Today is the commemoration of the birth of the Virgin Mary.
It is a time to think of Mary’s unique role in bearing the Son of God into the
world, and the gift of her whole and healed humanity to the Incarnation.
The Early Church did not have a developed doctrine about
exactly how her birth-giving of the Savior was free of all the effects of human
fallenness, but they certainly believed this. As time went on in the West, the
teaching about Original Sin developed to a point where a specific doctrine of
Mary’s Immaculate Conception became necessary. Eventually, that teaching was
made a Dogma of the Roman Catholic Church—long after the Reformation. But, the
theme of Mary’s being “without spot” (cleansed of Original Sin) certainly goes
back a long while in our tradition, and elements of it can be found in prayers
and hymns we use today. We, too, believe that Mary gave the best of humanity to
her son and Our Lord.
For Anglicans, who do not have an official “position” on
this matter, the wider point is that Mary was, from the start, given a vocation
that was revealed to her over time. This vocation culminates in the
Biblically-attested events of the Annunciation, Visitation, and Christ’s
Nativity, but it has an earlier element, as well: that of her own birth and
formation as a Jewish girl and young woman, a daughter of Abraham.
Each of us, too, has a vocation. There may be decisive
moments when that vocation is presented in clear terms and a choice must be
made—our own equivalents to the Annunciation. Yet, if we step back from the
moment and gain the greater perspective of Faith, we can trace the ways in
which we were prepared, tested, healed, and opened to the calling and mission
God has for us. That is, in part, what today is about.
The Scriptures tell us almost nothing about Mary’s early
life; the focus in her mission was always to point to Christ. This is
important. Our own biography as disciples ultimately finds its meaning and
validity to the degree which we point to, show forth, Christ. When we live as
signs revealing God’s redeeming work, or windows allowing God’s loving presence
to flood into the darkness of this world, then we join Mary—in a very much less
exalted way—in bearing the Word.
This give particular meaning to today’s collect, wherein we
pray that we may be “kept unspotted” from the world so as to be a “pure temple
for his dwelling.” In our sordid age, in which vice is painted as virtue and
sin seen not as a choice with consequences but an inevitable movement of our
DNA and upbringing, the freedom to live a Holy Life by God’s grace is perhaps
more powerful and revolutionary than it has been since the Church’s beginnings.
When we turn to the example of the Theotokos (God-bearer), we do so not for sentimental or purely
doctrinal reasons: we do it because in her we see a pattern for living the
Kingdom Way now, free to choose the
good and reject the evil. For us, this feast is not the study of an ancient
event: it consecrates this moment as the
holy prelude to the rest of our vocation—and calls us to honor this and
every moment’s sacred potential and significance.
The Collect for
The Commemoration of
the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
September 8
Traditional
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.
Contemporary
Almighty and everlasting God, who by the overshadowing of
the Holy Spirit prepared the body and soul of the Virgin-Mother Mary to be a
dwelling place for your 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 lives and reigns with you and the same Spirit, now and evermore.
Amen.
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