In Christ’s nativity, our treasure was hidden, Mary: Day 215

In Christ’s nativity, our treasure was hidden

St. Bernard insists that great spiritual treasure was hidden from the world in the events surrounding the nativity of our Lord: the immaculate nature of his mother, the sinless nature of the Child, the untold riches of God’s mercy.

O miraculous novelty! The curse of Eve is reversed in the Virgin, for she brought forth her Son without pain or sorrow. The curse has been changed into a blessing.
You only, Mary, are blessed among women! Blest, not cursed! You alone are free from the universal curse! And no wonder that Jesus gave no sorrow to his mother in childbirth, since he himself bore all the sorrows of the world, as Isaiah says: “Truly he has carried our sorrows” (Is 53:4).

There are two things from which our weak human nature shrinks: pain and shame. Christ came to take both from us, and this he did by accepting both of these in his own person. And to give us the fullest confidence in this deliverance, he first freed his mother from both pain and shame.

Our treasure was hidden. The immaculate nature of the mother was hid- den in the rite of purification according to the Law. The innocence of the Child was hidden in the customary rite of circumcision. So hide, then, Mary, hide the brightness of the new Sun! Place him in the manger; wrap your Infant in swad- dling clothes, for his humble wrap is our riches.

The rags of our Savior are more precious than royal purple, and his poor manger is more glorious than the gilded thrones of kings. The poverty of Christ is greater riches than all this world’s wealth. For what is richer or more precious than the humility by which heaven is bought and divine grace is obtained? —St. Bernard of Clairvaux, On the Miraculous Nature of the Nativity

IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .
In what ways are God’s spiritual riches hidden from the eyes of the world today? In what ways are they hidden in my life?

CLOSING PRAYER
Lord Jesus Christ, you are “the image of the invisible God”; and though your divinity was hidden from the world in your birth, in you “all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell” (Col 1:15, 19).

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