Mary, Mother of God January 1, 2021
Fr. Albert St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette
Do you think there was a resemblance? Between Mary and Jesus, I mean. Do you think it was obvious to anyone who looked that Jesus was Mary’s son? I do. After all, God did not just appear in her womb. The angel said she would conceive, that the child in her womb was taken from her flesh, her genetics. His father, God the Father, provided miraculously the rest of what is human and his divine nature as well. So the face of Jesus must have resembled the face of Mary. Probably quite strongly, if I had to guess.
And the face of Jesus is important. Long before there was even a specific devotion to the Holy Face, a devotion we see in St. Therese of Lisieux’s name – her name was Therese of the child Jesus and the Holy face – long before that devotion, even the ancient Israelites thought often of the face of God. Many verses refer to “seeing the face of God” as something so profound it would cause death on the spot. God encouraged this, even telling Moses to only look at his back lest he die.
And yet, right there at the beginning of the covenant on Sinai, God also indicates the glory and goodness of his face. He commands the Levites, the ancient Jewish priests, to bless them with the specific formula we see in our first reading. “The LORD let his face shine upon you… the LORD look upon you kindly…” And the book of Revelation promises that those in heaven “will look up on his face.” Indeed, theologians have long described heaven as the beatific vision, specifically the ability to see God’s face and live.
What is it about God’s face? The face is a place of personal encounter. It is not about literally seeing eyes and nose and lips… not completely anyway. It is about being able to enter into direct relationship with God, to experience him on a personal and eternal level. Lovers gaze with joy into the face of the one they love and we are destined to be able to do the same with God himself as he already looks with love upon us.
This is why it is so profound that God took on flesh; This is the octave, the 8th day of celebrating that mystery of the Incarnation. God became man, took on a human face so that mankind could look on that face and see God… and one day be able to see God’s face for eternity in heaven. Yet, where did God decide to get that face? From Mary, his biological mother. Hence we title this solemnity Mary, the Mother of God – so important that most years it is a Holy Day of Obligation.
Mary being the mother of God does not make her a God. It simply means that she really is the mother of Jesus and that Jesus really and truly is God. As I said at Christmas, either Jesus is God or we’re all great fools and liars. The great debates of the early Church included this debate about calling Mary the “Mother of God” – Theotokos in Greek – and the truth won out.
We should consider well the fact that God chose to have his face resemble Mary’s… to learn from her to “[keep] all these things”, reflecting on them in” our hearts. Mary, dearest Mary, bore God in her womb and lent her face to him. God, whose face is invoked in blessing, whose face can cause death in the sinful is seen in the face of Mary. This is why she is the refuge of those who feel too ashamed, too sinful to approach God. She is not God, but she looks like him. She is not God, but God chose to endow her with power and authority she could not earn on her own. God chose to resemble her, to obey her, to honor her, and to entrust her to his disciples. How could we not do likewise? How could we not look with love upon her face, ask her intercession, and guard her in our homes? Mary, may your loving gaze, your sweet face lead us to always look with love on the face of God, your son.