Caring for the Christ within us. Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God

After singing yesterday's Te Deum In thanksgiving to God, and as we find ourselves at the end of the Octave of Christmas and at the beginning of a new calendar year, the Church presents us with the feast of Mary, Mother of God. This is no coincidence. It invites us to delve deeper into what St. Paul refers to when he speaks of “the fullness of time”: “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman". (Galatians 4, 4)

The Church does not focus solely on Mary's physical motherhood, but above all on her spiritual disposition. We remember that woman who raised her voice and said: “Blessed be the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you.”She praised the conception and nursing of Jesus. Our Lord redirected her attention to the true blessedness that comes from caring for the Word of God in our lives: “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it.”(cf. Lk 11:28). Mary is blessed not only because she conceived Christ in her body, but because she welcomed the Word of God into her heart. And yet this spiritual primacy does not diminish the beauty and truth of her physical motherhood.

On a day like this, it is worth contemplating what Mary's physical motherhood really implies. If we take Jesus“ humanity seriously, then we must take Mary's motherhood equally seriously. Jesus "He grew in wisdom, stature, and favor.” (Luke 2:52). He was breastfed by his mother. Every mother knows the special joy and tenderness that accompany the act of caring. Mary's motherhood and Christ's sonship are profoundly real. She gave him her own body and blood, as well as her time, her attention, and her sleepless nights. Caring is slow, patient, demanding work... and deeply rewarding.

Celebrating the feast of Mary, Mother of God, is celebrating the joys of motherhood. I like to imagine, in a literary way, a correspondence between Mary and her cousin Elizabeth, something similar to Memoirs of Two Young Wives by Honoré de Balzac, in which two friends, Louise and Renée, share their experiences. At one point, Renée tells her friend Louise about her experience of motherhood. She writes: “Giving birth is nothing; breastfeeding is giving birth every moment. […] Nothing can be seen or felt in conception, not even in pregnancy, but breastfeeding, my dear Louise, is a happiness that never ends. You see what milk becomes: it turns into flesh, it blossoms on the tips of those sweet little fingers, like flowers, and so delicate; it grows on the fine, transparent nails, it unfurls in the hair, it wiggles and wriggles on the feet. [...] Oh, Louise, breastfeeding is a transformation that can be seen hour after hour, dazzling to the eye! It is not with your ears but with your heart that you hear the child's cries; you understand the smile in his eyes or on his lips or in his restless little feet, as if God had written letters of fire in the air for you.".

It is not unreasonable to think that Renée's experience, so beautifully expressed, was no less so for Mary. These were some of the things that Mary kept in her heart and pondered (cf. Lk 2:19).

Mary's joys in caring for and accompanying Christ to his full stature can also be ours as we begin the new year. Here, then, is our first resolution for the year: to care for the Christ within us.