8 September 2025
Feast of the Nativity of Mary,
Micah 5:1-4a; Matthew 1:1-16,18-23
Homily
The Gospels are very discreet about the Virgin Mary. Whenever she is mentioned, it is to show her place and role in the major stages of the mystery of Salvation. She is there on the day of the Annunciation to say her ‘Yes’ and receive the Son of the Eternal Father in her womb. She will be there at several stages of her Son's public life, especially at the foot of the Cross and with the Apostles on the day of Pentecost.
Today we celebrate her ‘nativity’, that is, the moment of her birth. The exact day of her birth is unknown, but the Gospel reading we have just heard places it in the history of the Jewish people. Like her betrothed Joseph, she is a descendant of David, son of Abraham, the repository of the Promise.
The Gospels tell us about the life of Jesus from the beginning of His public life, but each of the Evangelists has added an introduction or prologue. John, the mystic, tells us about the Word, who has existed from all eternity with the Father and who became man, who came among His own people. Matthew, in the text we have just heard, traces the genealogy of Joseph, the husband of Mary, which is also the genealogy of Mary, from whom Jesus was born.
The first two chapters of Luke, which give us the impression of being a Gospel of the Childhood of Jesus, are in fact a series of symbolic narratives in which Luke announces all the major themes of his Gospel and all its main characters. Of Mary, he says that when the days were fulfilled, she gave birth to ‘The Firstborn’ -- not ‘her firstborn,’ as is sometimes translated, but ‘The Firstborn,’ the Firstborn of the Eternal Father, the Firstborn par excellence, the first of a multitude of brothers.
It is therefore our mother to all of us—all of us who are called to be configured in the image of her Son—it is therefore our mother to all of us that we celebrate today, not the day of her birth, but simply the fact that she was born, that she exists in God's plan, that she is the one through whom not only Salvation came to us, but the Savior Himself.
Through this Eucharist, let us give thanks to the Lord for this mystery of our salvation and for the role that Mary played in it.
Armand Veilleux