THE WORD IN ADVENT - DAY 13

Kingdom Task: Realise, you have nothing to prove

Friday, 2nd week in Advent, 2016

Is 48: 17-19; Mt 11: 16-19

The world insists on proving yourself to everyone around and that is where all frustrations arise. We are given with a great gift, that is our life. And every one of us has come into this world with a purpose, however small or big you judge them to be...the Lord however and as always has a new insight into the entire journey. The more we consider people's opinion as leading criteria or directions to decision making, we cease to live our life. The Word instructs today: the vindication shall be from none other than the Lord! All that we need to do is, as St. Paul would suggest in 2 Thes 3:12, just go on quietly doing your work and earning your living. May the grace of God make us see, feel, observe and live for ever in the presence of the Lord who vindicates those who place their trust in Him.

THE WORD AND THE FEAST

Celebrating the Immaculate Conception

8th December, 2016

Gen 3:9-15,20; Eph 1: 3-6, 11-12; Lk 1:26-38

3 Lessons from the Feast of Immaculate Conception of Our Blessed Mother:

- In God there are no Compromises: Mercy of God does not mean compromises. In our normal parlance, God does not make adjustments. God sets things right, expiates and blots of offences in God's mercy but when it comes to being in the presence of the Lord there can be no compromises. I remember in our early seminary days, there used to be a way of saying, going back to Don Bosco's times, that this day Mary will sweep the salesian house. Though we used to poke fun saying we need not do our daily chores, we all understood the point. The purity and integrity of the persons in the house will be put to check by our Blessed Mother - that was the trust. Just to say, this feast is all about an absolute choice for God.

- In God there are no Impossibilities: Giving an unassailable justification a Doctor of the Church would say about Immaculate Conception God could do it and God did it! Keeping a person totally safe from the trace of original sin is purely grace! Mary received this grace for the sake of and by the merits of the Son of God whom she was destined to bear. It was a choice of this person called Mary, as St. Paul puts it, 'before the foundation of the world'.

- In God there are Wonders: God has great wonders in store for us. All that we need to do is give our humble and total assent. How many graces we miss with our stubbornness and selfishness. Though it was grace that kept Mary away from Original Sin, it was Mary's choice of God and God's purposes that kept her pure in her day to day life. That was her 'Yes' to the call of God. 

Mary herself proved the veracity of this truth taught by the Church through the great progress of events. It was in 1850 that the dogma was defined by the Church and Mary made an uneducated, little peasant girl Bernadette use the same words merely four years later - at the series of apparitions in Lourdes in 1858. May our Blessed Mother continue to inspire us to remain pure, joyful and grace filled.