Mary's Motherhood has Blessed all Mothers

Saint Anne Church - January 1, 1990, 1994, 1996

Mary's Motherhood in God's plan for our salvation.

It seems fitting that after celebrating the birth of Jesus, we should today remember his mother, who was so intimately a part of the Christmas mystery.

In the 2nd reading today, Paul writes that "God sent his Son, born of a woman." These simple words tell us something very important about God's plan for our salvation.

God might have chosen some other way to achieve the incarnation. After all, if he could and did dispense with a human father, why could he not have bypassed the need for a human mother as well? He could, for example, have created directly a human being, as he created Adam, in whom his Son would become incarnate.

But, in God's plan for our salvation, the Savior had to be a member of our race, a descendant from Adam and Eve, so as to lift up that human race from its sinful state and restore it to its original holiness. And to be a part of this human race, he needed a mother, who was herself a member of the human race. The Savior would be a descendant of Adam and Eve. Only thus, in God's plan, would our sinful race be saved.

Consequence of this: Dignity of Mary and of all women and mothers

Now, a very interesting consequence of this: the fact that the Son of God took a human nature from a woman, conferred a unique dignity not only to Mary, his mother, but to all women to all mothers after her.

Modern woman has acquired a new sense of her personal dignity and worth. But God was way ahead of us. His closest collaborator in the incarnation was a woman. Moreover, Mary's exalted role gave our religion and western culture a respect for womanhood, which actually did much to upgrade and better the social status of women.

Anyone who needs to be convinced of this need only consider women’s place in Iran and other Moslem countries. Christianity’s veneration of Mary did make a difference.

Particularly in the Middle Ages when knighthood flourished. The honor paid to the Virgin Mary spilled over to all other women. If today's western woman is more free and equal than her sisters in the non-Christian world, she owes much of that to the woman who bore God's Son long ago.

A second blessing issuing from the motherhood of Mary is the high esteem for MOTHERHOOD in the Christian tradition. Parenting is a divine prerogative. God is the author of life. No one is more intimately associated with God in this work than as mother. Not only during the nine months of pregnancy and when she gives birth to a child, but for many more years when she fashions the soul of this child, forming in him the qualities and virtues befitting a child of God. With God, she prepares her child for everlasting life in heaven.

In our day, with the women's liberation movement, many have been tested to liberate woman from being a woman and a mother. And in the process, woman is losing her identity. It always ends up in frustration when you try to be what you are not.

Many women want to be free from family responsibilities, which they regard as a servitude. With this frame of mind, when they do have children, they are unhappy, sometimes resentful. They often look with envy at career women. as something more glamorous. One time, Christian women took pride in their children, in being mothers. All depends where you set your values.

Traditionally, it is the mother who builds up the family as a community of love. Surely, the role of the father is important too. But the mother is clearly the one who by her own love, inspires all to grow in love as a united family. Her influence is predominant in the formative years of her children. She also is the homemaker, who makes the home a place where the family likes to be, where they enjoy being a family. Her warm, loving and caring presence makes the home a home, not just a boardinghouse. She is the one ever attentive to the well-being of all the family; the one who encourages, consoles, guides and inspires. It is not always easy, but it's a most important and normally rewarding task. However you look at it, nothing great is ever accomplished without dedication, hard work, and sacrifice. Isn't that what love is all about?

If women of today better appreciated their dignity as women, mothers and homemakers, perhaps we would have less unhappy and broken homes, which are the greatest tragedy of our times.

I pray that we return to basic human and Christian values that are as necessary today as ever to build strong and happy families, where people can experience what they desire most: love and happiness. May they appreciate their real greatness and dignity, conferred upon them by God and exemplified in Mary, the mother of our divine Savior.

Sermons on Mary Index