Everybody loves a birthday!

 

As we get older we may not want to admit it, but my guess is that all of us enjoy celebrating our birthdays.  Children especially love it, but most everyone looks forward to that special day each year when family and friends honor them and celebrate them in a special way.  For that reason, we can be assured that even Mary, the Mother of Jesus and our Blessed Mother (John 19:25-29) loved her birthday while here on earth and continues to enjoy this special celebration in Heaven.  Of course, she didn’t enjoy her birthday because she wanted to be pampered or given special attention.  She, perhaps more than anyone other than her divine Son, rejoiced on her birthday because of the deep spiritual gratitude she had to God for all that He did in her life.

The Blessed Virgin Mary was born into our world without the stain of original sin.  She was preserved from experiencing fallen human nature through the gift of her Immaculate Conception.  Thus, she was the first to be born in the perfection of human nature after the fall, and she continued to experience this grace throughout her life, responding to God with her free will every step of the way (Catechism of the Catholic Church 508-511) .

Try to ponder the heart and soul of our Blessed Mother from her perspective.  She would have been intimately united to each person of the Most Holy Trinity throughout her life.  She would have known God, living in her soul, and would have been in awe of what God had done to her.  She would have pondered these graces with deep humility and exceptional gratitude.  She would have seen her soul and mission from the perspective of God, keenly aware of all that He had done for her.

As we honor the birthday of our Blessed Mother, it’s also an important opportunity for each of us to ponder the incredible blessings that God has bestowed upon each one of us.  No, we’re not Immaculate as Mother Mary was.  We were each born into original sin and have sinned throughout our lives.  But the blessings of grace, given to each one of us, is exceptionally real.  We only need to work to have the eyes to see these graces.  Baptism, for example, bestows upon the soul an eternal transformation.  Though our sin may cloud that transformation at times, the transformation is eternal.  Our souls are changed.  We’re made new.  Grace is poured into our hearts, and we become children of God.  And for the soul who is able to perceive the countless other ways that God bestows blessings, gratitude is the only appropriate response.

So I reflect today upon the glorious celebration of the birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God. I begin by trying to rejoice in her life through her eyes.  I try to imagine what she saw as she looked into her own graced soul.  From there, I try to rejoice, also, in my own soul.  I’m grateful for all that God has done for me.  I pray that everyone everywhere sees the countless graces God bestows on all of us and that we allow ourselves to rejoice in God’s blessings with our Blessed Mother.