Immaculate Conception and the Advent Journey

Mary - God's part of preparation! 

Solemnity of Immaculate Conception - December 9, 2024

Genesis 3: 9-15,20; Ephesians 1:3-6, 11-12; Luke 1: 26-38

We celebrate the solemnity of Immaculate Conception today... it is indeed an important feast, not to be missed even for the sake of the Advent that we are living through these days! Moreover, specially in the background of the season of advent, this feast takes a very special significance. As advent is basically a preparation towards the commemoration of the first coming of the Lord, one of the most significant preparations on the part of God, was the immaculate conception of our Blessed Mother - God was preparing a place, a place worthy of the Son to come. This was God's part of preparation, reminding us to be diligent on our part of preparation too!

The Word presented to us on this feast is intense and profound. We could look at it or reflect on it in terms of various interesting schemes: the promise (1st reading) - the fulfillment (gospel) - our commitment (2nd reading); or the problem (1st reading) - the solution (gospel) - the lesson (2nd reading); or the initiative of God (1st reading) - a model of response (gospel) - the response expected from us (2nd reading)... interesting, aren't they? Whichever scheme we choose to apply, one common line of reflection would be that the feast of immaculate conception is not merely about Mary, it is about the entire salvific plan of God, the greater picture of the salvation of humanity. 

This feast, as we said right at the beginning, is not to be left out owing to the Advent that seems to be claiming priority, instead it has to be double emphasised, as it has a strong imprint of being a truth very close to the Advent message. One of the most familiar themes of advent is, "expectation" - and the immaculate conception begins the end of a long expectation of humanity; finally the promise given to the human race was beginning to unfold, in the figure of Mary, entering into the world of beings. Another advent theme that is strong is, "preparation" and as we already hinted at, Immaculate Conception was a mode of God telling humanity (although at that time no one would have beheld it), that the time was now ripe for the promise and the prophecies to be realised. 

Finally, this feast is a strong reminder of what we have been called to: to be holy and blameless, to be immaculate  in the eyes of the Lord. That second part is the most consoling and equally challenging part - in the eyes of the Lord. Yes, Mary was immaculately conceived - who knew it? No one, and even today there are those who ridicule this truth, saying it is an invention of the human reason. Be it so, but the fact is, the Lord was preparing her to be the mother of the sinless Son of God... how else can it be, than she be immaculate right from the beginning! Only God would have known it, God could do it, and God certainly has done it! Even for us... we are called to be immaculate, not to be proving to everyone that we are better than the rest of the world, nor to be putting up an appearance of it. We are called to be intrinsically immaculate, choosing God above all and everything, which is known to God without any mediation. And God sees our efforts, not our results. 

Immaculate Mother, help us to imitate your total dedication to the Lord and the Lord's will. Amen.

A PILGRIMAGE OF HOPE TOWARDS PEACE

The Journey Explained

Second Sunday in Advent - December 8, 2024

Baruch 5: 1-7; Philippians 1: 4-6,8-11; Luke 3: 1-6

We began a pilgrimage of hope last week with the commencement of the season of Advent. If the Word last week, commissioned us to the journey, this week the Word comes to explain to us what this journey is all about - it is a journey towards peace! A pilgrimage, a devout journey towards peace - that is what Advent is all about. Hence it becomes categorical that we clarify to ourselves what this peace we refer to is, how we arrive at it and when we would truly get there - may the Word speak to us!

Peace... what: Integrity. Let us begin with a question what this peace is. A phrase or a term we come across more than once in the first reading from Baruch is, the integrity of God that God wants to adorn us with. That is the peace that is denoted by the term "shalom", which means wholeness, fullness, absence of insecurity or anguish, a serenity at heart which affects our whole being and our entire milieu. That can be given only by God and we know that. 

How much the world and the humanity longs for peace today: wars everywhere, and violence in all corners, confusions within nations and coflicts at the borders... these are the scenarios that we are facing these days increasingly. Not just these, but even within communities, families and ourselves, there are so many instances of peacelessness and we long for peace. It seems to return, but for a flicker of a moment, and then we are back to the experiences of struggle and strife. The Lord says, I wish to give you peace; I want to make you shine with joy; I want to fill you with my spleandour. The peace that the Lord gives is integrity; and therefore it cannot be automatic. It has to be achieved...but how?

Peace... how: Invest. If we need to experience peace, we have to invest in it. Invest our desires and interests, invest our efforts, invest our energies and invest our whole life in it. If not, peace cannot be a possibility. No peace that is achieved from outside can be lasting. Peace has to arise from within, and that is why investing in it is inevitable. 

The Lord who wants to give it to us, is ready to invest in us - we read in the first reading, in the words of Baruch, the Lord is ready to level everything up and straighten everything that we may have peace. It is the Lord's initiative, as always. And we are required to respond - the message of John the Baptist comes in here - that we need to level things up and straighten everything out. It depends on how ready we are, to heed to the call given to us - as the second reading points - to be pure and blameless for the Lord. At times we are attached to our ways, our priorities and our ego that we are not ready to level or straighten anything. Peace has no possibility there. Advent is a time to level things, not just for the coming of the Lord, but also for us to get in touch with the Lord, to journey towards the Lord, towards peace. 

Peace... when: In God's time. When will this peace be possible? Peace is possible only when we are able to surrender ourselves to the Lord in everyway. The message of John the Baptist was that. Today we are presented with the figure of the Baptist, and next week we shall hear him speak to us. The very person of John is a message, a reminder, a call, a challenge - to become the people of God. Here is the place of hope, the hope that never disappoints. 

The Lord shall never disappoint us, we need to endure. Endurance is not staying put; it is an active investment of the self and of the efforts! And in that active endurance, we shall be already levelling the ground, raising the fallen and empowering the weak. That is the Reign... that is the true peace, the integrity of the Lord that we long for, in the making. Let continue our journey with earnestness and endurance, a journey of hope towards peace!