Jesus, God’s Son, born of a woman, is human like us. And he wants us to be born once more and be divine like him.

Yes, we revere Holy Mary, Mother of God. But we are to take away or add nothing to the dignity or efficacy of Christ, the one Mediator (LG 62). In other words, we must avoid all “mariolatry.” If we let Mary take Jesus’ place. If we hope Mary, not Jesus, to save, forgive or redeem us. Then we should be born once more, so to speak.

And to be born once more in this regard means to know what counts more. And it counts more that she believes the Lord’s word than that she is Jesus’ mother. For, as St. Ambrose says, since she believes, she then conceives and gives birth to the Word of God.

But the saint just echoes Luke’s account. For we read that Jesus’ mother, brothers and sisters are those who hear God’s word and do it. And these are more blessed than the mother whose womb bore Jesus and whose breasts nursed him.

Yes, Mary is more blessed for making the Word of God the center of her concern and worries. So, we can say that it does not bother her that the Church keeps its gaze more on her Son than on her. That the title, too, of God-bearer has to do less with her being the Mother of God and more with her Son being both divine and human.

Nor does it bother her that there is a lot that she has yet to know. That is why she keeps all these things and ponders them in her heart. Lowly, she admits that she can learn even from other poor and simple folks like the shepherds.

That is how she is before us. And those who revere her, in truth, imitate her virtues (LG 67).

Lord Jesus, when we were born once more, we became God’s sons and daughters by adoption. As you became human like us, so may we be divine like you. Help us to do all that may be asked of us as sons and daughters by adoption. And bless us. Grant us the conviction that all that happens to us is for a reason you have (SV.EN VII:304). Teach us to keep things and ponder them in our hearts. To listen to you and ask you time and again what you would do if you were in our place (SV.EN XI:314). And make us strong so we may do what you show us, true to the covenant of circumcision of the heart. To the point of giving up our bodies and shedding our blood.

1 January 2024
Mary, Mother of God
Num 6, 22-27. 12-14; Gal 4, 4-7; Lk 2, 16-21