Liturgical Colour : White

Brothers and sisters in Christ, today we celebrate together the feast of the Mother of our Lord and God Jesus Christ, that is our beloved Blessed Virgin Mary. Today we celebrate her birth into this world, or her nativity, much like we celebrate the birth occasion of her Son, Jesus Christ, at Christmas. We all know that the Blessed Virgin Mary had been chosen from among all mankind and from among all woman, prepared and ready for her role as the bearer of our Lord to come into the world.

This is what was meant when St. Paul mentioned in his letter to the Church in Rome, that God did have a predestined path for certain those whom He had chosen in their lives, and to those whom God had known, He would prepare them in the path of righteousness and gave them His Glory. And the best example of this would be Mary, who was prepared fully to be the Mother of God incarnate into flesh, and through whose actions, obedience and devotion allowed the Lord to exercise His work of salvation to mankind.

Mary was prepared such that out of all mankind, save for Jesus alone, who is fully God and fully man, Mary was exceptional in that she was conceived without sin, in what is known as the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and thus she was also born without the taint of sin into this world filled with sin and darkness. She was to lead a faithful, devoted and exemplary life, obeying the Lord in all of His commandments and laws.

Mary thus became like a light and a great beacon in the darkness of this world, lighting up the way for others, and for all mankind who desire to seek the Lord and yet they cannot find their way in the darkness. She was light and bright because firstly and primarily, she was the Mother of God, the one who bore the Lord and Saviour into the world, Jesus Christ, who is the One and True Light. Then, secondly, through her virtues and examples she also became a beacon and guiding light for all.

Thus this is why we honour Mary so much, not to the point as some alleged that we worship her, but instead what we do is we give her the honour and adoration even beyond that of any other saints or angels in heaven. She is after all the Mother of God and the Queen of All Saints and Angels, as we had just recently celebrated the Feast of the Queenship of Mary. She deserved all these not just because she is the Mother of Jesus our Lord, but also through her virtues.

Through her own birth, which we are celebrating together today, Mary foreshadowed her own Son’s birth, which marked the entry of our Saviour and Lord into this world. And yet, this occasion is no less grand, since we indeed celebrate the entry of the Mother of that Saviour, with whose cooperation, devotion and dedication to God and His plans made salvation possible for all of us.

That is why Mary is also often mentioned as even the co-Redemptrix and Mother of graces, in that as the mother of our Lord, she truly worked together with her Son our Lord as the mediator of our salvation. It is with the cooperation and the obedience of Mary that her Son, our Lord was able to fully accomplish His mission to save all of us, and it is with her gentle care and passionate dedication to Jesus that all was made possible.

And all of that was of course due to what God had planned for Mary, the special woman whom He had chosen to be part of the great plan of salvation which God had long planned for all of us His children. God also has His plans for each and every one of us, but it is also up to us, whether we want to obey Him or not. We can choose to follow Him, but we can also choose to go our own way, and more likely than not, into our own destruction.

Therefore, in this, we can model after our Blessed Mother Mary, who is truly exemplary in her life as a servant of God and as a devoted mother, who cared for the Child Jesus when He was young and who nurtured love in Him, that His love for us mankind would be even greater, the most beloved of all His creations. Thus, as we celebrate her birthday today, let us not just rejoice in her and with her, but also we should emulate her example and follow her ways.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, let us be more like Mary, in both our faith, and in how we show our love to one another. May Almighty God who made Mary perfect and good in His image also make us all good and perfect, which is what we all should aspire to be, to be like Mary in how we devote ourselves to Him. God bless us all. Amen.