It’s Marian month. It’s also final exam month, which is why I haven’t been writing much lately–at least, not for Stop to Smell the Flowers. Nevertheless, despite the hustle and bustle of Christmas shopping and essay writing, I had to stop this week to smell the flowers of Mary’s role in mankind’s salvation.
December isn’t the official month of Mary. October (rosary month) and May (another final exam month) are dedicated to her for various reasons. But with all the feasts and holy days honoring the Blessed Mother this time of year–her Immaculate Conception, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God (which could technically be celebrated on December 31), not to mention her overall importance in the context of Advent, the Nativity, and the Feast of the Holy Family–December is nonetheless Mary-centric, and therefore Christocentric.
Everything Catholics believe about Mary reinforces what we believe about Christ. Immaculate Conception? She is the unblemished New Ark for the New Covenant. Perpetual virginity? She did not cast doubt on the virgin birth of her Son. Mother of God? She gave birth to God, making Jesus both fully divine and fully human.
From Mary’s Conception to her Assumption to her Coronation to eternity, she never ceases to “rotate” back to, or “revolve” around, her Son. This is why Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen says of Mary in The World’s First Love:
“God who made the sun, also made the moon. The moon does not take away from the brilliance of the sun. The moon would be only a burnt-out cinder floating in the immensity of space were it not for the sun. All its light is reflected from the sun. The Blessed Mother reflects her Divine Son; without Him, she is nothing. With Him, she is the Mother of Men. On dark nights we are grateful for the moon; when we see it shining, we know there must be a sun. So in this dark night of the world when men turn their backs on Him Who is the Light of the World, we look to Mary to guide their feet while we await the sunrise.”
Excerpt from the conclusion to Chapter 5
The moon orbits the earth, and both the moon and the earth orbit the sun. We are a sun-centric solar system. The earth is a sun-centric planet. Mary is a Son-centric mother. (Note the “S-o-n” spelling.)
On the eve of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, my friend commented, “If we are adopted into the family of God, we need a mother” (Rom 8:16-17, Eph 1:5).
Our family needs a mother.
During Advent, the Father prepares a human family for His human Son, and by welcoming us into that family through baptism, He shares its mother with all men seeking adoption. Mary (our moon and our mom) rotates around us, the earth, as we all rotate around our source of Life (our sun and the Son) whom Mary gave life to.
All this orbiting is making me dizzy.
Fortunately, the gravity of God’s love steadies us. It is a love that welcomes imperfect children into a family with perfect parents. Mary is both the “Mother of God” and the “Mother of Men,” as content to orbit us as she is to orbit her Son; as quick to say “yes” to us as she is to say “yes” to Him; as willing to travel with us on cold, dark nights to Bethlehem for salvation as she is to deliver Jesus there.
Stop to Smell the Flowers 