The Visit of the Shepherds
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Lk 2:16-21
16[The shepherds] went in haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the manger. 17When they saw this, they made known the message that had been told them about this child. 18All who heard it were amazed by what had been told them by the shepherds. 19And Mary kept all these things, reflecting on them in her heart. 20Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, just as it had been told to them.
21When
eight days were completed for his circumcision, he was named Jesus, the
name given him by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.
Reflection:
Mary and Joseph and the infant. Mary
is given the greatest honor that a purely human being can have: to be
the Mother of God. This does not mean that she is a goddess. She is only
a creature. But the Person she conceives and gives birth to is no less
than the Son of God, true God. Hence, she is rightly called the Mother
of God, which means “the Mother of the Son of God according to his
humanity.”
Her
chief characteristic as the Mother of God is her union with Jesus.
Already in God’s plan, Mary was thought and willed by God together with
God’s decision to send God’s Son as man. At the Annunciation, Mary
accepted to receive Jesus into her heart and womb. At the Visitation,
she carried Jesus with her, and thus Elizabeth called blessed Mary and
her Son, the fruit of her womb. And now the shepherds find her with “the
infant lying in the manger.” She will be found again together with
Jesus at Cana, and occasionally during his public life. She will be with
him on Calvary, at his darkest hour. And now she is with him in the
glory of heaven, body and soul.
Mary’s
glory is to be with Jesus not only physically but by a union of wills:
like Jesus, she always hears the Word of God and keeps it. As St.
Augustine put it, “It would have profited her nothing to be the Mother
of Jesus if she had not also been his disciple [follower].”
“My
mother and my brothers,” declares Jesus, “are those who hear the word
of God and act on it” (Lk 8:21). When we hear God’s word and do God’s
will, like Mary, we also give birth to Jesus in the souls of people.
With St. Paul we can say, “My children, for whom I am again in labor
until Christ be formed in you!” (Gal 4:19).
Like Mary, let us unite ourselves to Jesus
in obedience to the Father’s will
and, by prayer and works of the apostolate,
engender Jesus in the hearts and souls of people.
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