Christmas III – Mother of God

Christmas III – The Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God

Numbers 6:22-27; Psalm 67; Galatians 4:4-7; Luke 2:16-21

Infants wield a great power over us.

When we came across infants in the supermarket sitting in a cart, in a church pew in front of us, or in the stands at a ball field, they catch our attention. If we are having a bad day our frustrations and anger melt away at the sight of an infant. They remind us there are more important things in life. Calloused hands from hard manual work become as gentle as pillows when holding a baby. People with gruff voices adopt a falsetto and coo to an infant.

I expect that is what happened to tired shepherds when they found Mary, Joseph and the infant Jesus.  They melted. The reformer Martin Luther said that God became small for us so our hearts might be won over. It is this power over our hearts that infants wield – to win over our hearts. For God is not a possession to be had but a lover who desires to possess us. And when we are in love we look and take in the beloved with our eyes.

When we proclaim that Mary of Nazareth is the Mother of God we are foremost proclaiming that she, like every parents, a person who looks. Looks while holding their child in their arms, when they are trying to figure something out, watching them take their first steps, when they are quietly sleeping. Looking is a pathway to faith.

We set up in church and in our homes the stable scene. Shepherds, animals and magi are portrayed as doing nothing more than looking at Jesus. Later in the story, John’s Gospel records: “On the first day of the week, Simon Peter and the other disciple ran to the tomb. The disciple entered the tomb and found lying there the burial clothes.  He saw and believed.” 

[See John 20:1-10]

How much time do we spend just sitting in front of our stable scenes and looking, taking in what we see?

And what do we see?