The Nativity of Mary: What Mystery Is Celebrated?

If, for just one moment, ecclesial tradition did not exist, could we speak of the Nativity of Mary? 

In reality, it is not a biblical datum; nevertheless, it is a historical one: if Jesus is truly man, He owes this to a true mother belonging to a true history, located in space and time, which derives from another, preceding history: the birth of Mary. 

This simple line of reasoning is at the same time a challenge to the typical phrase “where is that in the Bible?”, perhaps because the sense of the Word of God and of salvation history is still a mirage in which the various figures exist, suspended in the clouds of religious thought, without having a face, a history, a death, or a hope. 

Having clarified the context of our theme, let us move to Jerusalem, the city of God for the Hebrews, where, in worship, we see the anamnesis (remembrance) of the old Covenant in the Temple, and where we have the mimesis (signifying) of the new Covenant with the birth of the new Ark of God’s one and eternal Covenant with mankind. In this Holy City, typologies shape and structure the language of feasts and shrines. For if we have a liturgical feast for Mary’s death, how could we not have one for her birth? It would be impossible to think that what was the goal of pilgrimages to the holy places would not be willingly repeated in its liturgy in the other parts of Western and Eastern Christianity. 

As for the history of the Nativity of Mary, we find the first indications in the fifth century; the feast was later introduced in Constantinople in 555, with the remembrance of a hymn to the Nativity composed by Romanos the Melodist (d. 560). In the Latin Church, we must wait until Pope Theodore (642-649) to see this feast enter our liturgical calendar.

For the early Church, a liturgical feast was a memorial. That being so, the Nativity is the fulfillment of the messianic oracles of the prophets and of the preparations of the old Covenant. If we look at the development of the liturgy, everything starts from the Pasch of Christ and everything leads to it: all the events that, over the centuries, led us to the Pasch begin to be celebrated. In this sense, the Mother, the Apostles, and the Church of Jerusalem are drawn into the cosmic liturgy that celebrates the salvation of all the people who collaborated in the work of Jesus. Since this was a community that came mostly from Judaism, the tradition of the figures of the Old Testament and of the oracles became a presence in the mystery of salvation being celebrated.   

For Jesus to be truly the One whose coming the oracles had announced, it was necessary that, throughout His life, it be shown that the Scriptures had been fulfilled, and it is in this context that the Nativity of Mary must be read. Jesus is the son of David because He is the legal son of Joseph, without our knowing whether Mary was a descendant of David or of priestly lineage. 

Nevertheless, one revealing fact remains to this day: blessings were transmitted strictly through the male bloodline, yet in the case of Jesus, four women appear in His genealogy.

In reality, in the first centuries Christians saw in Mary only her religious and spiritual aspect, whereas today there is a tendency to focus on Mary’s history and anthropology. With this in mind, we must point out that all the women in the genealogy help us to understand that in the Kingdom of Jesus the Messiah, woman has a privileged place in the encounter between the divine and the human, as happened with Mary, who was anticipated in her motherhood by those women who, alongside the Patriarchs and Kings, secured the male heir who continued the line of descent. 

The event of Mary’s birth was not recorded in the written tradition of the Word, but it could not fail to take place, for her ancestry is that of the patriarchs and of the royal line of Israel, where the female figures of the old Covenant prepared the birth of the dawn of the new times. 

Let us think for a moment about the liturgy of the Nativity. We begin with the first reading, from the Prophet Micah (Mic 5:1-4a), announcing that from Bethlehem will be born the Ruler of Israel, of a mother who gives birth to the One who will be Peace. 

Another option in the liturgy is for the first reading to be taken from the Letter to the Romans (Rom 8:28-30), which describes how predestination to divine filiation justifies man before God so that he may be glorified, for everything takes place within God’s plan. 

Finally, the Gospel is that of Matthew (Mt 1:1-16, 18-23), and it presents Joseph’s vocation to receive so special a pregnancy, in which the Mother conceived, by the love of the Holy Spirit, the promised Emmanuel, for everything in the oracle of Isaiah 7:14 had to be fulfilled:

“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son. He shall be called by the name of Emmanuel, which means: God is with us”.

In the Collect of this feast we read:

“Bestow, O Lord, upon Your servants the gift of heavenly grace, and grant that the feast of the Nativity of the Holy Virgin Mary, whose divine motherhood was the beginning of our salvation, may increase peace in us”.

In the Prayer over the Offerings we have two options that complement each other:

“May Your Son made man, O Lord, come to our aid: may He who, in being born of the Virgin Mary, did not diminish but rather consecrated the integrity of His Mother, cleanse us of our faults and make our oblation pleasing to You” or “as we joyfully celebrate the Nativity of the Holy Virgin Mary, we bring our gifts to the altar, O Lord, and humbly implore You: may the humanity of Your Son, who deigned to be born of this same Virgin, come to our aid”. 

The Prayer after Communion affirms:

“May Your Church rejoice, O Lord, nourished by these holy mysteries on the feast of the Nativity of the Holy Virgin Mary, who was for the whole world the hope and dawn of salvation”.

None of this could have happened without the birth of the Virgin 

Looking at archaeology, we see how, next to the Pool of Bethesda, we find Mary’s birthplace as the physical origin of the feast, converted into a place of worship in the first half of the fifth century. Probably, knowing that the Spirit of God is creative, we should also link the Nativity to a new mode of commemoration: the 3 great births. December 25: Jesus. June 24: John the Baptist. And 9 months after the Immaculate Conception, on September 8: Mary.  In placing this feast within our complex liturgical calendar, we must bear in mind that, in view of the feast of the Koimesis (Dormitio) celebrated on August 15, the day of the dedication of the Basilica, there also had to be a corresponding dedication of the Basilica of the Nativity. Furthermore, let us recall that the Byzantine liturgical year begins on September 1, so that the birth of Mary at the dawn of redemption is of radiant value. The Pasch of the Theotokos on August 15 practically concludes the liturgical year, which reopens with the cycle of the Nativity and of revelation, whose object is closeness to the mystery of the Incarnation, read in the light of the Pasch, for there is no Messiah without the Paschal Mystery, which completes His coming in Mary’s womb.

Mariological Memory

Here we present one of the Sermons of Saint Andrew of Crete, a bishop who died in the eighth century (Sermon 1: PG 97, 806-810), in which he presents the renewal of all things in the Nativity of Mary. 

“Christ is the end of the law. He makes us pass from the slavery of the law to the freedom of the spirit. In Him is the perfection of the law, because, being the supreme lawgiver, He brought His mission to complete fulfillment, transforming the letter of the law into spirit and recapitulating all things in Himself. The law was given life by grace and was placed at its service, forming with it a harmonious and perfect composition. Each of them kept its own characteristics, without alteration or confusion. But what was burdensome and servile in the law became, through a divine transformation, a source of sweetness and freedom. And thus, as the Apostle says, we are no longer slaves to the elements of the world, nor oppressed by the yoke of the letter of the law.

The mystery of God who becomes man, and the consequent divinization of man assumed by the Word, represent the perfect compendium of Christ’s benefits on our behalf and the annihilation of all the vain presumption of human nature. But it was fitting that the resplendent and astonishing coming of God to men should be preceded by a special joy that would prepare us for the great and wondrous gift of salvation. This is the meaning of the feast we celebrate today, because the birth of the Mother of God is the beginning of these promised goods, a beginning that will have its end and completion in the predestined union of the Word with the flesh. Today the Virgin Mary is born. She will be nursed and will grow, thus preparing herself to be the Mother of God, the King of all ages.

From this birth a twofold benefit comes to us: on the one hand, it raises us to the knowledge of the truth. And on the other, it frees us from a life enslaved to the letter of the law. In what way and under what conditions? Light dispels darkness, and grace frees us from the slavery of the law. This is a solemnity at the boundary between the Old and the New Testament: truth replaces symbols and figures, and the new covenant replaces the old.

Let all creatures sing and exult and share worthily in the joy of this day. Let heaven and earth join in this festive celebration, all that is in the world and above the world. For today is the day on which the Creator of the universe built His temple. Today is the day on which the creature prepares a new and worthy dwelling for its Creator”.

To deepen your reflection on the Nativity of Mary and its place in the liturgical calendar, consult Paul VI’s Apostolic Exhortation Marialis Cultus, which situates the Marian feasts within the Church’s liturgical year.

Take your studies further: explore Mariology, Marian Theology, Marian apparitions, and the Postgraduate Program in Mariology.

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