Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, The Mother of God

January 1st

Readings: Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God | USCCB

Today’s Gospel reading takes us to the tender scene of the Nativity. We know it as imagined in countless paintings: the infant Christ lying in the manger, the shepherds coming in joy to worship, and Joseph and Mary gazing in wonder at the child who lies before them. Mary, like any new mother, cannot take her eyes off her new baby. Yet today’s other readings hint that Mary is not the only one gazing. The Psalmist prays: “May God have pity on us and bless us; / may he let his face shine upon us.” Similarly, the LORD tells Moses to bless the Israelites with the words “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!” These words remind us that even as Mary gazes at Christ, he also looks at her with a gaze that brings God’s blessing.

In her recent volume of poetry, Dawn of this Hunger1, contemporary poet and Catholic convert Sally Read imagines mother and son in the first hours and days after Christ’s birth into the world. Read tells us that Mary is “transfixed by his skin” (14) and attentive to “the depths of his dark eyes” (16). Yet she also describes the infant Christ’s attention to Mary and his “insistence on her as the only beautiful, only visible thing” (14). Mary and Christ are lost in mutual attentiveness. Read writes: “This locked gaze is what keeps God and man together. It is true prayer” (16).

Read hints that the true substance of prayer is not just a laundry list of petitions nor an anxious litany of worries, but something more like mutual attentiveness, simply being present with the Lord. Her insight echoes St. John Vianney’s experience: in praying before the tabernacle or in adoration, he explained, “I look at him, and he looks at me.” At the Nativity and ever after, Mary’s face is turned towards Christ, and her attention is her prayer. Christ likewise gazes with joy at Mary, the perfection of humanity. His face reveals the love of the Father for all of creation, and it brings blessing to Mary and to us, her children.