As a priest I haven’t had an experience many of you have—watching
the birth of a baby. Perhaps some
of you think I am fortunate!
The
soonest I ever met a newborn was when my best friends had their first
child. I was able to be in the delivery
room to see baby Andrew about half an hour after he arrived. It was a powerful moment holding this
beautiful child who just entered the world.
At
the same time, I noticed the messiness of it all. I tried not to think about why his hair was wet, or what the
red blotch on his face was. As I
looked down on a precious child I thought to myself, “Buddy, you don’t smell
the best!”
But
isn’t that the human experience? Beauty
mixed with a mess, glory housed in mortality?
Mary
entered this world in the same way we all did—she was born to Joachim and Anne
helpless, naked and wet. At the
same time, think about the joy of her parents holding their newborn!
While
Mary was born like every one else, and probably looked as cute as other babies,
she was much different. She was
conceived without sin, a reality we will celebrate three months from today (actually
it would be better to say we did nine months ago) in the Immaculate Conception. She was never stained with the sin that
has plagued humanity since Adam and Eve, a sin that requires us now to baptize
babies.
Our
Gospel was rich in its portrayal of salvation history through a genealogy. For today we must remember that Mary
was born to have Jesus. Jesus came
to fulfill all that was Old and usher in the New. While we still inherit sin, we praise God for wiping
original sin from our souls through Baptism. And most especially, we thank God for giving us Mary, who
bore Emmanuel—God is with us.
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