Sept. 8, 2009: Nativity of Blessed Virgin Mary
This afternoon I was saying mass for a group of nursing home residents, and I told them about a home video I saw. I was visiting a family who lost their mother to plan their funeral. The daughter showed me an old home video of her mother attending her son's 7th birthday party. All the children were dressed in some sort of
cartoon character, and lo and behold the main attraction showed up--a young man dressed up in Superman tights. But, birthday boy was quite frightened by the superhero, and the man in the tights left the scene as quickly as he flew in. The video showed the grandmother enjoying her grandson's unexpected reaction. I then turned to the nursing home residents and asked how they celebrate their birthdays now. Most of them said that their children take them out to dinner. Some said that on sometimes, their children forget to take them out to dinner. Here they are in their 80s, and birthdays are still important to them.
Why do we celebrate birthdays, especially, the birthday of Blessed Mother? To answer this question, I want to tell you an experience I had last year when I was stationed at St. Aloysius. Our receptionist told me there was a request for an emergency baptism at the Women's neonatal care. I arrived at the hospital and waiting in the lobby were parents of the couple whose first child was in critical care. So these were the grand parents who were praying desperately for the welfare of their very first grandson. I went in, all suited up with masks and all, and there on the operating table was a tiny little baby with a bit of purple color. I quickly
baptized the child while momentarily nurses stopped what they were doing. Then I went into the room where the mother of the child was with her husband; no words could console their grief. The doctor came in and told the couple and the grand parents that they did all they could. The couple chose to hold the baby until he passed from this world. For the next hour and half, everyone in the room--mom and dad and both sets of grand parents took turns holding the precious child. What a memorable birthday for the child. In that hospital room were six persons who anticipated the arrival of this child and did not want to let go of not even seconds of this child's life.
Birthdays are reminder of a mystery--the mystery of our life. Why did God create us? Why did He give some of us 80 years to live and some only an hour? In both cases God did something unique to Himself; while mom and dad provides the flesh, God provides something that has not existed in the universe up till then--a unique soul--a soul that has a purpose and destiny. And this unique soul draws the awe and wonder of not only the parents and grand parents of the child, but the whole court of heaven. This unique soul brings to the world ready to embody in flesh the Word of God. And that Word says, "God is Love."
We can imagine how the whole universe held its breath in wonder when God creates a soul of a little girl more than 2,000 years ago; this soul was to be the window through which the Divine Creator of the Universe was going to enter humanity to cradle us and lift us into His bosom as His beloved children. That mystery burst into our human history with the arrival of a little girl named Mary.
Happy Birthday, Mama!
