I. "Who is she that cometh forth as the morning rising, fair as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army set in array?" (Cant. vi. 9). The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin was indeed like the dawn, caused by the sun, and announcing the approach of day. Mary appeared, the early reflection, by her grace and sinlessness, of the first beams of the Sun of justice. That dawn was eagerly looked for during the long night of the old dispensation, continually promised and prefigured. Our Lady is compared to the moon, fair and beautiful, a subordinate luminary, with no light of its own, but shining with a reflected brightness. She is also "the woman clothed with the sun" (Apoc. xii. 1), bright with the sun's brightness, with the glory of Jesus Christ, because she is the image of His virtues, and has her dignity from Him. She is terrible to the hosts of hell, as being the only one over whom they had never prevailed, and as the Mother of their Conqueror. As in every other case, the splendour of this work of God was shrouded in humility. Except the parents of Mary perhaps, none knew the greatness of this child of promise. The day which gave joy to the unseen world passed without notice in the sphere where it occurred. She herself did not suspect, till the angel announced it, the designs that God had for her. Consider how God regarded the day of Mary's birth; consider what it was to God the Son who was to be born of her; consider its importance to the world and to you.
II. The day of birth is not usually celebrated by Religion. It is, for the most part, the coming of a child of Adam into an inheritance of sin and sorrow; it is the first stage of a course which will be marked by offences against God, and perhaps may end in eternal loss. The birthday on which the Church congratulates her saints, is the day on which they cast off "the body of this death" and commence their life in heaven. With the Scripture she says, better is "the day of death than the day of one s birth" (Eccles. vii. 2). Not till that day can it be declared by God that His work is wholly good. With Jesus it was different: the day of His birth is a day of universal joy. Of this fulness of His some have received. The blessedness of His sinless divine birth over flowed upon two others who were connected with Him ; and the Church celebrates, besides Christmas Day, the nativities of the Precursor and of the Mother of Jesus. You do not share in that rare privilege; but you have received the grace of a spiritual nativity in Baptism, and it lies with you to make yourself worthy of the further birth to eternal life on the day of your death.
III. Birth is accounted noble when it has been preceded by a line of distinguished ancestors. The Blessed Virgin was of the most noble and splendid descent known to history. She was of the chosen nation, of the royal tribe of Judah, of the house and family of David. Through Abraham, Noah and the patriarchs, the line is carried back unbroken to the first parents, who proceeded from the hand of God. But not for this is the Nativity of Mary honourable. She conferred on her ancestors more glory than she received from them. Their chief title of nobility was that a daughter of their line was to be Mother of the Redeemer of the world. On this account it was that Providence segregated the Jewish nation from all others, and guarded so carefully the direct line of descent, and saved its origin from being lost in the universal obscurity. Our Lady not only ennobled her own family and nation, but all her sex and all humanity. Her influence gave to women, under the Jewish and Christian dispensations, a position of dignity such as was unknown elsewhere; and that position declines wherever the religious honour due to Christ's Mother is neglected. Unite yourself with those who "all blessed her with one voice saying: Thou art the glory of Jerusalem, thou art the joy of Israel, thou art the honour of our people" (Judith xv. 10).
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