The nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Since we had a five-month-long lockdown due to this global pandemic caused by the coronavirus from Wuhan, China, we have felt a lot of sadness from many people who have succumbed to the COVID-19, especially when they are frontliners whose job is to keep the infected patients alive. It’s bad when we learn of people who succumb to this virus; it is even more difficult when we learn of siblings who die due to this virus.

Last Sept. 1, Nelson F. Garcia, the younger brother of Gov. Gwen F. Garcia, passed away due to COVID-19. He was the former mayor of Dumanjug. Then unexpectedly, last Sunday Sept. 6, Mayor Marlon F. Garcia, two-term mayor of Barili, also passed away due to COVID-19. What can we say but this virus kills anyone at will. So allow me to reprint the official statement from Gov. Garcia that I got from her Facebook page:

“With profound sorrow, we announce the passing of Mayor Marlon Fiel Garcia, who joined his Creator at dawn today, September 6. Mayor Marlon’s demise occurs 5 days after his brother, Mayor Nelson, passed on, also at Chong Hua Hospital. He was passionate in his advocacy for the up-liftment of the lives of the people of Barili, Cebu, whom he served as Mayor since 2016, and previously, as Vice Mayor. He wholeheartedly served the Province of Cebu as Vice President for Internal Affairs of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines - Cebu Chapter.

“In the weeks leading to his untimely passing, Mayor Marlon was eager to be discharged so he could continue on in his relentless efforts for the economic revival of Barili. Mayor Marlon fought bravely until the very end.

As a devoted, son, brother, husband, father, and public servant, we will remember him for his courage and compassion, and his kind and gentle ways. We ask for your continued prayers in this time of deep and unbearable grief.”

We condole with the Garcia family on the loss of Nelson and Marlon. We ask our pious readers to please pray for the repose of their souls.

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Today, the Catholic Church celebrates the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary on its traditional fixed date of September 8, which is nine months after the December 8 celebration of her Immaculate Conception as the child of Saints Joachim and Anne. There is no doubt that so many Catholics do not read their Bibles and I can only second-guess that those who do must have found to their complete surprise that the story of the nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary is not recorded in the Old or New Testament of the Bible.

However, Catholics are taught early in school that the Catholic Church is the repository of church doctrines and traditions, thus the circumstances of the birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary are cited by some of the earli-est Christian writers from the first centuries of the Church.

One of these early writings is the “Protoevangelium of James,” which was probably put into its final written form in the early second century. It describes Mary's father, Joachim, as a wealthy member of one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. Joachim was deeply grieved, along with his wife Anne, by their childlessness. “He called to mind Abraham,” the early Christian writing says, “that in the last day God gave him a son Isaac.”

Joachim and Anne began to devote themselves extensively and rigorously to prayer and fasting, initially wondering whether their inability to conceive a child might signify God's displeasure with them. As it turned out, however, the couple was to be blessed even more abundantly than Abraham and Sarah, as an angel revealed to Anne when he appeared to her and proph-esied that all generations would honor their future child: “The Lord has heard your prayer, and you shall conceive, and shall bring forth, and your seed shall be spoken of in all the world.”

Later on, we learned, the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary was prophesied in the Old Testament by the prophet Isaiah 7: 13 who wrote, 13 Then he said, “Hear now, O house of David! Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” Then all about the Virgin Mary is written in the Bible that she is the Mother of God, our Theotokos!

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