Mary, the Holy Mother of God
Luke 2:16-21
None of us can choose our own mother. If we could, would she not be the most perfect, wonderful woman, mother possible. That is what Mary is. And that is why God, who can choose, chose her.
There is a story told of a young boy who was chosen at school to lead the parish May procession. He could hardly wait to get home to tell his parents of the great honour he would have. As he burst in the door of his home he all but knocked over a visiting neighbour who just happened to be an unbeliever. The young boy was ecstatic, and provoked the neighbour to ask “what is all the fuss about?” “All this importance given to Mary is ridiculous”. The young boy was quick to defend, “But she is the Mother of God!” The irreverent neighbour responded; “All mothers are the same – she is no different to your own mother.” That seemed quite reasonable to the young lad and after a moment of reflection and a little confusion, he blurted out “Yes, that’s true, but what a difference in the sons!”
That’s the whole point of what we celebrate today. It is precisely because Jesus is so different from the rest of us that Mary is so different from all other mothers. Mary is unique because she was chosen by God to give flesh to the Word, because she was saved from any sin by the salvific mission of Jesus and because she was “full of grace” by the power of the Holy Spirit.
She has been given to us, the Church, as our Mother too and in that she becomes a model for us. We can look at her Faith to learn how to respond to God’s call. We can listen to her gentle instruction to us to “do whatever he tells you” and, because of her, we can have Hope in the promises made to all of us who are Faithful.