Scripture Study for
The Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God
Numbers 6: 22–27 / Psalm 67:2a / Galatians 4:4–7 / Luke 2:16–21
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Understanding the Word
By Dianne Bergant, C.S.A.
The blessing found in today’s Numbers reading may be one of the oldest pieces of poetry in the Bible. Although it is the priests who ultimately bless the people, it is Moses who receives the blessing from God and who delivers it to Aaron and his sons. The blessing itself is quite crisp and direct. Each line invokes a personal action from God: to bless with good fortune and to keep from harm; to look favorably toward and to be gracious to; to look upon and to grant peace. Actually, all the petitions ask for the same reality, namely, the blessings that make life worth living. Peace is the fundamental characteristic of Jewish blessing, the condition of absolute well-being.
According to Paul, the goal of Christ’s mission was the transformation of the Galatians from slaves under the law to adopted children of God. He uses a social custom of the day to illustrate the contrast between servitude under the law and freedom in Christ. An heir too young to claim inheritance was appointed a legal guardian until he came of age. Paul compares the believers to underage minors who, until “the fullness of time had come,” could not claim what might be right fully theirs (Galatians 4:4). The law acted as legal guardian. All of this changes with the coming of Christ. Christians are no longer minors bound to the tutelage of the law.
The Gospel is essentially the same as that of the Christmas Mass at Dawn. However, this passage also speaks of the circumcision and the naming of Jesus. This slight addition shifts the focus of the passage from the shepherds to the child and his parents. As observant Jews, Mary and Joseph fulfilled all of the prescriptions of the law, seeing that the child was circumcised as custom dictated. Just as the angel had foretold, the child is named Jesus, which means savior. Now almost everything that the angel had announced has come to pass.