The Nativity of Mary: a Marian vision
This simple reasoning is at the same time a challenge to the typical phrase «where is that in the Bible?» Perhaps because the sense of God’s Word and of the history of salvation is still a mirage where various characters exist, suspended in the clouds of religious thought, without a face, a story, a death, and a hope. In the context of our article, we find ourselves in Jerusalem, the city of God for the Hebrews, where culturally we see the anamnesis (remembrance) of the old Alliance in the Temple and where we have the mimesis (representation) of the new Alliance with the birth of the new Ark of the unique and eternal Alliance of God with humanity. In this holy city, typologies shape and structure the language of feasts and sanctuaries. For if there is a liturgical feast for Mary’s death, why not for her birth? It would be impossible to think that the goal of pilgrimages to the holy places would not be voluntarily repeated in its liturgy in other parts of Western and Eastern Christianity.On the history of the Nativity of Mary, we find the first indications in the 5th century, and it was later introduced in Constantinople in 555 with the memory of a hymn to nativity composed by Roman the Melode (d. 560). In the Latin Church, we have to wait for Pope Theodore (642-649) to see this feast enter our liturgical calendar.For the ancient Church, a liturgical feast was a memorial. Thus, the nativity is the fulfillment of the messianic prophecies of the prophets and the preparations of the old Alliance. If we look at the development of the liturgy, everything starts from Christ’s Passover and leads to it. All the events that led us to Passover over the centuries are celebrated. In this sense, the Mother, the Apostles, the Church of Jerusalem involve in the cosmic liturgy that celebrates salvation all people who collaborated in Jesus’ work. As a community that largely comes from Judaism, the tradition of figures from the Old Testament, the oracles, became a presence in the mystery of salvation celebrated.For Jesus to be truly He of whom the oracles announced the coming, it was necessary that throughout His life it should be demonstrated that the Scriptures were fulfilled, and in this context the Nativity of Mary must be read. Jesus is the Son of David because He is the legal son of Joseph, without us knowing if Mary was of David’s lineage or of a priestly stock. However, a revealing fact remains surprising to us to this day: blessings were transmitted strictly through the male blood, but in Jesus, four women appear.In reality, Christian centuries only saw in Mary her religious and spiritual aspect, while today there is a tendency to polarize Mary’s history and anthropology. All these women help us understand that in the Kingdom of the Messiah, Jesus, the woman has a privileged place in the encounter between the divine and the human, as Mary was anticipated in her motherhood by those who, along with the Patriarchs and Kings, ensured the male heir who continued the lineage.The event, unrecorded in the written tradition of the Word, could not have failed to happen, for His ancestry is that of the patriarchal and royal line of Israel, where the female figures of the old Covenant prepared the birth of the dawn of the new times.Let us pause for a moment to consider the liturgy of the Nativity. We begin with the first reading from the Prophet Micah announcing that a ruler of Israel will be born in Bethlehem from a mother who will give birth to the One who will be peace. Another option for the first reading is from the Letter to the Romans, where it describes how the predestination of divine filiation justifies man before God, so that he may be glorified, for all things happen within God’s plan. Finally, the Gospel cites the Gospel of Matthew and presents Joseph’s vocation to receive this most special pregnancy, where the Mother conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit the promised Emmanuel, for all this was to be fulfilled as foretold in Isaiah 7:14: “Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel, which means, ‘God with us.’”
All of this could not have taken place without the birth of the Virgin. Looking to archaeology, we find that near the Pool of Bethesda is the birthplace of Mary, the physical origin of the feast that became a place of worship in the first half of the 5th century. Knowing that the Spirit of God is creative, we should also connect the Nativity to a new way of commemorating: the three great births—December 25: Jesus, June 24: John the Baptist, and 9 months after the Immaculate Conception on September 8: Mary. The placement of this feast within our liturgical calendar should keep in mind that, in relation to the feast of the Dormition (August 15), celebrated at the dedication of the Basilica, there should be a corresponding dedication of the Basilica of the Nativity. Additionally, we remember that the Byzantine liturgical year begins on September 1, so the birth of Mary at the dawn of redemption holds radiant value. The Pascha of the Theotokos (August 15) practically concludes the liturgical year, reopening with the natal and manifestational cycle that focuses on the proximity to the mystery of the Incarnation, read in the light of Pascha, for there is no Messiah without the Pascal Mystery that completes his coming in Mary’s womb.
To delve deeper into the theology of the Nativity of Mary, consult Pope John Paul II’s encyclical Redemptoris Mater on Mary in the fullness of time and in the history of salvation.
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