8 December.Solemnity of the Feast of Our Lady's
Immaculate Conception, which we celebrate today.
Community Mass. Homily by Fr. Aelred
Community Mass. Homily by Fr. Aelred
Immaculate Conception
Our Lady’s greatness
consisted in her total availability to God. Many are not available to God. they
are too full of their own plans. No doubt, Mary too had her own plans for her
life and she might have said so to the Angel. But what she said was, ‘It’s is
not what I want that matters. Let what God wants done to me’.
Mary made a complete
gift of herself to God, and accepted the task he gave her. Even though she didn’t
understand all the implications of it, she trusted that God would give her all
the help she needed.
Some people tend to
see Mary as too passive, not sufficiently self-assertive. But Mary was receptive,
not completely passive in God’s hands. After all, God didn’t order her
to become the mother of Jesus; God asked for her consent. Mary was a free
agent. She didn’t have to say ‘yes’ She could have said ‘no’.
Mary was also a strong
woman, with great powers of endurance. She seemed always capable at renewing
herself, no matter what misfortune hit her. She knew what oppression was when
she couldn’t find a room in which to give birth to Jesus. She lived as a refugee
in a strange land. She knew the pain of having a child who doesn’t follow the
accepted path, and the agony of seeing her only Son executed as a criminal.
Many women throughout the ages have found plenty that they can identify in her
life.
A brief look at the
readings for today’s Liturgy shows that in the passage from Genesis, the Mother
of the redeemer is already prophetically foreshadowed in the promise of victory
over the Serpent which was given to our first parents after their fall into
sin. In later OT passages she is the virgin who shall conceive and bear a son,
whose name shall be called Emmanuel.
She stands out among
the poor and humble of the Lord, who confidently hope for and receive salvation
from him. As Vatican II tells us ‘After a long period of waiting the times are
fulfilled in her, the exalted Daughter of Sion and the new plan of Salvation is
established, when the Son of God has taken human nature from her, that he might
in the mysteries of his flesh free us from sin’.
In the Second Reading,
Paul tells us that we were all chosen to be holy and spotless in Christ before
the world began. This applies in its fullness for the mother who would give
birth to Jesus Christ himself. The Angels greeting at the annunciation says she
is filled with grace, always open to the working of the Holy Spirit.
Luke’s Gospel is about
the annunciation too and not about Mary’s own conception, but they are linked.
Jesus Christ comes to us as the Saviour who frees humanity from sin. Since Mary
was human she had also to be freed from sin.
For centuries
theologians wrestled with the problem of reconciling Mary’s sinlessness from
the moment her conception with her need for redemption like this. For us,
Christ’s death freed us from our sins. For Mary, Christ’s death preserved her
from sin. She is perfectly redeemed.
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