Let us gaze
upon what Mary gazed upon, the ultimate fulfillment of all God’s covenants,
namely, the whole mystery of Christ. On the one hand she saw in her infant son
one like all other Jewish male babies – the Gospel says, “And when eight days
were completed for his circumcision…” What greater proof that he was one of us
and a child of Abraham than the fact that He was circumcised! Yet at the same
time Mary could not doubt the word of the angel: “He will be called holy, the
Son of God,” because “the power of the Most High will overshadow you...” The
divine and the human: these are the two mysteries Mary held in her heart, not
mixing or confusing them or leaving one aside. But at the same time, Mary
maintained but one focus: taking her child in her arms and holding him close as
only a mother can, she gazed on her little son, this little person in whom
somehow the divine and the human were personally united. Her embrace was like
that Sabbath rest with which God embraced the whole mystery of His creation,
but here we have the mystery of a new creation. Mary is the great sign of
God’s new and eternal covenant, and she leads us to that covenant today. In the
Eucharist we partake of the marvelous exchange – simple bread and humble wine
become the true body and blood of Mary’s Son, our one Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ, the Culmination of all God’s covenants, who lives and reigns for ever
and ever!
Orazio
Gentileschi, Italian ( 1563 - 1639), The Virgin with the
Sleeping Christ Child, c. 1610, Fogg Art
Museum, Harvard. Reflection by Father Vincent.
