Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God

Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God
1 January 2026

The major solemnities of our faith are observed liturgically for an eight-day period, called an octave.  Christmas, the birth of our Savior, is one such octave.  Having an octave is a way to encourage us to enter more deeply into the mystery of the faith being observed, to deepen our appreciation of it by sticking with it rather than quickly letting it pass by.  In the case of Christmas, each day of the octave gives us the opportunity to reflect upon different facets of the Lord’s nativity and its meaning for us.  Liturgically, the close of an octave is a major observance and so it is for us with this close of the octave of Christmas by celebrating the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God.

This solemnity of the octave causes us to consider how God chose to enter human history and chose to take on our flesh for our salvation through the cooperation of the feminine, specifically the maternity of that woman chosen by God to be the one who bore God in her womb and delivered him into the world.  It is no surprise that in celebrating the birth of a baby we are mindful of the role of the woman.  Jesus’ birth requires, by necessity, the motherhood of Mary.  And so, we revere and honor her for this fundamental privilege granted to her by God, that she was chosen to be the Mother of the Son, who is God incarnate and our Savior.

The collect, the first prayer of the Mass, gives us an image to ponder.  That prayer had us speaking to God that we would experience the intercession of Mary whose “fruitful virginity… bestowed on the human race the grace of eternal salvation”.  We believe that Mary was perpetually a virgin, meaning that before, during and after giving birth to the Lord, she remained a virgin as a type of consecration to God due to the special mission that was hers in salvation history.  But, that curious phrase, “fruitful virginity”, reminds us that Mary was no less fruitful due to her virginal life.  She bore great fruit in issuing forth the greatest fruit of all, the God-man Himself, Jesus Christ.  This is certainly worth celebrating and a great source of why we honor Mary.  However, I think her fruitful virginity extends still further.  The Scriptures tell us that Mary is not only the mother of the Lord, but she is also the mother all who believe in Christ.  The Book of Revelation, in describing the woman who is seen as an image of Mary, the fulfillment of the New Eve, speaks of the offspring, the other children of the woman, “who keep the commandments of God and bear testimony to Jesus” (Rev. 12:17).  This means that we disciples are part of the fruit that is attributed to Mary’s fruitful virginity.  St. Paul in the second reading of this Mass describes this mystery in this way, “When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, … so that we might receive adoption as sons” and so having received the Spirit of the Son into our hearts we cry out “Abba, Father”!  By faith and baptism we are joined to the life of the Son, Jesus Christ, and so we are likewise children who issue forth from the fruitful virginity of Mary, whose motherhood we celebrate as the conclusion of the Christmas Octave.

 Quite simply, in the beauty of this holy season, we acknowledge the role of Mary in fulfilling the words of the first reading, from the Book of Numbers.  God’s instruction for how Aaron and the Old Covenant priests were to bless included these words, “The Lord let his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you!  The Lord look upon you kindly and give you peace”!  Through the faith and cooperation of Mary with God’s plan, her virginal consecration bore great fruit in that God Himself indeed has a face that in the fullness of time has shined upon His people.  Indeed, He has a face by which He can look upon us kindly.  He has looked upon us kindly in being lifted up as our Savior.  We are most fully alive when we dwell in His gaze, when we dwell where He looks upon us.  And by our faith and cooperation with God, we likewise become fruit of Mary’s virgin motherhood for we are adopted as God’s children, and we strive to keep the commandments and to give testimony to the Lord.  May Mary’s intercession for us help us to live a deeper union with the author of our life and our Savior, the one who shows us the face of God in human form, the Lord Jesus Christ!