September is a month rich in liturgical depth, mystery and the process of healing, much like today’s Gospel. The deaf and mute man was healed when Christ put his fingers in the man’s ears, spit, looked to heaven, groaned and said “Be opened!”, to open the man’s ears – to hear the Gospel – and to heal his voice – to proclaim God’s saving work in Christ.
Today, September 8th, is the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Nine months ago, on December 8th, the Church celebrated the Immaculate Conception whereby the Church celebrated the truth that Mary was conceived without original sin, a unique grace that prepared Mary to be the Mother of Jesus Christ – the Eternal Word of the Father who took on our flesh through her.
Saint Andrew of Crete, bishop, (660-740) wrote about Mary’s birth: The fulfillment of the law is Christ himself, who does not so much lead us away from the letter as lift us up to its spirit. For the law’s consummation was this, that the very lawgiver accomplished his work and changed letter into spirit, summing everything up in himself and, though subject to the law, living by grace. He subordinated the law, yet harmoniously united grace with it, not confusing the distinctive characteristics of the one with the other, but effecting the transition in a way most fitting for God. He changed whatever was burdensome, servile and oppressive into what is light and liberating, so that we should be enslaved no longer under the elemental spirits of the world, as the Apostle [Paul] says, nor held fast as bondservants under the letter of the law.
This is the highest, all-embracing benefit that Christ has bestowed on us. This is the revelation of the mystery, this is the emptying out of the divine nature, the union of God and man, and the deification of the man-hood that was assumed. This radiant and manifest coming of God to men most certainly needed a joyful prelude to introduce the great gift of salvation to us. The present festival, the birth of the Mother of God, is the prelude, while the final act is the foreordained un-ion of the Word made flesh. Today the Virgin is born, tended and formed, and prepared for her role as Mother of God…
Therefore, let all creation sing and… unite to make worthy contribution to the celebration of this day. Let there be one common festival for saints in heaven and men on earth. Let everything, mundane things and those above, join in festive celebration… The creature is newly prepared to be a divine dwelling place for the Creator.
Since God the Son took on our mortal nature, he was able to take on all the sins of the world into himself and offer himself on the cross as a perfect expiation, a perfect sacrifice for our sins. The Church celebrates the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross on September 14, which this year is on a Saturday, and then usually celebrates the Memorial of Our Lady of Sorrows on September 15, but this day is a Sunday which is always a Solemnity, and thus has its own proper readings and prayers.
Even so, we see the connection between the Mother’s suffering united to her Divine Son’s salvific suffering, as she stood at the foot of the cross. Christ pours out his life, for his heart is pierced and blood and water flow out, living symbols of our baptism into Christ and the Eucharist which is the life blood of Christ’s Mystical Body – the Church.
St. Columban, abbot, (543-615), wrote beautifully of how this image of Son and Mother, offered together to the Father, wounds our hearts with love for God, as we thirst for complete and perfect union with God: Brethren, let us follow that vocation by which we are called from life to the fountain of life. He is the fountain, not only of living water, but of eternal life. He is the fountain of light and spiritual illumination; for from him come all these things: wisdom, life and eternal light…
Lord Christ, always give us this water to be for us the source of the living water which wells up to eternal life…there is nothing greater than you, and you be-stowed yourself upon us; you gave yourself for us.
Therefore, we ask that we may know what we love, since we ask nothing other than that you give us your-self. For you are our all: our life, our light, our salvation, our food and drink, our God. Inspire our hearts, I ask you, Jesus, with that breath of your Spirit; wound our souls with your love, so that the soul of each and every one of us may say in truth: Show me my soul’s desire, for I am wounded by your love.
These are the wounds I wish for, Lord. Blessed is the soul so wounded by love. Such a soul seeks the fountain of eternal life and drinks from it, although it continues to thirst and its thirst grows ever greater even as it drinks. Therefore, the more the soul loves, the more it desires to love, and the greater its suffering, the greater it healing. In this same way may our God and Lord Jesus Christ, the good and saving physician, wound the depths of our souls with a healing wound– the same Jesus Christ who reigns in unity with the Father and the Holy Spirit, for ever and ever. Amen.
Our desire for prayer, healing and a closer union with Christ is a grace from the Lord that calls us into his service of life and salvation, especially among the poor and vulnerable.
Peace through Christ and Mary,
Fr. Thomas McCabe
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