20141208 VOCATION IS A GIFT FROM GOD FOR THE SANCTIFICATION OF HIS
CHURCH
Readings at Mass
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First reading
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Genesis
3:9-15,20 ©
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After Adam had eaten
of the tree the Lord God called to him. ‘Where are you?’ he asked. ‘I heard the
sound of you in the garden;’ he replied ‘I was afraid because I was naked, so I
hid.’ ‘Who told you that you were naked?’ he asked ‘Have you been eating of the
tree I forbade you to eat?’ The man replied, ‘It was the woman you put with me;
she gave me the fruit, and I ate it.’ Then the Lord God asked the woman, ‘What
is this you have done?’ The woman replied, ‘The serpent tempted me and I ate.’
Then the
Lord God said to the serpent, ‘Because you have done this,
‘Be accursed beyond
all cattle,
all wild beasts.
You shall crawl on
your belly and eat dust
every day of your
life.
I will make you
enemies of each other:
you and the woman,
your offspring and
her offspring.
It will crush your
head
and you will strike
its heel.’
The man named his
wife ‘Eve’ because she was the mother of all those who live.
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Psalm
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Psalm 97:1-4 ©
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Sing a new song to
the Lord for he has worked wonders.
Sing a new song to
the Lord
for he
has worked wonders.
His right hand and
his holy arm
have
brought salvation.
Sing a new song to
the Lord for he has worked wonders.
The Lord has made
known his salvation;
has shown
his justice to the nations.
He has remembered his
truth and love
for the
house of Israel.
Sing a new song to
the Lord for he has worked wonders.
All the ends of the
earth have seen
the
salvation of our God.
Shout to the Lord,
all the earth,
ring out
your joy.
Sing a new song to
the Lord for he has worked wonders.
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Second reading
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Ephesians
1:3-6,11-12 ©
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Blessed be God the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who has blessed us
with all the spiritual blessings of heaven in Christ.
Before the world was
made, he chose us, chose us in Christ,
to be holy and
spotless, and to live through love in his presence,
determining that we
should become his adopted sons, through Jesus Christ
for his own kind
purposes,
to make us praise the
glory of his grace,
his free gift to us
in the Beloved,
And it is in him that
we were claimed as God’s own,
chosen from the
beginning,
under the
predetermined plan of the one who guides all things
as he decides by his
own will;
chosen to be,
for his greater
glory,
the people who would
put their hopes in Christ before he came.
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Gospel
Acclamation
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cf.Lk1:28
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Hail Mary, full of
grace, the Lord is with thee!
Blessed art thou
among women.
Alleluia!
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Gospel
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Luke 1:26-38 ©
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The
angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin
betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the House of David; and the virgin’s name
was Mary. He went in and said to her, ‘Rejoice, so highly favoured! The Lord is
with you.’ She was deeply disturbed by these words and asked herself what this
greeting could mean, but the angel said to her, ‘Mary, do not be afraid; you
have won God’s favour. Listen! You are to conceive and bear a son, and you must
name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High. The
Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David; he will rule over the
House of Jacob for ever and his reign will have no end.’ Mary said to the
angel, ‘But how can this come about, since I am a virgin?’ ‘The Holy Spirit
will come upon you’ the angel answered ‘and the power of the Most High will
cover you with its shadow. And so the child will be holy and will be called Son
of God. Know this too: your kinswoman Elizabeth has, in her old age, herself
conceived a son, and she whom people called barren is now in her sixth month,
for nothing is impossible to God’ ‘I am the handmaid of the Lord,’ said Mary
‘let what you have said be done to me.’ And the angel left her.
VOCATION
IS A GIFT FROM GOD FOR THE SANCTIFICATION OF HIS CHURCH
SCRIPTURE
READINGS: GEN 3:9-15.20; PSALM 97(98); EPH 1:3-6.11-12; LK 1:26-38
Today we celebrate the
Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. This Feast celebrates the grace of God to
humankind through Mary. God gave the grace of holiness and exemption from
sin to Mary, the mother of His only Son and our Savior. But many
people cannot accept this dogma of faith. They try to limit the power and
grace of God. They feel that it is not right that Mary should be given
this privilege and that this is not based on the Word of God.
Yet this special
privilege given to Mary is expressed in the scripture readings. It is all within His divine plan.
Clearly, it is not through the merits of Mary but the pure grace of God that
she is exempted from Original Sin. We are not saying that Mary earned
that grace and that God must act as such. But since the foundation of the
apostolic Church, the faith of the Church recognizes that this was within the
plan of God. That was why right from the early Church, Mary was
called and recognized as the most holy Virgin Mary. It was by the mercy
of God and the wisdom of God that God would not allow His Son to be born of a
woman under sin. It would not be appropriate that He would be conceived
by one who was under the rule of Satan.
Her Immaculate
Conception was at the service of God’s plan for humanity. It was for the salvation of mankind and
not so much for Mary herself or to glorify her. It was to be a fitting
sign as the beginning of a new humanity redeemed by Christ. At any rate,
Mary was not exempted from being saved by Christ. She was redeemed by
Christ by exemption in view of His saving work on the cross. Like us,
Mary was saved by Christ and hence, there is no question of Mary not needing
Christ as her Saviour. The way Mary was redeemed is different.
Whether by preemptive measures or after the fact, it remains that all are
redeemed by Christ.
Similarly, every
vocation is also pure grace. Vocation is a gift from Christ to His Church. Why did He
leave the Church the Eucharist before He left this world? He wanted to
give us the gift of Himself. No one chooses to be in a particular vocation;
it is a call from God. No one is worthy enough to be His servant.
It is not based on our merits that we are capable of leadership but
because of His mercy and grace. We cannot demand to be in a particular
calling but only offer ourselves to Christ and His Church. Each one is
chosen from among the people of God. The calling of each individual for a
particular vocation is for the sanctification of the people of God. Like
Mary, each one by his or her vocation is called to bring Jesus to the world.
We are called to be the sacrament of Jesus to others through our service,
profession or ministry.
Yet, we must remember
that similar to our vocation, although the call to be the Mother of God is pure
grace, we are called to cooperate with this grace. Mary was certainly preserved
from the stain of original sin but she had to cooperate with God’s grace to
remain holy before the Lord. Her holiness is not simply the work of God
in her. The grace of God in her must also be received by her.
Indeed, we see how Mary cooperated with the grace of God at the Annunciation
and at the foot of the cross. From the beginning to the end, Mary says
her fiat to God. Hence she instructed us to do the same when she was at
Cana. “Do whatever He tells you to do!”
In addition, the grace
of vocation requires our cooperation. If we want to be effective in the
ministry and in our vocation, we need to be holy. Pope John Paul II in the apostolic
letter, Novo Millennio Inenute wrote that before we do any pastoral planning,
we must first be trained in the art of holiness. Without holiness,
there can be no ministry or genuine service.
What is holiness? Holiness is to live a life of
integrity. It means that we live a life of grace in accordance with
the commandments of the Lord. We must seek to have a clean heart and a
pure mind. Our faith and our live must by synchronized. In other
words, we are not hypocrites. Our doing flows from our being. Who
we are is how we live and how we live express our identity. So if you are
spouse, be committed to your spouse totally by living out the vows you have
taken. If you are a student, then do you best to learn and acquire as
much knowledge and skills as possible. If you are a parent, teach by your
examples of unselfish and unconditional love for your children. So too,
as a priest, we are called to live out our vocation as a priest by being the
person we are called to be, a living sacrifice for others, not just offering
the Mass but becoming a victim and sacrifice offered for the salvation of the
world through our ministry of teaching and pasturing. Indeed, a
priest is not reducible to celebrating the sacrifice of the Mass, which is the
high point of his priesthood, but to be a living sacrifice for the service of
God and humanity.
Holiness is simply to do
His will like Mary.
We are called to be obedient to God’s will and respond to His call to live out
our vocation. To be true to our calling in life is what holiness is all
about. We are to sacrifice our lives for others. We are to put the
interests of ours before our own. When we live a life according to our
vocation and calling in life, we grow in holiness. Like Jesus and Mary,
we are called to make our lives a sacrificial offering to the
world. We must suffer with Jesus and Mary for the salvation of
others. By so doing, we also save ourselves.
How can we grow in
holiness? We
must be formed in the art of prayer. We must learn how to pray like the
disciples, especially in individual and communitarian prayer. We
must also go beyond petitionary prayer to meditation, contemplation and
mystical prayer. Most of all, our prayers must be rooted in the
contemplation on the humanity of Christ, His passion, death and
resurrection. For that reason, we must be like Mary, always
contemplating on the Word of God and then putting into practice what we have
learnt and heard. Without a deepening contemplation on the Word of God,
no one can progress in his or her spiritual life and purify his or her heart
even if he or she were to attend mass daily. Receiving the Eucharist
without first savouring the Bread of Life cannot change our hearts and
minds. Finally, no one can grow in holiness without receiving the
Sacrament of Reconciliation regularly. Otherwise, we become insensitive
and immune to our sins. Before we give birth to Jesus in the flesh, we
must first give birth to Jesus in our hearts like Mary. This is why only
prayer can give birth to Jesus in our hearts.
Thus, we must be careful
of excessive activism.
Often activism is an escape from our interior life that needs growth.
Many people are doing work for God but in truth they are just running from
confronting the truth about themselves. They are doing this and that for
the Church and apparently for God. But deep inside, they are looking for
peace and happiness. They are seeking love and acceptance. So the
real peace and security must come from basking in the love of God in His
presence. We do not have to earn the grace of God and His
love. This is what the Immaculate Conception is all about. It is
not by our effort. But we want to demonstrate our gratitude to His love
for us by living the grace that He has bestowed on us. Our life of good
works and charity is not to earn the love of God but to express who we really
are; God’s grace at work in us. Indeed, it would be tragic that whilst
saving others, we find ourselves out of heaven. Woe to us if that
happens!
Rather, let us live like
graced people as Mary did. Mary was known to be immaculate from hindsight, when the Church
reflected on her life. It was not a priori that the church defines
her to be immaculately conceived but a posteriori. It was from her life
and in the reflection of the Church that she came to realize that Mary was
preserved from sin at her conception. Her life demonstrates that the
dogmas about her are true and credible. Indeed, her life fulfilled the
angel’s greetings when he said, “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee:
blessed art thou among women.” Indeed, she was graced by God from the
beginning and the Lord was with her every step of her life.
We too must prove our
calling by a life of holiness and humble service. St Peter warns us, “Be all the
more eager to confirm your call and election, for if you do this, you will
never stumble!. For in this way, entry into the eternal kingdom of our
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ will be richly provided for you.” (2 Pt
1:10f) We too must walk with Jesus and Mary in our vocation, be it
religious, priestly, married or single. We must be committed to living
out the grace of our vocation received as Mary did at her conception so that
Christ can be born in our hearts and expressed in our lives.
WRITTEN BY THE MOST REV
WILLIAM GOH
ARCHBISHOP
OF SINGAPORE
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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