemptive nature of the primacy of Christ. Given that the inexhaustible
truth of the Christ cannot be contained in the canonical scriptures (i.e. John
21:25), it is necessary to consult sources and traditions other than what is
written in the canonical scriptures for a better picture of Christ, especially
in reference to his relation to Mary, his mother, who has uniquely contributed
to God’s scheme of salvation and redemption of the offspring of Adam and Eve in
His protoevengelium (Genesis 3:15). Mary’s fiat through these words, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May
it be done to me according to your word”(Luke 1:38) at the time of
conceiving the incarnated Christ in her womb, has put her in the position of
the prime collaborator to God’s salvation and redemption of the humans through
His incarnated Son.
Why is it important to know and reflect the conception
and the birth of Mary the Blessed Virgin, who gave birth the incarnated Christ
and raised him as his mother with her loving husband, Joseph? It is because we
can better understand Christology and soteriology in connection to the life
span of Mary, from her Immaculate Conception to the heavenly Queenship upon her
Assumption. Because Mary is the
Immaculate Conception, being preserved from any effect of the Original Sin for
being full of grace (Luke 1:28, 30), the incarnation of God the Theos-Logos (John 1:1, 14) took place during the Annunciation by the power of the Holy Spirit (Luke
1:26-38). The human flesh for the incarnation of Christ must be preserved from
any effect of the Original Sin, because he is the ultimate unblemished Paschal
Lamb worthy of the perfect קרבן פסח
(Korban Pesach) (Exodus 12:1-14). So John the Baptist called Jesus the incarnated
Christ, “The Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world”( Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi)(John
1:29).
If you celebrate Christmas, the Nativity of the Lord,
then, it is natural to celebrate the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who is
the mother of the Lord, as called by Elizabeth (Luke 1:43), and as proclaimed
at the Council of Ephesus in 431 AD. For the Nativity of the Lord is a pivotal
point of the salvation history, the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a
clear sign for the protoevangelium
prophesy of God on the Second (New) Adam through the Second (New) Eve in
Genesis 3:15 to be fulfilled.
Zechariah, in his Benedictus,
metaphorically viewed the birth of Christ, the Second (New) Adam, as sunrise to
bring the light of salvation (Luke 1:78-79; cf. Isaiah 9:1-2; cf. Malachi
3:20/4:2). Then, the Immaculate Conception and the birth of Mary and the
Annunciation, all of these events of Mary were predawn work of God for Christ’s
salvific and redemptive primacy.
Mary was conceived free from any effect of the
Original Sin, as Bl. John Dunc Scotus argued and as Pope Bl. Pius IX
promulgated. Then, she was born of Anna,
whose husband was Joachim, as described in Protoevangelium of James (1-5). Not
just because there is nothing written about Mary’s conception and birth in the
canonical scriptures but because she came into being for the primacy of her
Son, the Christ, the scripture readings of the Feast of the Nativity of the
Blessed Virgin Mary (Micah 5:1-4a or Romans 8:28-30; Matthew 1:1-16,18-23) are
all about her Son, the Christ. None of these reading touches on Mary’s birth.
In the First Reading of the Feast of the Nativity of
the Blessed Virgin Mary (Micah 5:1-4a), foreseeing the seize of Jerusalem by
the Babylonians, Micah prophesized the coming of the Davidic Messiah-King after
the dark period of the destruction of
Jerusalem, shedding light into the post-exilic hope.
You,
Bethlehem-Ephrathah, too small to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall
come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel; whose origin is from of
old, rom ancient times. Therefore the Lord will give them up, until the time
when she who is to give birth has borne, and the rest of his brethren shall
return to the children of Israel (Micah 5:1-2).
Though the Israelites were to be handed over to the
Babylonians (Micah 5:2a) for sinning against God (Micah 1:1-16), God was not
going to leave them in abandonment but save them by sending His Son as the
Davidic King born in Bethlehem.
The above prophecy of the coming of the Davidic
Messianic King also echoes God’s words to Nathan for David (2 Samuel 7:10-16; 1
Chronicles 17:9-14).
In the Gospel Reading (Matthew 1:1-16, 18-23), we see
the Davidic lineage of Jesus, who was born of Mary, whose husband was Joseph of
the Davidic lineage, called as son of David by Gabriel (Matthew 1:20).
The Micah’s prophecy of the coming of the Davidic
Messianic King’s birth in Bethlehem-Ephrathah was fulfilled when Mary gave
birth to the incarnated Christ in Bethlehem (Luke 2:7), as God had predestined
her to be the Immaculate Conception, and so she was born free of any effect of
the Original Sin as the daughter of Anna and Joachim.
As Isaac was so to Abraham and Sarah (Genesis 18:9-15,
21:1-7), as Samuel was so to Elkanah and
Hanna (1 Samuel 1:1-20), and John the Baptist was so to Zechariah an Elizabeth
(Luke 1:5-25, 41,57-60), Mary was very special to Joachim and Anna, because God
sent her in response to the grieving cries of this righteous couple for having
Joachim’s offering rejected by Rubim, a priest, for being childless (Protoeveangelium of
James, 1).
And this is how the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin
Mary is written in Protoevangelium of James, 5:
And
her months were fulfilled, and in the ninth month Anna brought forth. And she
said to the midwife: What have I brought forth? And she said: A girl. And said
Anna: My soul has been magnified this day. And she laid her down. And the days
having been fulfilled, Anna was purified, and gave the breast to the child, and
called her name Mary.
Upon her birth, Mary was consecrated and offered to God to serve His will, raised in the Temple from age 3 (Protoevangelium of James, 6-8), and her marriage to Joseph of the Davidic lineage, was arranged by the temple priests according to a sign from God (ibid. 9).
The optional First Reading (Romans 8:28-30) reflects
God’s will for those who love Him (Romans 8:28), and it has made us predestined
to be conformed to the likeness of His Son (Romans 8:29), resulting in justification
and glorification (Romans 8:30). For this, God sent His only begotten Son
through Mary, who was predestined to be conceived without any trace of the
Original Sin for having special full grace (Luke 1:28, 30), and who has
consented to be the mother of the Son of the Most High with her fiat (Luke
1:38).
Because the Blessed Virgin Mary was conceived and born
in the perfect state of grace, she is free of any effect of the Original Sin. This
made her suitable for the incarnation of the Theos-Logos (John 1:1) in
the unblemished human flesh in her womb and give birth to him. So he dwells
among us, in flesh (John 1:14) and in the Holy Spirit (John 14:18, 28), and he
makes himself available as the living bread of life (John 6:51) in the Sacrament
of the Holy Eucharist in order for us to be conformed to his likeliness, as God
wills (Romans 8:28). Therefore, the Immaculate Conception and the nativity of
the Blessed Virgin Mary are also for us to be justified in the likeliness of
the incarnated Christ, her Son, so that God is glorified.
The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, sequence to
her Immaculate Conception, is a significant event in God’s salvific and redemptive
scheme. Mary’s existence is totally for her Son and his primacy. Therefore, the
Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a point of our reflection on how Mary’s
role is for us to be justified, saved, and redeemed, for God’s glory.
No comments:
Post a Comment