Happy Birthday Little One

On this day of joy, so many conflicting thoughts ramble through my mind. On this day of joy, so many questions once again peek out from behind my little grey cells.
As a Catholic, the life and fate of Mary is more on my mind than it might seem to be for other denominations. This time of year has always been a time for a little blasphemy for me.
" God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son". Did God let the Boy's Mother know about the plans that He had?
Mary gave the strength of her body to form the Boy. Joseph worked to provide sustenance for the two of them. Joseph left his home and his trade to protect them from a wrathful king. By today's definition, whose child was the boy?
Thirty some odd years later the boy would make the journey to Jerusalem and on to Calvary.
The agony of that fate is often on my mind. I don't just think of the reward that the world received from it, I think of the incredible agony that it finally entailed. Did God keep that always hidden from Joseph and Mary? They raised up a child, comforted Him and nursed Him, did they know that the Cross was coming?
"God so loved the world that". Was all of that torture necessary? God the all-powerful need only have thought of eternal life and it would have been. Was that pain on the Cross and the pain at the base of it the only way to reward the human race?
What do we know of what happened afterwards? We know things because of a group of self-promoting lackeys that wrote extensively about the miracles they witnessed and miracles they were part of.
What happened to Mary? What happened to Joseph? The Man that was the Boy, entrusted the care of his Mother to one of those underlings. Was that trust kept? Shoudn't there be some mention of the fate of the Mother of God somewhere in the endless prattling about rules and procedures? Did she end up in Ephesus?
These thoughts were originally brought on by a song by The Boney M. "Mary's boy-child Jesus Christ , was born on Christmas Day" were the lyrics that predicated these thoughts. "Mary's boy-child". She was destined to stand at the foot of that Cross and writhe in the pain of seeing those things happen to her Son.
I could not have endured the pain that He did. I could not have faced the fate that He faced. I could not have kept faith with a God that decreed such a fate to my son. How did she go on? She brought Him into the world with pain. She watched Him go out with pain. She was not at the committee meeting when His return was announced. Afterall, who would invite a mere woman to an important meeting of the Men? You mindless dolts, She was the Mother of God! Did they send her a memo when they found out?
So when the joy of Christmas is upon me I often think of that poor woman, destined to stand on that terrible hill. What was her fate? The committee might have at least included a small footnote in their extensive elaborations.
When the joy of Christmas is upon me, my mind always turns to that terrible Friday. I will wait for the following Sunday to express my joy.