20221208 CALLED TO HOLINESS OF LIFE EXPRESSED IN A LIFE OF INTEGRITY
08 December, 2022, Thursday, Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary
First reading |
Genesis 3:9-15,20 © |
The mother of all those who live
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.
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 97(98):1-4 © |
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.
Second reading |
Ephesians 1:3-6,11-12 © |
Before the world was made, God chose us in Christ
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.
Gospel Acclamation | cf.Lk1:28 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee!
Blessed art thou among women.
Alleluia!
Gospel | Luke 1:26-38 © |
'I am the handmaid of the Lord'
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.
CALLED TO HOLINESS OF LIFE EXPRESSED IN A LIFE OF INTEGRITY
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [Gen 3:9-15,20; Ps 98:1-4; Eph 1:3-6,11-12; Lk 1:26-38]
Our ultimate vocation in life is a call to holiness. This is the fundamental vocation of every person. St John Paul II wrote in his apostolic letter, “Novo Millenio Ineunte” said, “First of all, I have no hesitation in saying that all pastoral initiatives must be set in relation to holiness. Was this not the ultimate meaning of the Jubilee indulgence, as a special grace offered by Christ so that the life of every baptized person could be purified and deeply renewed?” (NMI, 30) The call to holiness is to live a life of integrity, to become who we are and act according to who we are. Holiness is simply to live out our being and our identity as the sons and daughters of God.
St Paul reminded us of our original calling in today’s second reading. He said, “Before the world was made, he chose us, chose us in Christ, to be holy and spotless.” Indeed, we are called to holiness of life. God intends us to be holy and to live a life of integrity right from the start. Unfortunately, our first parents did not live out the divine plan that God intended for them. Right from the beginning of creation, they wanted to be independent of God by making decisions that went against God’s will. They wanted to be God without God. As a consequence, they lost their preternatural gifts of infused knowledge, integrity of the will, freedom from pain and death. We who are their descendants share in their loss. This is why we all suffer from ignorance, disorientation of the will, pain and death.
But thanks to God’s grace, Jesus Christ has come to restore us back our sonship. This is what St Paul wrote. We are now called “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.” We are now call to live in His presence, so that from the strength of His love, we can live our out adopted sonship in Him for the greater glory of God. In this way, we become God’s glory and praise since we live the life of Christ.
What is significant for us in celebrating the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception is that like Mary, we were intended to be saved by Christ right from the beginning. St Paul wrote, “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.” Indeed, immediately after the Fall, God told Eve and the Serpent, “Because you have done this, be accursed beyond all cattle, all wild beasts. 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.” (Gn 3:15) Salvation of humanity and our restoration to grace was always in the mind of God.
On this basis, the Church could therefore posit for Mary that she was redeemed by pre-emption by the Lord in view of her role as the Mother of the Saviour. It is not farfetched or impossible that Christ who would come to save us would before He even came into this world through Mary, redeemed Mary by preventing her from being contaminated by Original Sin so that it would be fitting for her to be the Mother of the Saviour. Otherwise, one could even suggest that Jesus was born from a woman who was under the bondage of sin. Of course, it is true that the Holy Spirit could in the womb of Mary prevented our Lord from being tainted with original sin. But in the mind of the Church and upon reflection, the Church from the days of old always considered Mary to be immaculately conceived. Hence, she was praised in the Eastern Church as the Lily of the Valley and her purity was praised in the early Church. She was regarded as sinless, both at her conception and throughout her life on earth, for she was regarded as one who lived a blessed life by our Lord in the gospel.
Some would argue that her Immaculate Conception was not necessary for her to be the mother of the Saviour. Of course, it is true that it is not necessary. But it was seen by the Church as fitting. That, too, was so in the case of her virginity. Mary, strictly speaking, did not have to be a virgin to conceive Jesus the Son of God. She could have conceived Jesus in the normal way. But then God would not have it the normal way because it would be a less remarkable sign of divine intervention. So God chose His Son to be born of a virgin. “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.”
The truth is that the virginity of Mary was more than just a physical sign of the divine origin of Christ born in her womb. It was also a sign of the integrity of her entire being. In fact, virginity means one who is totally devoted to the Lord. The Church honours virgins in the early Church because they committed their lives entirely to the service and glory of Jesus as their spouse. Virginal dedication would also be the keeping oneself totally for God and for no one else. In this sense, the virginal conception of Jesus demonstrates Mary’s total availability to the Lord, and her consecration to Him for His divine plan. This is why the Church insists that Mary was not just a virgin before the conception of our Lord, but during and after His birth. We speak of the perpetual virginity of Mary to underscore Mary’s total dedication to her Son in His mission, following Him until Calvary.
Hence, the Immaculate Conception of Mary parallels her virginal motherhood because it spells out Mary’s bodily integrity and spiritual integrity. She was found fitting to be the mother of the Saviour so that the Son of God would be totally without blemish. By her Immaculate Conception, Mary showed that she has conquered sin and overcame the power of Satan through God’s grace in Christ. Sin precisely destroys this inner integrity in the human person. It is because of sin that we live a disordered life. Sin causes us to lose our perspective because we are blinded by our pride, like Adam and Eve for power and glory; and be enslaved by our passions, greed and lust. Sin gives us a false sense of independence. Mary was able to say “Yes” to God at every moment of her life because of the grace that God has given to her.
Indeed, we must reiterate that the holiness of Mary, the exemption from original sin, and her chaste and pure character was possible only through the work of the Holy Spirit. It is a grace of God given to Mary unmerited. It was not because Mary deserved to be delivered from Original Sin before her conception, it was purely the grace of God. Just like being chosen to be the mother of the Saviour, so too her Immaculate Conception. She was graced by God as the angel said, “Rejoice, so highly favoured! The Lord is with you. 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.” Indeed, Mary was surprised at God’s choice of her to be the mother of the Saviour and also to conceive her Son through the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit instead of through Joseph, her betrothed husband. Only a positive response was needed on her part. “‘I am the handmaid of the Lord,’ said Mary ‘let what you have said be done to me.'”
We, too, who celebrate the Immaculate Conception are called to follow her footstep in responding to God’s call to holiness of life by living out our vocation as His adopted sons and daughters. Like Mary, we have been chosen by God for His work of salvation. God chose us as St Paul said, to be holy and blameless in Christ. In other words, we are called to present ourselves as God’s holy temple in the way we live our lives in the world. This is what holiness is all about, living a life that is different from that of the world. It is a life lived in integrity, honesty, truth and love for God and for others. But we can live this life only through the grace of God. We must therefore pray for the grace to be faithful to His will like Mary. With God, as the angel said, “nothing is impossible” to those who believe. Indeed, celebrating the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, Mary is for us a model of how we should live our life, graciously with integrity, as adopted sons and daughters of God. Being holy is what sets us free because our freedom is found in God whom we trust totally as Mary did.
Written by His Eminence, Cardinal William SC Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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