Brothers and sisters:
When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son,
born of a woman, born under the law,
to ransom those under the law,
so that we might receive adoption as sons.
There was some mystery as to precisely what Paul meant by the fullness of time, some mystery as to why Jesus came at that time in history and not earlier or later. There is much we might say about why that time was particularly fitting. God's promise was in the first place to his own people Israel. At the time of the birth of Jesus there was an evident and electric Messianic hope that gripped that people. Their history up to that point had taught them to hope for a direct intervention of God, something that a human mediator couldn't taint or spoil. This aspect of the birth of Jesus was part of the reason he had to be born under the law. The law could not make us righteous but only teach us the depths of our need for holiness. The law, without Jesus was an unanswered question, an unmet obligation.
It was also an important part of the divine plan that Jesus be born of a human woman. To accomplish his plan of salvation he had to become like us in all things except sin (see Hebrews 4:15), and that included sharing fully in our human nature. In proclaiming that Mary was the mother of God we do not imply that she somehow created God. But we do mean that at every moment that baby she conceived was, in addition to being fully human, also fully divine.
Two mistakes about his nature were excluded by this concise statement that he who was the Son of God was sent to us by way of birth from a human woman. The first mistake ruled out was that he was merely an exceptional human who got especially close to the divine during the course of his life. Such a mistake would categorize Jesus as just one more great figure among the prophets and kings of the history of his people. But those others, kings like David who were metaphorically considered God's sons, were not born into that role, but received it after. Unlike their sonship, Jesus was God's Son before he was born and his human birth was not a change to his divine nature, but rather the beginning of his coming to share in our human story by taking a human nature to himself.
The second mistake that Paul ruled out was that he was something higher and different than a human, perhaps God, perhaps a demi-God, but not truly incarnate. Such a being would not have been born of a woman, but would rather, at most, appeared to have been thus born. His human life would not have been real but merely a phantasm or an illusion. Such a one could not bring us salvation because it would leave our human nature fundamentally untouched. A Messiah who merely appeared human could not offer on our behalf the sacrifice that Jesus did in fact offer.
As proof that you are sons,
God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts,
crying out, “Abba, Father!”
It was because Jesus became fully human while remaining fully divine that he was able to share his divine nature, his status as Son of the Father, with those who would let themselves by joined to him by Sacrament and Spirit.
"For that which He has not assumed He has not healed"
- Gregory of Nazianzus
This need for a fully human and fully divine Jesus also hinted at the need for an exceptional mother. Perhaps in many ways the fullness of time was a mysterious waiting for the mother who could fully embrace the call to give birth to God himself. Mary, did you know all of history was in some sense waiting on you? It is as though God searched and searched looking for a woman who would receive a gift of grace and offer it back entirely. No doubt most other hearts, even if given a fresh and even immaculate start, would still not have chosen to cooperate in the way that Mary did. He gave Mary grace, but her fiat was still a free response to that grace. Perhaps in guiding creation from the fall to the birth of the savior God was always weaving threads of history toward the birth of graced woman who could welcome and cooperate with the divine initiative. God did not then have to kick down the door to creation and enter it against the will of creatures but had prepared in advance the possibility and archetype of our acceptance of his coming.
Did Mary really need to be sinless? We can imagine things having been otherwise but it was doubtlessly the most fitting for Jesus to receive his human nature entire and untainted rather than putting a filter between the woman from whom he received it and himself. It made more sense for that exceptional grace of the Immaculate Conception to have been Mary's so that Jesus himself could reveal the extent to which he really took to himself a human nature. Further, if she were not sinless she would not have been able to offer an informed consent to God's plan in the way that she did in fact do. God might still have come, but it would either have been contrary to the will of the creatures through him he came, or perhaps through those creatures not really understanding exactly to what they were accenting.
Because Jesus came as a Son of the Father and a son of Mary he was able to truly and fully embody the name given to him by the angel, Jesus, meaning 'God saves'.
And Mary kept all these things,
reflecting on them in her heart.
We needed Mary's contemplative heart to store up the treasures of what God had done for her so that they could be later shared with us through the Gospel. Luke was a great historian, interviewing eyewitnesses to get at the facts of the life of Jesus. But it was Mary especially who was able to see the hidden meaning and necessity behind those facts. Her heart was the one heart free enough to see God's actions without second guessing them the way Adam and Eve first did, which we their children were all too apt to imitate.
Now that the gift has been given we too, like the shepherds, ought to go to Mary if we want to fully appreciate the greatness of the gift God himself gave us at that first Christmas. Her pure heart treasured and distilled those blessings and now delights to share them with us. If we simply spend some time in her presence we will grow in our understanding of her son as well. We, like the shepherds will return with joy.
Then the shepherds returned,
glorifying and praising God
for all they had heard and seen,
just as it had been told to them.
Once we have a taste of the shepherds' joy that a visit to Mary can impart we can become like her in being a blessing to others, in becoming, in fact, an embodiment of the blessing Israel was always meant to be.
The LORD bless you and keep you!
The LORD let his face shine upon
you, and be gracious to you!
The LORD look upon you kindly and
give you peace!
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