Peace and all good things!
This month of September we celebrate a number of significant feast days. September 8 is the liturgical celebration of the birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It occurs every year, exactly nine months after the celebration of the December 8 Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. Ordinarily, the saints’ feast days correspond to their day of death, or their “birth” into eternal life. Only in the case of the Blessed Mother and St. John the Baptist do we celebrate their historical birthdays.
In the case of the Blessed Mother, her birthday is significant because it represents the predestined moment in history in which God’s promises would be fulfilled. St. Paul talks about this in his Letter to the Galatians:
I mean that as long as the heir is not of age, he is no different from a slave, although he is the owner of everything, but he is under the supervision of guardians and administrators until the date set by his father. In the same way we also, when we were not of age, were enslaved to the elemental powers of the world. 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” (4:1-6)!
Today’s feast reminds us that we are neither slaves nor even heirs who have not yet come of age; rather, right now we are true children of God because in Christ we have the same Father in heaven and the same Mother on earth. Mary is the fullness of time because God loved her in such a unique way so as to choose her to be the Immaculate Mother of his Son. Each of us is loved is a unique and personal way by God because He has chosen us individually in Christ to call God “Our Father” and to truly be his children…
