Micah 5:2-5, Ps 13, Matthew 1:1-23
Today we celebrate the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This event is unusual in two ways.
First, there is no recollection of Mary’s birth to be found in the scriptures. The main material from which this tradition is formed is from the apocryphal literature, especially what is known as the Proto Gospel of St. James. It is in this book that we find mention of St. Anne and Joachim, Mary’s parents and Jesus’ grandparents, and where we hear that they were infertile into their old age when God intervened and gave them the gift of a daughter. In her thanksgiving St. Anne consecrated Mary to God in the temple.
Second we celebrate Mary’s earthly birth, which is unusual for a saint. Typically we celebrate the day on which a saint dies (their “birth” into heaven). For Mary and also for St. John the Baptist we celebrate their whole life as being essential in God’s plan of salvation.
The Gospel today is a tongue twister of ancient biblical names and there is no point in even trying to figure out the math of the years involved in the generations. No two genealogies of Jesus match one another and the point is not to provide an historical record but rather to root the birth of Jesus within the human family tree. Jesus did not just drop out of heaven into a crib, he had parents and grandparents and a human history into which he was conceived.
And what a history; the characters of the genealogy in Matthew’s gospel range from saints to scoundrel and sometimes a mixture of both in the same person. It might shock you to know who exactly belonged to the ancestral line of the Holy Family.
But that is really what makes the point of the Birth of Mary so special. Sure it was a Divine intervention which brought Jesus into the world, but God used the stuff of our daily life, the good the bad and the in-between stuff in which we so often find ourselves mired. God used all of this stuff and from it formed a beautiful story of love and salvation. There’s not one of us that could not fit into that plan, God has a place in his heart for us all.
What will you do today to celebrate Mary’s birthday?
Have you opened your invitation to the party?
Send this reflection to someone that you think might like to read it. 
