Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

September 8 is the day when Catholics celebrate the birth of the Virgin Mary. The Pope celebrated this day in the great Marian shrine at Mariazell, Austria. Perhaps fittingly it poured rain, not because of any shortcoming of the Church, the faithful, or the Holy Father, but because if Mary were to be born today her day would be of sadness and not joy. Can you imagine if Mary tried to bear Jesus in modern times? The profanity of the doctors who would seek to touch her, the skeptics who would set traps for her to “sin” within, and the perverts who would look for the money shot of her photographed undressed. As cruel as the times were 2000 years ago, with wars, slavery, poverty, ignorance and idolatry, in an important way they were purer and cleaner times. People were simply people, and most of them sought nothing other than to stay alive, have shelter, a family, and know God, in whatever form they believed. Today people seem to only want to sling dirt on that which seems slightly cleaner than themselves, in order to bring the other to their level. God knew that the Prophets, from the earliest through the final Prophet, had to appear when they did in order to save humankind and lead them back to him, the only and only God the Father (Christian) also called Allah (Muslim). Surely if he had waited any longer, humans would be unrecognizable at all today. So there is no chance that Mary would have been born later, to bear Jesus, than she was, because the Israelites had already strayed for the last and worst time. But if we wanted to imagine what it would have been like for Mary to be born today, surely she would have been born in a conservative Islamic country. There, gynecologists would not have invaded her privacy, and neighbors would not have sought to tarnish the virtue that was given to her by God. She would not have had to see endless condom commercials, and had women test to see if she is a latent lesbian. No, if for some reason God had sent Mary to be born nowadays instead of two thousand years ago, he would have had her born in a society that would have valued and protected her virtue, and that is where there is still some modesty, still some purity, still resistance to abortion, and still recognition of man-woman marriage alone, and that is a conservative Islamic country. Ironic thought is it not? I delight when I see the reverence that Muslims give to Mary who was born two thousand years ago, the pure vessel of Allah to bring forth Jesus Christ, light of the world. I delight too, of course, when those of my own faith, Roman Catholics, celebrate and revere her. Though, too often I still see a certain cynical twist in even superficially genuine reverence. Again, it seems one must go among the poor and the technologically less sophisticated to find the true understanding of Mary and her virtue. She was truly the one of a kind, shaped by God, not to be born again or seen until the end of days when she is with Jesus Christ returned. But my greatest wish is that in these increasingly depraved times that people look back to how she was when she lived, pure, modest, the mother of the Apostles and the Church, as a touchstone to pull humanity out of the deepening cesspool that it is becoming. Rather than wonder how short a skirt she would wear, whether she gained weight during pregnancy, if Beyonce is hotter than her, and other stupid profane thoughts that are not pertinent to when humans were really alive and really lived as genuine authentic beings, and not as plastic people as they are today, reach back to who she truly was as humanity’s life saver, the floatation device for the sinking society. She bore the Messiah two thousand years ago. Today dozens of parents do not even remember they have a baby in their car when they rush to work, and leave the baby to die forgotten in the back seat (prayers for the comfort of those this has happened to). Millions of parents consume drugs and alcohol around their children, and pass this on to them. Would Mary be born today? Like I said, God knew the Messiah was needed two thousand years ago, not later. But as an intellectual exercise, what do you think about Mary being born today? Not when people cannot even be respectful of any bearer of life and when purity is to be challenged and mocked. Imagine the laughter of her non believing bankers and tax preparers. “Let’s see if she can give some extra to Caesar ha ha ha.” It makes my head hurt to even think of the mindset of people today toward their neighbors, say nothing of toward anyone who would be holy. No, the time of the Prophets, the Holy Family, the founding Fathers and the Apostles was completed when it was completed, and there is no new “news” since the news that was given by the Angel Gabriel those many years ago.

One final thought. The Holy Spirit is the guardian of Mary’s virtue and reputation. The Holy Spirit knows all, sees all and remembers all.

So, my greetings and blessings to all who celebrated this day and recalled the nativity of the pure vessel, the living Ark of the New Covenant who mothered Jesus Christ.