There are attitudes which can be helpful and make life easier and more pleasant. Other ways are less conducive to growth and happiness. One of these is called: ‘Getting used to’… Of course, the repetition of certain tasks can make them easier to perform. Exercise and practice can make one more proficient. But this does not apply to understanding some realities.

You may wonder where this reflection is leading to. These thoughts came to me while reading the letter to the Galatians (2^nd reading, Year A – Gal.4:4-7) where we are told that God’s Son was “born of a woman”. We repeat it every time we pray the Creed: “He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary.”

Do we ever stop at this point unable to go on out of sheer amazement? Has it ever happened that other people around us went on reciting the text while we remained in total wonder at this extraordinary reality: GOD IS THE CHILD OF A HUMAN MOTHER. The fact is that we have got ‘used to it’… It somehow seems that the words flow of themselves as if things could not be otherwise – we have repeated them for so long!

Only God can make such plans: to involve a human being like us for his own Son to become precisely this: a human being like us. This is what we celebrate at Christmas, and this is what we celebrate today on this Feast of Mary, Mother of God.

In fact, what we celebrate is: God who needs – God wanting to be in need: is this not astonishing? –in need of a created being to carry out His design. Mary said ‘Yes’ not only to a baby of her own, but to… a son of God’s own, and yet… a son or her own!

Is this not enough to keep us in wonder and praise for the whole of this new year?!