The Birth of Mary, the Mother of Jesus, Theotokos, God-bearer

Greek Orthodox Icon of the Birth of the Theotokos

Reflection at Morning Worship with the Community of Brendan the Navigator on Tuesday 10th September 2024

Today we remember the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which is included as a Festival in the Calendar of the Church of Ireland on September 8^th, last Sunday. It is one of only 3 birthdays included in the Calendar - the others are of St John the Baptist, and of Jesus himself of course, at Christmas.

Now, neither Mary’s parents nor the circumstances of her birth are mentioned in any of the Gospels in the canon of our New Testament. But they are mentioned in the apocryphal Gospel of James, which claims to have been written by James the half-brother of Jesus by an earlier marriage of Joseph. Scholars date it to the middle of the 2^nd century, long after James’ death.

This and later traditions tell us that Mary’s father Joachim was rich and pious, and that he and her mother Anne were childless. Anne solemnly promises God that if she is given a child she will dedicate it to the Lord. They both receive a vision of an angel, who announces that Anne will conceive. She gives birth to a daughter, whom Anne names Mary, and the couple rejoice. When Mary is 3 years old they bring her to the Temple in Jerusalem to be brought up there, in an echo of the OT story of Hannah and Samuel. When Mary approaches her first period, the Temple authorities betroth her to Joseph and send her away, because they believed menstrual blood to be a source of impurity. And we all know her story thereafter.

The Gospel of James was excluded from the New Testament canon, though not before it had been widely read, copied and translated, and it continued to influence later views about Mary. St Jerome, who translated the Bible into Latin, rejected it as spurious, and Pope Innocent I condemned it in 405, when he confirmed a list of the books of the NT as we know it.

So, I believe that the stories of Mary’s birth and childhood are best seen as pious, but unreliable, fictions. The one thing we can know for sure about Mary’s birth is that she was indeed born, like every other human being.

The canonical Gospels tell us Mary’s wonderful story of humility and faithfulness. At the Annunciation, when the angel Gabriel tells her she will give birth to a son, to be named Jesus, she willingly accepts the extraordinary privilege of nurturing him in her womb, saying ‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.’ When she visits her cousin Elizabeth, she declaims the Magnificat, that great song of praise to God that we have just heard. She rears Jesus to be the divine man he was. She remains faithful to him throughout his ministry. And she suffers the unspeakable pain of watching her child’s brutal execution on the cross.

No matter whether we believe the stories about it or not, it is entirely right for us to remember and give thanks for the birth of Mary, the Theotokos, meaning God-bearer in Greek. So let us join with Christians of other traditions in the words of the Ave Maria:

‘Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus’.