we all know has no bibilical reference, but we know that she was
born from the womb of St. Anne, without any taints of sin just as she
had been conceived without sin. This then is a day when we rejoice
because the Mother of our Lord and Saviour has been born to us.
It is also it seems to me a day to focus our partnership around God.
Mary in her life has free choice, like us -it is she that makes the
choice to say 'yes' to God. Out of this 'yes', this response, comes a
birth which is also a birth -giving, an act of liberation which
changes and renews, and transforms. This is a model for our
relationship and partnership with God. Like Mary, we too wait upon
God and by God's grace respond with our 'yes'.
Our response to God is at the heart of what it means to be the
Church. Renewal, hope, growth, love, worship depend upon our
entering into the mystery and pleasure of God as Mary did. It would
be a sad day if we look at ourselves and see that we are not open to
God and our lives not transformed by worship, by the unity we get
with uplifted hands at the altar. We can put any distractions aside so
we like Mary are free in our decisions, free to respond to the gift of
God if we wait and say 'yes' in love and faith and worship.
I would suggest that our other consideration on this Feast Day of
Mary is to look at her song,the Magnificat. This tells us that what
Mary shares with us is not limited to individuals - rather it extends
universally to the poor, the hungry, the humbled, the lost. A question
is then raised; does God love the poor and rich alike? The partial
answer from Mary's song is 'no'. God is on the side of the poor and
oppressed. What does this mean for us here at St. Michael's and who
indeed are the poor and oppressed of today?
It is a challenge for us all, and there are no easy answers to the
difficulties we all may have in living with the inequality and injustice
in our world. We see that in the Magnificat where God breaks the
power of the mighty and gives strength to the feeble.
Much of the answer takes us back to Mary's gift of faith in her saying
'yes', her letting go and letting be. She trusted. She allowed her son
to grow up free from control. She watched him suffer and die. Her
'yes' allowed him to be. So for us here living out our earthly vision of
Mary and the earthly realities of our lives means that we have our
'yes', our vision of God, our being together at mass and our
journeying together should allow others to be truly themselves. This
wonderful place will continue to be a welcoming place, regardless of
age, sex, race and we all leave any prejudices we may have on the
door mat as we enter. That will mean that all of us here, following
the example of Mary, the Mother of God, and our Mother, can feel
healed, accepted, loved , transformed and liberated.
On her Nativity we give thanks to God for Mary. We ask for a
deepening of our dependence upon God and our partnership
together with him. That will mean that with the example of Mary's
song we can all be free to be ourselves in the light of God's love, to
say 'yes' to him and 'yes' to one another.
It is therefore only proper that we should today commemmorate the
Nativity of The Blessed Virgin Mary, and in so doing give thanks for
her devoted motherhood of Jesus, and for in being our intercessor so
that we can say with confidence, "Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus." Amen
