20181208
THE GRACE OF DIVINE
MERCY FOR A NEW BEGINNING
08 DECEMBER,
2018, Saturday, 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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'The offspring of the woman will crush
your head'
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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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Before the world was made, God chose us
in Christ
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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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'I am the handmaid of the Lord'
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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 ]
All of us have had a bad
start in life.
This is what the story of the Fall wants to tell us. From the beginning
of the Human race, humanity started on the wrong footing. As the second
reading tells us, God has chosen us from all eternity, that is, we are
predestined to share in the glory and life of God. St Paul wrote, “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 put their hopes
in Christ before he came.”
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? We grew up repeating 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 without
founding our autonomy in God. As a consequence, we have become
lawless. Left to our disorientated will, we allowed our passions,
especially of the flesh, to take control of our lives. We fell into sin
and suffered the consequences of our sinful actions; not only ourselves, but
our loved ones suffered with us as well.
What is even worse is
that most of us cannot forgive ourselves for the mistakes we made. We cannot forgive our past and our
follies. We are filled with shame for what we have done. We
suffered in guilt for the mistakes that we made, causing our loved ones
especially, to suffer. This was the same sentiment that Adam and Eve went
through in the first reading. We read that after disobeying God, they hid
from God because of shame. The “nakedness” of Adam and Eve is not so much
a physical nakedness but that of the heart and of the mind. Their
thoughts were laid bare before God. Their pride and self-centeredness
were exposed.
To save their pride,
they tried to justify themselves and put the blame on others. The man accused the woman for
leading him to sin. The woman in turn blamed the serpent for tempting
her. So no one dared to admit guilt but sought self-justification.
The attempts of humanity to rationalize and justify their wrong doings are the
consequence of fear and shame. These are the offspring of the sin of pride.
When things go wrong, how often do we blame someone else too? The boss
blames his subordinates for not checking their work properly before passing it
on to him for endorsement. The children who failed their exams blame the
teachers and their parents or the environment. The man who falls into the
sin of greed and lust blames the situation or the woman for tempting him.
But very few dare to say with King David, simply and plainly, “I have sinned
against the Lord.”
What is worse is that
not only do we condemn ourselves, but society condemns us too. People will not forgive us.
Our spouse will never forgive us for our past infidelity. They will keep
reminding us again and again how we had once been unfaithful. Our parents
keep reminding us 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 second chance. They will not believe
in us again. Once labelled a convict or a criminal, we will forever be so
in the eyes of the world. Even if we try to change, their perception of
us will not. Once convicted, we will never be able to look at the world
again with confidence. We will have to hide in shame for the rest of our
lives, because the media will keep on bringing up the crimes we committed in
the past.
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 into disgrace, God
immediately offered grace to them. He 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.'” 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.
Today, as we celebrate
the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, we see the beginning of a new
humanity at work.
God in His goodness and mercy has predestined Mary, the mother of the new
humanity, the New Eve, 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 merits 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. Jesus
will be the source and the throne of grace as the letter of Hebrews tells
us. In Christ Jesus, we will see the divine mercy at work, in His life
and in His 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
receive a new life, a new beginning, because like Mary, we are once again
called the children of God. Such is the great mercy of God that St Paul wrote,
“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 purposes, to make us praise the glory of his grace,
his free gift to us in the Beloved.” 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.
For this to happen, we
must make an act of faith as Mary did.
As St Paul tells us, we are justified in Christ by faith through grace.
Let us contemplate on the love and mercy of God in Christ for us. Like
Mary, in faith we say to the Lord, “I am the handmaid of the Lord…let what you
have said be done to me.” We need to believe in His grace and
mercy. With God, nothing is impossible. He can do all things
for us. With God, there is always hope. We only need to
cooperate with His grace like Mary did in faith. She courageously
answered the call of God to be the mother of the savior in faith and trust in
God’s power.
So let us not give up
hope in ourselves or in 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.
Indeed, it is the Lord
who will make all things possible.
His Holy Spirit will work in us as He worked in Mary and brought about the
incarnation of the Second Person of the Trinity. When Mary said to
the angel, “But how can this come about, since I am a virgin?” the angel
assured her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you 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.”
All we need to do is to
work with the grace of God by
frequenting the sacrament of reconciliation, contemplating on His divine mercy,
celebrating the sacraments, rendering charity to the poor and forgiving those
who have hurt and betrayed us. In this way, everything will be restored
to its new order and everyone has a new beginning. So with the
psalmist, we say, “Sing a new song to the Lord for he has worked wonders. His
right hand and his holy arm have brought salvation. 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. All the ends of the earth have seen the
salvation of our God. Shout to the Lord, all the earth, ring out your joy.”
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All
Rights Reserved
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