Mary’s First Christmas

How did Mary experience the first Christmas? Mary had heard the words explaining the event that she herself saw and lived. Words and deeds that she pondered in her heart, within herself, with a conscious, thoughtful and intelligent attentiveness. The inner listening of Mary is a prolonged one, not a single moment. The Gospel phrase, “she kept all these things, meditating on them in her heart,” indicates that Mary’s reflection was not passive or inert, but active and alive, connecting and comparing one thing with another trying to understand the profound logic, the direction and the truth of things that may seem unrelated or even conflicting. This is precisely what Mary did, feeling on one hand the words that proclaimed the glory of the Child (words heard from the angel at the Annunciation) and, on the other hand, seeing “a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger.” It is the usual tension between greatness and littleness, glory and poverty that is the backbone of the Christian experience. Mary’s reflection thus becomes a true interpretation that sheds light on the mystery of Jesus.

Mary is not only the mother of Jesus, she is also his most profound interpreter. She explains Christmas, because it is not easy to understand Christmas. So, let us be guided by Mary, who kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. Her heart and her mind were seeking the golden thread that held together the opposites: a stable and “a multitude of angels,” a manger and a “kingdom which has no end.” Like her, like the shepherds and the Magi, let us be filled with wonder. At Christmas, the Word is an infant who cannot talk... the Almighty is a child capable only of crying. God always starts in this way, with small things and in deep silence.

God decided to reveal Himself by being born as a child. This is the depth of the mystery of Christmas told by the Nativity in Bethlehem, the nativity scenes in our churches and in our homes.

For thirty years Christ lived this humble and simple life to save us. His mother embraced this life.

Lectio Divina: Solemnity of the Mother of God – Year B

By Monsignor Francesco Follo December 2014 Zenit