The Nativity of the Virgin

Almighty and everlasting God, who by the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost didst prepare the body and soul of the Virgin-Mother Mary to be a dwelling-place for thy Son; Grant that we who rejoice with her in Jesus may ourselves be kept unspotted from the world, and made a pure temple for his dwelling, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the same Spirit, now and evermore. Amen.

Though not a Scriptural feast, the Nativity of the Mother of Our Lord recounts an obviously historical event and has a long history in the Church (East and West). It forms part of a cycle of feasts attested to by ancient authorities, but not found in the Bible (and thus for Anglicans not "required teaching") however there is nothing in these ancient commemorations that is counter to the New Testament's teaching. Indeed, the Episcopal Church saw fit to add this feast back in to the Kalendar due to its significance in the story of salvation.

The collect for this day focuses on the purity of Mary, building on the ancient belief that she was in some way purified by the Holy Spirit of all Original/Ancestral Sin. This understanding allowed God the Son to take flesh without being himself conformed to sin. In this way he was able to be a true and full human--for we were not made for sin from the start, but fell into it. So deeply are we conformed to this condition that we often think of it as part of the essence of what it means to be human, but "not so," says our God.

Interestingly, the belief that Mary was herself cleansed from birth-sin in her conception was widely held in Classical Anglicanism, without the least sense that it was overtly “Roman” in character; see Bishop Pearson’s seventeenth century commentary on the Apostles’ Creed--and absolutely standard text on Anglican doctrine at that time. The popularization of this particular feast in the Medieval period was greatly assisted by one St. Fulbert of Chartres in France.

What strikes me most about this feast, though, is the focus on God’s loving, caring preparation. Mary is prepared long before the fact to receive the Christ-child – yet she is free to say “no” to her calling at each step. God prepares us for our calling through gifts of skill and capacity, yet we are free at each moment to reject that calling. What freedom we are given! What degree of thoughtful preparation God takes with us! What risks our loving God runs with each one of us!

I am also reminded by this feast that each of us, like Our Lady, is a temple called to receive the Lord. While she is uniquely blessed in how that vocation was lived out, we are each of us no less called to “bear” Christ into the world in our own way. We are once again recalled to the fact that our minds, our bodies, our wills are to be holy places of worship and encounter, where (as Psalm 29 puts it) all is crying in unison "Glory!" We do well to cast our mind on this fact each time we prepare to receive the Holy Mysteries of Christ's Body and Blood in the Divine Liturgy.

Once more, the Church’s memory recalls us to the eternal Now of God’s presence and our discipleship. This feast day, like all others, presents us with a restored image of the human person and a picture of our destiny in Christ.  Come, let us embrace the life that is truly life!