Happy birthday, Mama Mary!

Today’s feast of the birthday of the Blessed Virgin Mary is not a very big celebration in Catholic countries outside the Philippines.

This much I learned in a homily two years ago today delivered by Fr. Ramiro Gallo, a missionary priest from Colombia who belongs to the Verbum Dei Missionary Fraternity.

Father Ramiro, however, said he realized in his years of assignment here the beauty of celebrating the birthday of the woman Filipino Catholics affectionately call “Mama Mary.”

“This shows how you really see the Church as one family,” he said.

To Filipino Catholics, Mary is not just a theological construct. She is a real, albeit spiritual mother, to be greeted on her birthday just as we would greet and prepare a feast for our biological mothers on their natal days.

Mama Mary’s motherhood over the faithful, of course, goes far beyond that of any woman. At the foot of the cross, the moment Jesus Christ gave her with the words, “Behold thy mother” to Saint John the Evangelist who symbolized all believers, she became the Mother of the Church.

Mary can never be venerated at the cost of obscuring the Blessed Trinity. She followed her Son all the way to Calvary as an example of how far we ought to go in Christian discipleship. Christ gave her to us as his parting gift. We, too, are his gifts to her. Eve is the mother of all the living. Mary is the mother of all those in whom Christ lives.

On Calvary, Christ, who showed to us the glory of the Father gave us someone who would continue for him the task of gathering God’s family into one, just as a mother hen would gather her chicks under her wing.

Today may be a Sunday, a perpetuation of Easter which has a higher liturgical rank than feasts like that of Mama Mary’s birthday, than memorials, than commemorations of the saints. The liturgy will make no mention of her birthday. But the faithful will sing Mama Mary the birthday song in churches and people will flock to her shrines across the country to pay her tribute and give her thanks.

I would have a hard time counting the ways in which Mama Mary loves me, but whenever I look back on my life so far I notice that many milestones occurred on her feasts or memorials. In 2005, I received the job offer to be a reporter for Cebu Daily News on Aug. 15, Solemnity of the Assumption. In 2011, my first story for the Philippine Daily Inquirer was printed on Oct. 7, feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. In 2012, I was informed that I would be hired as full time substitute teacher for the University of the Philippines in Cebu on May 24, feast of Mary, Help of Christians. This year, I was informed that I was up for consideration to become non-substitute instructor on Aug. 22, feast of the Queenship of Mary. Obviously, this was all because of God’s merciful providence and Mama Mary’s maternal intercession.

* * *

My friends and I are traveling today to the shrine of Mama Mary in Upper Lindogon, Sibonga town, southeastern Cebu. It is one of the more famous shrines in honor of our heavenly mother here in Cebu.

This morning, thousands of devotees joined the annual Walk for Mary from the Cebu provincial Capitol to the Archbishop’s Residence in Cebu City. The procession started at 4:30 a.m. and ended with Mass at 6 a.m. As usual, devotees were encouraged to bring gifts to Mama Mary in the form of bundles of joy for the poor.

Other popular local shrines in honor of Mama Mary are the Archdiocesan Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe de Cebu in barangay Guadalupe, Cebu City, the Marian shrine at Q Park in Compostela town, northeastern Cebu, the shrine to Our Lady of the Rosary in Carmen, northeastern Cebu, the Schoenstatt Shrine in Talisay City, the shrine to the Theotokos in Perrelos, Carcar City and Our Lady of Remedies Parish in Odlot, Bogo City, northern Cebu.

Take your pick. Visit a Marian shrine today.