Sunday, 4 May 2025
I would like to start my sharing with a question. What’s the meaning of celebrating birthday to you? Why do we need to celebrate our birthday or even our idols’ birthday? Recently, more and more fans will advertise for their idols for celebrating their birthdays, you may see those advertisements on bus, outdoor billboards and even huge LED wall outside some shopping mall. Why would birthday be something worthy to celebrate? In short, for me, birthday is something we can see for every human as a call for new hope in the world, and good things begin with our birthday.
The Catholic Church celebrates today the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary on its traditional fixed date of September 8. The Church has celebrated Mary’s birth since at least the sixth century. A September birth was chosen because the Eastern Church begins its Church year with September. The September 8 date helped determine the date for the feast of the Immaculate Conception on December 8.
The circumstances of Mary’s baby life and early life are not directly recorded in the Bible, but other documents and traditions describing the circumstances of her birth are written by some of the earliest Christian writers from the first centuries of the Church. In the book of St. James, it describes Mary’s father Joachim as a wealthy man in Israel. Joachim was deeply grieved, along with his wife Anne because they have no children. He thought of Abraham that in the last day God gave him a son Isaac. Joachim and Anne began to devote themselves in prayer. At the beginning, they were upset because even they tried their best to pray, they were still failed to have a baby and they think it’s a sign of God to displease their prayer.
Finally, the couple were to be blessed even more than Abraham and Sarah, an angel appeared to Anne and said to her that all generations would honour their future child: “The Lord has heard your prayer, and you shall conceive, and shall bring forth, and your seed shall be spoken of in all the world.” After Mary’s birth, they set up a “baby room” for her, when she was one year old, like many parents in Hong Kong do, her father made a great birthday party for Mary, he invited the priests, and the scribes, and the elders, and all the people of Israel to the feast.
As mentioned, we can see every human birth as a call for new hope in the world. The love of your parents has joined with God in his creative work. Don’t forget, your birth once, and still showing hope in a world filled with difficulties and challenges, it means a lot for your parents and family. In Catholic belief, the new child has the potential to be a channel of God’s love and peace to the world.
Birthday celebrations bring happiness to the celebrant as well as to family and friends. Next to the birth of Jesus, Mary’s birth offers the greatest possible happiness to the world. Let’s not forget today is Mary birthday, each time we celebrate her birth, we can confidently hope for an increase of peace in our hearts and in the world. And don’t forget to honour and be thankful to your parents.
Mr Kwan Y.W.
8 September 2022