Feast of the Immaculate Conception
Fr James McTavish FMVD
"Let it be done to me as you have said"
Today the Church celebrates the Feast of the Immaculate conception. This feast has been celebrated since the 8th century although it was only in 1854 that Pope Pius IX published the dogma of the Immaculate conception. This dogma is not about the virgin birth of Christ but that Mary was conceived without original sin. The gospel of today is taken from Luke (Luke 1, 26-38) where the angel Gabriel announces to Mary the birth of Christ. The angel greets Mary with the words “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you”. What does it mean to be ‘full of grace’? Many times here in Manila I hear about people who have received many graces, or blessings. When a person has money, a good career and a big house they are said to have received many graces or blessings. But Mother Mary was poor, lived a simple life and was not welcomed as someone important when she arrived in Bethlehem heavily pregnant – there was no room at the inn. Today someone we called blessed would book themselves in to a 5 star hotel! Perhaps we have to revise our understanding of graces and blessings.
Christmas is a time of gift giving. Have you bought your gifts yet? If I was to ask you do you think that God likes to give us gifts? What is the best gift he can give us? For sure it will be the best gift. A nokia phone, an iPod, a laptop, no greater than all these things. For sure it will be a gift that lasts. A promotion, but you can lose your job. Money, you can lose it. Health but one day we will lose even that. What is the gift that God gives us this Christmas?
St Augustine said “For what greater grace could God have dawned upon us than that he, who only had one Son, made him the son of man, and in turn made the son of man a son of God”. This is the best gift that God can give this Christmas, to allow us sons of men to become children of God. It is to share in the divine life, to share in the very life of God. The gift that he gives is the life of Christ. This is the point of Christmas, God descends and becomes flesh so that our flesh can ascend and become divine. It is like the glass elevators in the fancy hotels. Once I was in a hotel and there were two glass elevators, one going up and the other going down. How do I go up? The other one was at the top and as it came down, I went up. This is the incarnation. God descends from heaven to earth, to show the way. To lead us back to heaven. The Word became flesh for us and for our salvation.
Sometimes in life when we have problems we say “I am only human!” But if we truly knew the dignity of being human. Since the son of man became a human being all the angels got jealous! The fashion in heaven was to become human. Jesus came to show us the way, to help us. Imagine you are playing basketball and are losing, it is the last quarter and then on the sidelines you see a player. They tell you to invite him on. You say no. They say it is Kobe Bryant! If you are not so good at shooting, rebounding, dribbling all the more reason to ask him on. His presence on the team raises the standard of the whole team! The presence of Christ in our humanity raises the standard of what it means to be human. He is the reference point. Christ is the perfect man and whoever follows him become more human. That is why he said “I am the Way”. The other day I got irritated with a brother. I recognized my mistake and remembered that Jesus said “Don’t go to the altar without reconciliation” so before the mass I asked forgiveness. He is the way bit we have to follow that way to experience the peace and love of Christmas. How different our work would be, our office if we did the same, going to ask forgiveness. That is a great gift to offer this Christmas, to say I am sorry! You can’t buy that gift in SM but many families need it! Saying sorry really makes us more humble – we may go down in the eyes of the world but we ascend in God’s eyes.
Christmas really is a time of reconciliation, of peace. I always remember the soldiers of World War one, fighting each other but when Christmas day arrived, they stopped, came together, exchanged gifts, played soccer and sang Christmas carols together. How great if this Christmas we could do the same. Put down our arms and work for peace.
Sometimes we have wars in the office. No need for machine guns, just our tongue alone can kill many! And sometimes our comments are like hand grenades. I like very much the attitude of Socrates towards communion. He could not tolerate chismies. A man tried to gossip and Socrates told him he would listen if it met three criteria 1. Is it true? 2. Will it give me a positive opinion? 3. Does it spring from a good motivation?
All of us have weak points as the first reading reminds us. The serpent is always trying to trick us. The response on our part should be vigilance. We are invited to share in the divine life and one sign of this is communion. To work together in harmony. To remember that we are Christians not only in mass on a Sunday but at work, at home, when out with our friends. Otherwise we live a double life, like a man I know who reads in mass in Sunday but then after was involved in cyber-dating and things on the Internet that he should not be! How great to be a testimony in life of Christ’s presence. In our work place to be a witness to his love, to raise the standard in the office. When some want to spend the day surfing the net and being lazy why not be a good example of enjoying working hard? Also you don’t have to join in when the conversations are distasteful - you can improve the standard of the whole team. Don’t just stand on the sidelines! Get stuck in and remember what the angel Gabriel told Mary “Don’t be afraid! The Lord is with you”.
Let us ask Mary our Mother for this gift of trust in God’s will – “Let it be done to me as you have said”. In this way God’s love can continue to incarnate itself in our humanity, that the love of God can continue to become flesh in the world of today through each one of our lives.
"Let it be done to me as you have said"
Today the Church celebrates the Feast of the Immaculate conception. This feast has been celebrated since the 8th century although it was only in 1854 that Pope Pius IX published the dogma of the Immaculate conception. This dogma is not about the virgin birth of Christ but that Mary was conceived without original sin. The gospel of today is taken from Luke (Luke 1, 26-38) where the angel Gabriel announces to Mary the birth of Christ. The angel greets Mary with the words “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you”. What does it mean to be ‘full of grace’? Many times here in Manila I hear about people who have received many graces, or blessings. When a person has money, a good career and a big house they are said to have received many graces or blessings. But Mother Mary was poor, lived a simple life and was not welcomed as someone important when she arrived in Bethlehem heavily pregnant – there was no room at the inn. Today someone we called blessed would book themselves in to a 5 star hotel! Perhaps we have to revise our understanding of graces and blessings.
Christmas is a time of gift giving. Have you bought your gifts yet? If I was to ask you do you think that God likes to give us gifts? What is the best gift he can give us? For sure it will be the best gift. A nokia phone, an iPod, a laptop, no greater than all these things. For sure it will be a gift that lasts. A promotion, but you can lose your job. Money, you can lose it. Health but one day we will lose even that. What is the gift that God gives us this Christmas?
St Augustine said “For what greater grace could God have dawned upon us than that he, who only had one Son, made him the son of man, and in turn made the son of man a son of God”. This is the best gift that God can give this Christmas, to allow us sons of men to become children of God. It is to share in the divine life, to share in the very life of God. The gift that he gives is the life of Christ. This is the point of Christmas, God descends and becomes flesh so that our flesh can ascend and become divine. It is like the glass elevators in the fancy hotels. Once I was in a hotel and there were two glass elevators, one going up and the other going down. How do I go up? The other one was at the top and as it came down, I went up. This is the incarnation. God descends from heaven to earth, to show the way. To lead us back to heaven. The Word became flesh for us and for our salvation.
Sometimes in life when we have problems we say “I am only human!” But if we truly knew the dignity of being human. Since the son of man became a human being all the angels got jealous! The fashion in heaven was to become human. Jesus came to show us the way, to help us. Imagine you are playing basketball and are losing, it is the last quarter and then on the sidelines you see a player. They tell you to invite him on. You say no. They say it is Kobe Bryant! If you are not so good at shooting, rebounding, dribbling all the more reason to ask him on. His presence on the team raises the standard of the whole team! The presence of Christ in our humanity raises the standard of what it means to be human. He is the reference point. Christ is the perfect man and whoever follows him become more human. That is why he said “I am the Way”. The other day I got irritated with a brother. I recognized my mistake and remembered that Jesus said “Don’t go to the altar without reconciliation” so before the mass I asked forgiveness. He is the way bit we have to follow that way to experience the peace and love of Christmas. How different our work would be, our office if we did the same, going to ask forgiveness. That is a great gift to offer this Christmas, to say I am sorry! You can’t buy that gift in SM but many families need it! Saying sorry really makes us more humble – we may go down in the eyes of the world but we ascend in God’s eyes.
Christmas really is a time of reconciliation, of peace. I always remember the soldiers of World War one, fighting each other but when Christmas day arrived, they stopped, came together, exchanged gifts, played soccer and sang Christmas carols together. How great if this Christmas we could do the same. Put down our arms and work for peace.
Sometimes we have wars in the office. No need for machine guns, just our tongue alone can kill many! And sometimes our comments are like hand grenades. I like very much the attitude of Socrates towards communion. He could not tolerate chismies. A man tried to gossip and Socrates told him he would listen if it met three criteria 1. Is it true? 2. Will it give me a positive opinion? 3. Does it spring from a good motivation?
All of us have weak points as the first reading reminds us. The serpent is always trying to trick us. The response on our part should be vigilance. We are invited to share in the divine life and one sign of this is communion. To work together in harmony. To remember that we are Christians not only in mass on a Sunday but at work, at home, when out with our friends. Otherwise we live a double life, like a man I know who reads in mass in Sunday but then after was involved in cyber-dating and things on the Internet that he should not be! How great to be a testimony in life of Christ’s presence. In our work place to be a witness to his love, to raise the standard in the office. When some want to spend the day surfing the net and being lazy why not be a good example of enjoying working hard? Also you don’t have to join in when the conversations are distasteful - you can improve the standard of the whole team. Don’t just stand on the sidelines! Get stuck in and remember what the angel Gabriel told Mary “Don’t be afraid! The Lord is with you”.
Let us ask Mary our Mother for this gift of trust in God’s will – “Let it be done to me as you have said”. In this way God’s love can continue to incarnate itself in our humanity, that the love of God can continue to become flesh in the world of today through each one of our lives.
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