The shepherds who were the first to see the newborn Messiah and Lord did not find him by himself.

They were told by the angel that they should be alert for the sign they would find:  an infant wrapped is swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.  When they found the sign, Luke includes further details:  “So they went in haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the manger.”  The sight that confirmed the angel’s message, that they understood to be the revelation of God and that they made known to others, was this little community, this little gathering of people, this little ekklesia.  It consisted of the God-man wrapped in littleness and simplicity, attended and worshipped and adored by two—his human mother and his foster father, who through his grace also became his first adopted brother and a child of God.

This sign for the shepherds is a sign for all ages and all sheep.  The Messiah is found first and always in the midst of a communion of saints, a holy family.  The fact of the presence of Mary and Joseph and their mention by Luke is not accidental or inconsequential.  In fact, it is what the shepherds see, remember and share when they find the sign.  It reveals the constitution, pattern and structure of the coming of the savior once and always—he is manifested in the flesh, especially in lowly and ordinary humanity, and he is manifested with his mother at his side and his adoptive guardian and charge keeping watch.

In other words, the presence of Mary, especially, is an essential part of the Gospel message to the shepherds and to us.  She will always be found where he is, and we should look for her there.  Her place at his side is discovered the very first time we catch sight of Jesus in the Gospels, and it is confirmed and revealed again by John in his account of the Crucifixion.  From the very beginning, Jesus comes to us in the midst of the communion of saints, Mary and Joseph, and she who bore him and he who received him as his own are there.  The Lord is found in the Church.  The Lord is found with Mary at his side.

The question that, for me, seems hard to answer is not:  “How can you give Mary so much honor and devotion?”  In the face of the sign that the shepherds found, the question that is hard to answer is this one:  “How can you not?”

Sincerely,

Fr. Paul