From the desk of Fr. Tobin

October, 2020 - I have been inspired to write a piece on Mary the mother of Jesus Christ the Son of God. It is one topic Protestants don’t like to talk about. But Catholics love to talk about it.

When Mary visited her cousin Elizabeth, she cried out inspired by the Holy Spirit, “From henceforth all generations will call me blessed, for He who is Mighty has done great things for me and holy is His name.'' This is scripture. Luke I

The Catholic Church has done so from the time of the apostle, down through the ages and to the present time. As Mary said we should. ‘Call her Blessed.’ Luke I.

The wonderful story of the birth of Jesus begins with the coming of the arch-angel Gabriel, to a town of Nazareth, to a cousin called Mary. Luke I.

The angel greeted her and said “Hail full of grace, the Lord is with you, blessed are you among women” and the angel went on to say, “Fear not Mary, you have found favor with God, you will conceive and bring forth a son and give him the name Jesus, great will be his dignity and he will be called the Son of The Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of David his father. He will rule over the house of Jacob forever and his reign will be forever.”

What brought about the coming of Jesus? The Fall of Adam and Eve.

God, in Genesis, created everything. At end God said, “Let us make man to our own image and likeness, to the image and likeness of God. He created them.” The likeness of God in man is God's Divine grace, which makes us holy like God himself.

So now Adam and Eve were like God himself. Then the devil entered the scene. God had told Adam and Eve that of all the fruit in the garden, they could eat except the tree in the middle of the garden. God had said you shall not eat of it or even touch it, lest you die. (Gen 3:4) The devil told them otherwise. They ate of it and they died the death. They lost God’s divine grace, and lost it for all their posterity.

But, God made us a wonderful promise. He turned to Satan and said “I will put enmity between you (Satan) and the woman, between your seed and her seed (offspring) he will strike at your head, while you will strike at his heel.”

What woman? Not Eve, she is part of Satan’s seed, she is a sinner. The woman not part of Satan’s seed is Mary. As the angel said, “Hail full of grace.”

After the Angel Gabriel left Mary, Mary went to visit Elizabeth, the Angel told Mary that her cousin Elizabeth was going to have a baby also, she was 6 months pregnant, she was old. So Mary went in haste to be with her.

As soon as Mary’s greeting sounded in Elizabeth's ears, the baby in her womb (John Baptist) leapt for joy and Elizabeth filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice, “Blest are you among women and blest in the fruit of your womb, and whence is this to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” How did Elizabeth know about Mary’s conceiving the Son of God? The Holy Spirit revealed it to her, beautiful!

Then the birth of Jesus happened. He was born in a stable. That’s the way God wanted it, God wanted to give in a lesson on humility. Jesus would say “Learn of me for I am meek and humble of heart.”

Mary gave birth in a stable, she was so happy to hear the good news when He arrived; An angel appeared to shepherds and proclaimed to them the “Good News.” He said to the shepherds, “You have nothing to fear, I come to proclaim good news to you — tidings of great joy to be shared by all the people. This day in David’s city a savior has been born to you, the Messiah and Lord. Let this be a sign to you: in a manger you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes.”

The shepherds went to see what had been told to them and they found Mary, Joseph, and the baby laying in the manger.

Mary treasured all these things and reflected them in her heart. Heaven was the first to rejoice at the birth of Jesus.

When Jesus was 12 years old, he was lost in the Temple. Mary, Joseph and Jesus went to the Temple on this occasion, they got back a day’s journey, stopped for a rest, Jesus was not with them. Back they went to Jerusalem where they found him in the Temple after 3 days of searching. It says, Mary kept all these things in her memory. You may bet that Mary was heartbroken at the loss of Jesus, he could have been kidnapped. How would you mothers out there feel if you lost your 12 year old Son? But think of how Mary felt losing the ‘Son of God,’ not just any son.

We come to the greatest sorrows in Mary’s life, Good Friday. Did she witness the Scourging? That would be awful. The most Holy, Good person being scourged as a criminal. Mary must have been heartbroken… then watching him carrying the cross to his crucifixion. Seeing him being nailed to the cross, nailing his hands was bad but putting nails into his feet, that would be hard to watch. Poor mother, how did she do it? To watch him die; groaning and moaning would break any mother's heart. How did she ever take it? Only you good mothers out there would understand; you would understand what a mother would do for a child of her womb.

A few other observations. Mary is called the New Ark of the Covenant. We had the old Ark — built by Moses. God gave Moses all the beams for the Ark. Exodus Chapters 25+26.

Moses built the Ark, it was beautiful. The Lord told Moses what to put into the Ark. Some Manna, the 10 Commandments, and the Staff of Aaron. To show how Sacred the Ark was, when David was taking the Ark to Jerusalem, the Ark was placed on a new cart, guided by Uzzah and Ahio, by God's orders they were not to touch the Ark. But Uzzah did, he reached out to steady it for it was tipping a little and lo & behold he was struck dead on the spot. God had told them not to touch it, to show how holy it was; yes they found out.

Now we have the New Ark — Mary the mother of God. She is called the New Ark, for she had something more holy in her womb than the Ark of Exodus had, Mary’s womb had the Son of God, the Savior of the world.

And again: A woman in the crowd, Luke 27:11 shouted out, “Blessed in the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you.”

And St. John in the book of Revelations tells us, he saw in Heaven, “a woman clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet and on her head a crown of 12 stars. Rev. 12:1 Who could it be? Only one, the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Now folks out there. If you had a mother like that you would never stop singing about her… Me: I sing about her all the time.

Yes, “from henceforth all generations shall call me Blessed; for He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name.”

I know that there are lots and lots of people all over the world, who are not Catholic, who love and honor our Blessed Mother Mary.

At time of the Reformation, Luther himself had a special devotion for Mary. It was later that some of the Reformers broke away completely from the Catholic Church that they had nothing to do with anything Catholic.

So do you feel that way too? I hope not. Christ’s own mother! Wow! I love her. Why shouldn’t I? What most Protestants say, is that she takes away from your love of Jesus. Hog wash. She adds to your love of Jesus.

To show how silly some of the arguments are, they talk of the Altar call. They got rid of the Altar — they still have the Altar call, yet no Altar. Holy Cat!

Wake up you people. Mary is the Mother of Jesus — who is God; so Mary is God’s mother. What could you say of God’s mother? Yes, Mary said: “From henceforth all generations will call me Blessed!!”

My phone: 775-6310

My Name: Fr. Tobin