September 8, The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
The nativity of Mary
The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham became the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob …Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab. Boaz became the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth. Obed became the father of Jesse, Jesse the father of David the king. David became the father of Solomon, whose mother had been the wife of Uriah. Solomon became the father of Rehoboam …Josiah became the father of Jechoniah and his brothers at the time of the Babylonian exile. After the Babylonian exile, Jechoniah became the father of Shealtiel, Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel … Azor the father of Zadok. Zadok became the father of Achim, Achim the father of Eliud, Eliud the father of Eleazar. Eleazar became the father of Matthan, Matthan the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary. Of her was born Jesus who is called the Messiah. Mt 1,1-16
Today is the day when we celebrate the Nativity of Mary of Nazareth, the Virgin Mary, Jesus’s mother. Mary is the queen of the church, the one who, by her own admission during the apparition to Bernadette of Lourdes, was born without original sin: “I am the Immaculate Conception”. A truth that has become a dogma of the church. The city of Milan has dedicated its cathedral to Saint Mary Nascent. Since her birth birth, she has been the promised bride of the Holy Spirit, the one who represents all mankind in her marriage to God. She is the woman in whom the “Biblical Justice” is accomplished, which, by God’s part, means loyalty to his promises, and, by the part of humanity, is the loyalty to the Alliance. This absolute truth is admirably described by the prophet Isaiah’s invocation: “Let justice descend, o heavens, like dew from above, like gentle rain let the skies drop it down. Let the earth open and salvation bud forth; let justice also spring up! I, the Lord, have create this” (Is 45, 8). All our personal stories find their roots in this justice. As the priest said this morning during the celebration of the Mass at the Sanctuary of Saronno, they can also be little stories, but they are blessed by the Lord and are part of the great river of the history of salvation. They are little stories like those of the people listed in today’s reading by Matthew, who describes the source and the first part of the history of salvation that encompasses them; in the end, they open up as in a river delta and mouth in the great sea of God’s mystery. This mystery, which has cosmic dimensions, is celebrated also by us with our little morning prayer; we celebrate its event, because every family who in the morning stands up and begins to pray, firmly takes part in this story.