20161208 THE GRACE OF DIVINE MERCY FOR A NEW BEGINNING
Readings at Mass
Liturgical
Colour: White.
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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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Responsorial
Psalm
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Psalm 97(98):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.
THE
GRACE OF DIVINE MERCY FOR A NEW BEGINNING
SCRIPTURE
READINGS: [ Gen 3:9-15.20; Eph 1:3-6.11-12; Lk 1:26-38 ]
The Solemnity of the
Immaculate Conception is a celebration of the grace of God for humanity.
It reveals to us the divine plan of God. He wants us to share in
the fullness of His life and love. This is portrayed in the story of Adam
and Eve. In the second reading, St Paul affirms that God has chosen
us from all eternity, that is, we are predestined to share in the glory and
life of God.
Unfortunately, the plan of
God was thwarted by the Evil One and the weakness of man. Right from the
start, man was suspicious of God. Instead of trusting God, relying on His
love, man trusted in himself. Instead of receiving this life from God as
a gift, he wanted to earn it himself without the help of God. He did not
want to find freedom in God but outside of God. He relied on his
knowledge, just like the modern man today who only believes in the power of
knowledge and science. He desired power rather than love. He
did not want to receive his existence from God. This precisely is the sin
of the devil, namely, pride. The world believes that it can create
paradise without God. It thinks that science, technology and knowledge
alone can bring about a just and peaceful world. It fails to realize that
happiness is not merely dependent on technological and scientific progress and
economic development, but that it has to do with the human person, whether he
is living a holistic and integrated life. Power cannot give life.
What we need is not power but love. The only true power is the power of
love. Only love can satisfy the human person, not power.
The more man depends on
himself, the more he sinks into the mud. As a consequence, he becomes
lawless. Left to his disorientated will, he allows his passion,
especially of the flesh, to take control of his life. Many think that
holiness is boring. They think that holy people are people without
life. Religion is seen as a joy-killer, perhaps because many of us
so-called holy people do not seem to be very happy or joyful in life. Sin
is now promoted as something beautiful and life-giving. As a
consequence, we live empty and meaningless lives. We realize, albeit too
late, that the world has deceived us into believing that happiness is found in
power, fame and pleasure.
Indeed, all of us had a bad
start in life. This is what the story of the Fall wants to teach
us. Right from the beginning of the Human race, humanity started on the
wrong footing. This bad start did not just happen to our first parents
but to us as well. From the moment we were born, we suffered the same
fallen human nature of our parents. How do we know? As we grow up,
we repeat the mistakes of our ancestors and that of our parents. We are
proud and stubborn, wanting things our way. We are disobedient like our
first parents. We want our autonomy. We think that God is the cause
of our misery and the loss of our freedom. We fail to realize that
we can be truly free only when we found our freedom in Him, in truth and love.
To save our pride, we
justify ourselves and put the blame on others, like Adam and Eve. The man
accused the woman of leading him to sin. So no one dares to admit guilt but
seek self-justification. Those who try to exonerate themselves and rationalize
their sinful actions are, in themselves, offsprings of the sin of pride. The
attempts of humanity to rationalize and justify their wrong doings are the
consequence of fear and shame. How often have we wanted to blame someone
else when things go wrong? The boss would blame his subordinates for not
checking their work properly before passing it on to him to sign. The
children who failed their exams blame the teachers and their parents or the
environment.
Worst of all is that not
only do we condemn ourselves but society condemns us as well. People will
not forgive us. Our spouse will not forgive us for our past
infidelity. They will keep reminding us again and again of how we had
once been unfaithful. Our parents will keep reminding us of how much they
had done for us and how ungrateful we are. Our children will never
forgive us for those times when we failed them or punished them. And if
it were a public crime, then society will write us off completely. There
is no question of a second chance. They will not believe in us again.
Once a convict or a criminal, forever we will be one in the eyes of the world.
But thanks be to the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! Our God is a God of mercy and
compassion. His divine mercy is pure grace. He gave us a new
beginning the moment humanity fell from grace. When our first parents fell
from grace, God immediately offered grace to them. Indeed, God’s assurance to
humanity is that Satan will not triumph in the end. His grace and mercy
will prevail over the human race. Humanity might have suffered a
temporary defeat and wounded in the heel, but eventually, we will crush the
head of the serpent. We therefore need not fall into despair and
hopelessness. We need not resign ourselves to be slaves of our past and
our failures in life. We too can have a new beginning. Even in
disgrace, God transforms it to grace.
Today, as we celebrate the
Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, we see the beginning of a new humanity
at work through the mercy of God. In His goodness and mercy, God had
predestined Mary, the mother of the new humanity, the New Eve, with Christ as
the head of the Church, the New Adam, to begin her existence without any
blemish. This was in order to illustrate the fittingness of Jesus, the
New Adam, who was to be born of the Virgin Mary uncontaminated by sin and not
under the bondage of the Evil One. This grace of being freed from
original sin from the very first moment of her existence is a unique privilege
given to Mary, not because of her merit but purely because of God’s
grace. It was given in view of the coming of Christ who is the New
Covenant of God.
Very soon at Christmas, we
will celebrate the birth of Christ who is the new beginning of the human race,
the New Adam. Jesus will be the source and the throne of grace. In
Christ Jesus, we will see the divine mercy at work, in His life and ministry,
especially in the works of healing, reconciliation and deliverance. The
apex of this mercy of Christ is demonstrated in His passion, death and
resurrection. Through His saving grace given to us by His death and
resurrection, we too can share in the new beginning with Mary, who received it
by the preemptive work of Christ, whereas we received it by the redemptive act
of Christ.
Through baptism, we have
received a new life, a new beginning because like Mary, we are once again
called the children of God, freed from our sins. All our sins have been
forgiven and we are given a new start as adopted sons and daughters of God
sharing in Christ’s glory and suffering. Indeed, we are now able to live
a life of holiness and overcome sin through love and in His presence. The
grace of love, the mercy of God that we experience will give us the strength to
fight against sin and die to self like Jesus for the love of God and our
fellowmen.
So let us not give up hope
on ourselves or on others. Let us not condemn ourselves for the Lord has
forgiven us. Let us not give up on ourselves because of our past mistakes
in life. Let us not give up on our wayward children who fail in their exams or
have lived a wanton and rebellious life. Let us not give up our marriage
that did not start well. Let us not give up our faith in the Church that
is holy and yet comprised of sinful pilgrims. Let us know that we have a
new start in Christ. We have a new beginning. This is the grace of
God that comes from His divine mercy. Because God has forgiven us in
Christ Jesus, we must do the same for ourselves, and for others.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh Roman Catholic Archbishop of
Singapore © All Rights Reserved
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