And Then the Dawn

Cape Ann is a promontory that juts out into the Atlantic about 30 miles northeast of Boston, Massachusetts. The eastern most point is where the rocks meet the crashing waves. Years ago, on a day just before dawn, I stood at the very end of the rocky projection and gazed out toward a very turbulent ocean and a dark, cloudy sky. It seemed like a metaphor for those somewhat dark and tempestuous times in our life when all looks uncertain.

Then something amazing happened. In the distance, the grey, cloudy sky seemed to be painted by an invisible paintbrush in a hue of rose-colored light. I thought, “And then the dawn.”  It seem that hope pierced through the foreboding, ominous sky.
           
Each year the Church celebrates the Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary on September 8. It is no surprise that Our Lady’s birthday would come exactly nine months after the day when we recall her Immaculate Conception on December 8.
           
In an antiphon of the Divine Office for her Nativity we hear these beautiful words, “Your birth, O Virgin Mother of God, proclaims joy to the whole world, for from you arose the glorious Sun of Justice, Christ our God; he freed us from the age-old curse and filled us with holiness, he destroyed death and gave us eternal life.”
           
The birth of Our Blessed Mother was like that moment on Cape Ann when I saw light breaking through the darkness.  Before the birth of Christ her Son, the brilliant Sun of Justice, Our Lady’s birth was that rosy streak of brightness that loudly proclaimed to all, “The Son, true God and true man, is on His way, the glory of His love and mercy will shine upon all!”  Her birth was the dawn coming into a world of darkness and into lives of longing for God’s presence.
           
In my years as a priest, I have heard many people describe those “Cape Ann moments.” Perhaps, it may come after the death of a loved one. It could be connected with the news of a life-threatening diagnosis. The loss of a job or other dire economic challenges. Strife in the family may plunge a person into a sea of heartache and doubts. People have often stood on the rock and looked out over an angry sea and foreboding sky. Then the first streaks of dawn appear.
           
So many people have this experience as they recognize the presence of Our Lady in their lives.  It is a profound reality that shows the relationship between Christ and His Mother.  For us it means that whenever we see Mary, we see her holding out to us her Divine Son.  Whenever she dawns into our life, we know that Jesus is not far off. As a matter of fact, He is with her.
           
Those “Cape Ann moments” also reveal to us the relationship that binds us to both Jesus and His Mother.  We could say that is in our DNA as Catholics.  I once read an article about soldiers during the Second World War.  The author claimed that the “go-to prayer” for soldiers in mortal danger on the battlefield or wounded and in danger of death was the Hail Mary.  There was something innate in their heart and soul that said, “Call on your Mother.”  Even soldiers who were not Catholic imitated their Catholic comrades in doing so.  It did not detract from their relationship with Jesus.  Rather, it strengthened it.  They know that the dawn always ushers in the brightness of the sun.
           
I recall the wisdom of Pope St. John Paul II in his Apostolic Letter on the Rosary (Rosarium Virginis Mariae, #14) who told us the Rosary is a beautiful means of contemplating the face of Christ in the School of Mary. This is why the Rosary is not only so popular but is also so effective. When we pray the Rosary, we go to Jesus in the company of His Mother. It is founded in the close loving relationship between the Mother and the Son. By God’s eternal plan of wisdom we can never separate Jesus from Mary, the Son from the Mother. Of course, she is subordinate to Him.  He is God and she is a human woman.   Nonetheless, she has been so wonderfully prepared for her vocation to be His Mother that we call her “full of grace” and believed that she was immaculately conceived.  That is why we instinctively go to her in our times of stormy seas and darkness in our lives.  She is the bearer of light, the dawn, that brings to us the brilliant light of her Son.  She teaches us in her Rosary and in other ways to seek the face of Jesus and to find salvation in Him.
           
St. Andrew of Crete said this about the Feast of our Lady’s Nativity.  “The radiant and manifest coming of God to men most certainly needed a joyful prelude to introduce the great gift of salvation to us.  The present festival, the birth of the Mother of God, is the prelude, while the final act is the foreordained union of the Word made flesh.  Today the Virgin is born, tended and formed, and prepared for her role as Mother of God, who is the universal King of the ages.”
           
And if this were not enough, we recall the words of Jesus, who while hanging on the cross, said to St. John and to us, “Behold your Mother” (Jn 19:26).  He gave her to us and us to her.  The relationship between Jesus and His Mother also embraces us.  We can say that we are caught up in this loving embrace between God and His Mother!  That is why we love her and call out to her.
           
It is no wonder that those “Cape Ann moments” speak to us of the tender love that united Jesus and Mary!  Whether we are on the battlefield of life, or in the hospital room of a loved one, or in an office facing economic disaster, or alone and desolate, or brought to our knees for any reason, we can look up and see God’s Mother and ours, breaking through the darkness and shining the light of her Son upon us. 
           
I often think that it was so fitting that this “dawned” on me so many years ago on Cape Ann.  Not surprised!  After all, the Mother of our Blessed Mother is St. Anne.  Remember, “In God’s plan, there are no coincidences!”  Just saying!

O Holy Mother of God,
your birth and life have illumined the whole Church,
enlighten our minds and give joy to our hearts!


Most Reverend William J. Waltersheid
Auxiliary Bishop of Pittsburgh