THE GOOD NEWS
ARCHBISHOP BELTRAN

The Good News

...Mary, the Mother of Jesus

The final weeks of the year seem to be the busiest time of all.  Both the Church and our society promote special observances and celebrations.  Fortunately, the Church’s emphasis is on the new beginning we have in Jesus.  The four weeks of Advent encourage us to prepare for Christmas, the birthday of Jesus.

An important part of our preparation for the celebration of Christ’s birth and His Presence among us, necessarily and happily focus on His Mother Mary.  This was the plan that God revealed to us in the Old Testament.  It was the plan which God fulfilled in the New Testament.

The Angel Gabriel was sent by God to a virgin named Mary.  The angel informed her of God’s plan that she had been selected by God to be the mother of His Son Jesus.  In faith and love, Mary humbly accepted by replying:  “Thy Will be done.”  With that, the Word became flesh and salvation history was being accomplished.  Later, Mary, the Mother of Jesus, gave birth to her Child at Bethlehem.  She nurtured and loved Him and accompanied Him throughout His life on this earth.  She stood beneath the Cross and watched Him die for us.  After His resurrection from the dead, she accompanied His Church until her own call from this world to eternal life in heaven with her Son Jesus.

Mary, the mother of Jesus, is such an integral part of the salvation which her divine Son gained for us that we must always keep her before our minds.  Thus during this Advent season, the Church designates two very special feast days for us to honor Mary, the mother of Jesus.

On Wednesday of this week, December 8th, we celebrate the Feast of the Immaculate

Conception of Mary.  One hundred and fifty years ago, the Church solemnly defined this truth which had been believed by countless saints throughout the ages, namely, that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was immaculately conceived.  This dogma states that from the first moment of her conception, Mary, by the singular grace of God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, was preserved immune from original sin.  She remained free from all sin throughout her life and now reigns gloriously in heaven.

Mary, under the title of the Immaculate Conception, has been designated as the Patroness of the United States.  We should look to her then as a perfect example of how we are to live our Catholic faith.  We should look to her for the protection our country needs to remain free and safe.  Each of us needs the blessings which the Blessed Virgin Mary as the Immaculate Conception offers us on our daily journey.  So important is this fact of Mary’s Immaculate Conception that the Church has made it a Holy Day of Obligation.  On Wednesday, December 8th, each of us is obliged under pain of serious sin, to participate in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.  This participation in the Eucharist is a fitting way for us to observe and celebrate the great feast of this great woman, the Blessed Virgin Mary, who is immaculately conceived.

A few days after the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, the Church observes another feast in honor of Mary.  This is the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe celebrated on December 12th.  This feast recalls the apparitions of the Blessed Mother to Saint Juan Diego shortly after the Spaniards discovered the Americas.  The apparitions took place in Mexico at Tepeyac which is today a part of Mexico City.

For almost five hundred years, the miraculous picture of Our Lady of Guadalupe on the fragile Tilma of Juan Diego has been enshrined at Guadalupe.  Millions and millions of people have traveled to stand in the presence of that picture and have been blessed by the Virgin Mary as she leads us to her Son Jesus.  In addition, devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe has spread throughout the continent and even beyond.  In recent years, Pope John Paul II officially named Mary under the title of Our Lady of Guadalupe as Patroness of all the Americas.

The principal role of the Blessed Virgin is the fact that she is the mother of Jesus, therefore, the mother of God.  Vicariously and by the gift of Jesus, Mary is our mother, too.  These two feasts in honor of our Blessed Mother on December 8th as the Immaculate Conception and on December 12th as Our Lady of Guadalupe afford us a valuable opportunity to renew our commitments of faith in Jesus.  Just as at Bethlehem, Mary gave us Jesus for the first time, so now she continues to lead us to Him through our Holy Catholic Church.  No wonder we say to her:  “Blessed art thou among women!”