birthday of Mama Mary

Micah 5:1-4, Romans 8:28-30, Psalm 13 With delight I rejoice in the Lord; Matthew 1:1-16,18-23

I owe my little nephew recognition for the Title of this particular post. When he was 2 years old he was shown a picture of Mary and asked who it was he was looking at and he responded with a very sweet and gentle tone, "mama Mary."

How sweet children can be.

So today we celebrate the birthday of Mama Mary, Sept 8th. If you do the Math you quickly discover that this is 9 months after Dec 8th which is the feast of the immaculate conception.

Anyway back on topic. Today's gospel reading is the Genealogy of Jesus found in the gospel of Matthew. The genealogy is quite a read by the way, worth the time and effort it takes to pronounce all those names.

It is the family tree of Jesus, from Abraham all the way to Jesus the Christ.

Thinking of genealogies. I recently recieved a phone call from a lady here in Schulenburg, my new assignment, and she quickly informed me that after doing her own genealogical research, she discovered that we were related through my grandfather.

she was excited and wants me to come over and check out the lineage, the family tree, and help her fill in the blanks, especially those concenring my immediate family, siblings and spouses and children.

Genealogies are great fun and reveal fascinating ties.

The genealogical reality of Jesus is just as fascinating. It reveals that in and through the humanity of Mary, God becomes part of our family tree, and we become part of his.

This is the beauty of the birthday of Mary. Her birth introduces all of humanity in to that genealogy of Jesus for it is from Mary Jesus recieves his humanity.

What a fascinating reality for all of us.

Our Genealogical lineage just got a boost. I'm sure that if we look back at our family histories, we would find a list of good and bad, saints and sinners, scoundrels and humanitarians, but no matter what we disocver, in the birth of Mary we are rest assurred that the person of Jesus now belongs to the human family and in him we belong to God.

Mary's birth is the dawn of hope for us all. She is the embodiment of renewed humanity, untouched by sin. She shows us what it lookslike to be conquered by grace.

Hope is born with Mary for in her comes Jesus the Christ.