Micah 5:1-4 or Romans 8:28-30 / Matthew 1:1-16, 18-23
We may remember this year's National Day rally. Towards the end of the rally, the Prime Minister said that someone had asked him, if God gave him three wishes for Singapore, what would he wish for.
He made only two wishes and he said that there is no need for a third wish as two would be enough.
And if we could make that third wish, what would we wish for? Considering what the Prime Minister wished for (divine discontent and the wisdom to count the blessings) we might have to think hard to come up with something as profound as the wishes of the Prime Minister.
Those were the wishes of the Prime Minister for Singapore as we celebrated our 51 years of independence and the birth of our nation.
Today as we celebrate the birth of our Lady, and if we were granted a wish, what would we wish for? Certainly, we won't wish something for ourselves but we would want to know what our Lady would hope and wish for and we would want her hope and wish to be fulfilled.
The readings of today might give us an indication of what our Lady would hope and wish for.
She would hope and wish that we would follow St. Joseph in responding to the plan of God. St. Joseph was a man of honour and he wanted to spare Mary the publicity by divorcing her informally. But he was willing to change his stand and accept God's plan.
Our Lady would also hope we understand what Jesus came for. As the 1st reading puts it: He will stand and feed his flock with the power of the Lord. He himself will be peace.
Our Lady herself knew that when she changed her plans and accepted God's plan for her, she was blessed with peace. That too would be her hope and wish for us. May we too, hope and wish for that as we celebrate our Lady's birthday