Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God

Mary, Mother of God

Commentary of the day
Saint Proclus of Constantinople : “When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman” (Gal 4,4)

Reading

Numb. 6,22-27.
The LORD said to Moses: "Speak to Aaron and his sons and tell them: This is how you shall bless the Israelites. Say to them: The LORD bless you and keep you! The LORD let his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you! The LORD look upon you kindly and give you peace! So shall they invoke my name upon the Israelites, and I will bless them."


Ps 67(66),2-3.5.6.8.
May God be gracious to us and bless us; may God's face shine upon us. Selah
So shall your rule be known upon the earth, your saving power among all the nations.
May the nations be glad and shout for joy; for you govern the peoples justly, you guide the nations upon the earth. Selah
May the peoples praise you, God; may all the peoples praise you!
May God bless us still; that the ends of the earth may revere our God.


Gal. 4,4-7.
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to ransom those under the law, so that we might receive adoption. As proof that you are children, God sent the spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying out, "Abba, Father!" So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God.


Lk 2,16-21.
So they went in haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known the message that had been told them about this child. All who heard it were amazed by what had been told them by the shepherds. And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart. Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just as it had been told to them. When eight days were completed for his circumcision, he was named Jesus, the name given him by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.


Copyright © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB



Commentary of the day

Saint Proclus of Constantinople (c.390-446), Bishop
Sermon no.1; PG 65,682

“When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman” (Gal 4,4)

Let all nature vibrate with joy and the whole human race exult, since women are themselves now honoured. Let all humanity dance in unison…: “where sin increased, grace overflowed all the more,” (Rom 5,20). The holy Mother of God has brought us together in this place; the Virgin Mary, purest treasure of virginity, the Second Adam’s spiritual paradise, place in which the two natures are united, place of exchange in which our salvation has been brought to pass, nuptial chamber in which Christ espoused our flesh. She is that spiritual bush which the fire of giving birth to a God did not burn, the bright cloud who bore him who is enthroned above the cherubim, the pure fleece that received celestial dew… Mary, handmaid and mother, virgin, heaven, the one bridge between God and man, loom of the incarnation on which the tunic of the union of natures was so skilfully woven, its weaver being the Holy Spirit. In his goodness, God did not disdain to be born of a woman, even though he who was to be formed by it was life in himself,. Yet if this mother had not remained a virgin, her childbearing would have had nothing extraordinary about it; then it would have been no more than a human being who was born. But since, after childbearing, she remained a virgin, how could it not point towards God and to an inexpressible mystery? He was born ineffably, without stain; he who, later on, would enter every closed door without hindrance and before whom Thomas would cry out as he beheld the union of two natures: “My Lord and my God,” (Jn 20,28). For love of us he who, by nature, could not suffer, was exposed to numberless sufferings. For Christ did not at all become God by degrees – absolutely not! But, being God, his mercy forced him to become man, as our faith teaches us. We do not preach a man become God but proclaim a God made flesh. To him was given as mother his own handmaid, to him who, by nature, was without mother and who became incarnate in time without a father.