MARY: FULL OF GRACE

DECEMBER – 8

IMMACULATE CONCEPTION OF MARY
(Gen 3:9-15, 20; Eph 1:3-6, 11-12; Luke 1:26-38)

Theme: We Shall Recognize and Preserve the Grace We Have Found With God

Reflection:

- Celebration of the ‘Day of Grace’:
o Today the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. It is the festivity through which we enter into the reality of grace that is donated by God. Thus, we have every reason to thank and praise God for his marvelous doing for having called us into this ‘mystery and ministry’ of grace.
o We enter into the mystery of grace because it is God himself who has destined us to this status of grace in his ‘Word-Jesus’ even before the creation of the world and therefore, the original state of our life is ‘holy and immaculate’ as reminds us St. Paul in the second reading of today; into this mystery of grace that Mary is brought prior to us – as a woman who is full of grace – by her total commitment to God’s salvific design.
o We enter into the ministry of grace because it is same God who has called us to preserve and live this life of grace so that we become one with him since we partake in his work of salvation through our personal and charitable life; again into this ministry of grace that Mary has entered prior to us – as the woman who has found grace with God – by her great and challenging ‘yes’ for the redemption of the world.
o Let us, therefore, thank God for calling us into this life of grace and at the same time let us promise him that we, in spite of the difficulties, insults and attractions of the worldly pleasures surround and block us continuously, live life of grace with joy and commitment for His glory and for the well-being of the humanity, in other words, for His Love and for the Love of our Neighbors.
- Advent is the suitable time for the celebration of this feast liturgically?
o If the time of Advent is a time of waiting with preparing the way for the coming of the Lord: by leveling all ups and downs of life – that is, the moments of pride, arrogance and astray on one side as the mountains; and the moments of self-degrading, helplessness and negligence on the other side as the valleys – with the total surrendering of ourselves to Him,
o If the time of Advent is a time of preparing a home – or symbolically a crib – for one guest who is important and lovable and thus we prepare our hearts and lives for his coming into us,
o Then, the celebration of the feast of Immaculate Conception is apt both liturgically and theologically in the time of advent: Mary is a Holy Temple, Pure Home that the Lord himself prepared for the birth of His Son and for His Coming into the world. Thus, Mary has not only prepared her life by prayer and by waiting for the kingdom of God, but when it has come, or when it is time for its coming, she herself accepted willingly to bring it into light.
o As we celebrate this feast this is another aspect we have to keep in mind that, first we have to await for the coming of the Lord, with the prayer – “Let Thy Kingdom Come”, and second when it is the time for its entrance we have to be in front to give a space for its realization through our willingness to carry it in us, again with the prayer and mission – “Let Thy Will Be Done” and that is what Mary said at the end of the discourse with God’s messenger and angel Gabriel: I am the handmaid of the Lord, let it done to me according to your word. This is the moment of the combination of both: the prayer and the mission, mystery and ministry of the grace – in and through Mary, who is as Virgin a mystery and as a Mother a ministry.

First Reading: The First Annunciation of the Redemption through the New Eve – Mary

- While reading the first reading of today, a passage from the first book of the Bible and in the beginning chapters itself we find: both effects of first sin and the promise of redemption:
o The disobedience of humanity who supposed to enjoy the whole creation with the friendship with his Creator;
o Thus fall of the man from the ‘dignity of being created in His image and likeness’ and thus loss of ‘the figure and the beautify’ of God in the life of man;
o The effects of the first sin of man:
 To the man to work hard and sweat for the daily earning: this is in contrast to the freedom of eating whatever he wants in the heavenly garden prepared for him;
 To the woman to find difficulties in bringing forth the children and being kept under the domination of the man: this is in contrast to the creative hand of God who can generate anything/anyone from the mud and from the rib and later John the Baptist says that God can make the children come out from the stones (John 3:8) since nothing is impossible to Him (Lk 1:37);
 To the serpent to scroll on the belly and eat mud and being cursed among all the creatures: this is in contrast to the ‘beauty’ and ‘blessedness’ of whole creation by God who saw all that he created to be ‘very good’ (Gn 1:31).
o At the same time we see also: the promise of redemption through the new woman:
 God has promised that the new woman will come with the fullness of Grace: this is in contrast to the status of ‘disgrace’ brought by the first woman;
 God has promised that the offspring – son – of this new woman will strike the head of the serpent: this is in contrast to the first Adam whose head is full of pride and arrogance and the new man will come with the head full of obedience and love for God and his will;
 God has promised that this son will strike the heel of the serpent which signify that he would keep it under his feet – this is in contrast to the false power of evil which tries to be always in the skies instead of being grounded;
- We already find also the would-be mission of the new eve – Mary in the first reading:
o The first eve has led Adam into disobedience and false position but the new eve – Mary, would lead the New Adam – Jesus into the obedience and to the true position as the Son of God;
o The first eve has led Adam to eat the fruit that God has abandoned to eat and thus led him to curse and to death but the new eve – Mary, would lead the new Adam – the whole humanity to the tree of life, the cross and thus lead them to the blessing and to the immortality;

Second Reading: We are called to be holy and immaculate

- The status of grace is already predestined to us by God in His immense love in Christ and in Jesus God has glorified us because of his will is that we are always with him;
- From our part, we have to only accept this call and we have already accepted it through the faith in Him and we have been made holy and immaculate when we are called by name in the Baptism;
- And we have to remember and recall to our minds our status of life of grace and live so accordingly that we do not disfigure ourselves by disobedience and pride as once has done the first Adam and as we often tend to do;
- The feast of Immaculate Conception of Mary calls us back to this reality of grace and helps us to live it by the testimony of our words and our works.

Gospel: We are found in Grace before God

- Model for the dialogue between God and man:
o We must have read this Gospel number of times and we know that it is only about the announcement of the Birth of Jesus to Mary by Angel Gabriel and we are quite right;
o But there is another aspect we have to learn from it: it becomes a model for the dialogue between God and us:
 The dialogue starts with the proposal of God’s redemptive will
 There are questions posed and answers given
 And it ends with the acceptance of the proposal in freedom and in love
 The origin and the destiny of the dialogue between God and Mary was of this type and the purpose of the dialogue should reach and should make us to accept what God proposes to us;
o In reality what we do every Sunday or every time we come to the church of mass is this type of dialogue only and we have to realize this and be ready to say ‘yes’ to his plan of love.
- Two important moments: the being and the doing of Mary
o The moment of the nature of Mary: being filled with the Spirit and being in the state of grace: “Do not be afraid Mary, you have found grace before the eyes of God” (Lk 1:30);
o The moment of the action of Mary: being immersed in the project of God for the humanity accepts to ‘do’ what is asked of her: “Here I am, the handmaid of the Lord, let it happen to me according to your word”.
o In these two moments: the life and the vocation of Mary is combined and one is interlinked with the other and one completes and perfects the other.
o We too should not separate our life from our Christian vocation; we may have many have number of other things to do but ‘our state of grace’ makes us to keep in mind our responsibility towards our vocation and mission as the followers of Christ.

Conclusion

- While being happy for celebrating this feast of Our Mother Mary – we will also be happy because we are also called to be in the status of ‘holiness’ and ‘sanctity’;
- While being content of the ‘status of grace’ – we will also remember that this status is not a simple gift of God but it demands our missionary task;
- The mystery and ministry of grace, thus, should be combined in our life and in our daily actions; and finally,
- In a word, and to recall our theme, We Shall Recognize and Preserve the Grace We Have Found With God.
- MARY IMMACULATE – PRAY FOR US