20171208
VOCATION A GIFT FROM GOD FOR THE
SANCTIFICATION OF HIS CHURCH
08 DECEMBER, 2017, Friday, Immaculate
Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary
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.
VOCATION A GIFT FROM GOD FOR THE SANCTIFICATION OF HIS CHURCH
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ GEN 3:9-15.20; EPH 1:3-6.11-12; LUKE 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 was all within His divine
plan. Clearly, it was not through the merits of Mary but the pure grace
of God that she was exempted from Original Sin. We are not saying that
Mary earned that grace and that God had to 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 and wisdom of God that He would not allow His
Son to be born of a woman under sin. It would not be appropriate that
Christ 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 was 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 was 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 said 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 lives 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 expresses
our identity. So if you are a spouse, be committed to your spouse totally
by living out the vows you have taken. If you are a student, then do your
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 others 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 prayer
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, Roman Catholic Archbishop of
Singapore © All Rights Reserved
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