A Body You Have Prepared for Me

The growth of a child in his or her mother’s womb remains one of the most ordinary, and at the same time extraordinary facets of human life.  A new and soon-to-be independent creature grows mysteriously hidden for nine months.  Yet, in those nine months, this not-yet independent creature remains dependent for everything.  And in that hidden life of the growing child, the sole source of nourishment and life-giving oxygen is the mother.  Given that amazing truth, with awe and wonder we might say: there is something of the mother in the child—a gift given in those crucial nine months, creating a bond that remains deep even after birth.

In the mysterious and wonderful plan of God for the salvation of the world, a plan to wed heaven and earth, the Son of God was destined to become one with us in our humanity.  How would this great mystery come about?  How would this human life be fashioned so that it might be united to the Son’s divine life? In the Providence of God this mysterious happening would take place in the womb of a mother, a human mother.  Mary would be God’s instrument so that a body would be prepared for the Son (Hebrews 10, 5).

As with every human life, something of this Mother is in this Child.  The bond shared by Mary and her Son Jesus, which remained throughout his earthly life, now flourishes in the heart of the Church’s devotional life as we confidently entrust our cares to the Son through the Mother.

Perhaps today, nine months from the feast of Christmas, we might pause to ponder the wonder of Mary, Mother of our God and Lord Jesus.  The wonder that He who is our Lord and Savior is also a Mother’s Son. Perhaps we might allow Mary’s motherly heart to warm us into love and respect for our own human lives and that of all others.  And confident in the bond that she shares with her Son, perhaps today there is some special need, some special intention that we want to share with her so that she might share it with her Son.