COLLECT: “O GOD, WHO BY THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN PREPARED A WORTHY DWELLING FOR YOUR SON, GRANT, WE PRAY, THAT, AS YOU PRESERVED HER FROM EVERY STAIN BY VIRTUE OF THE DEATH OF YOUR SON, WHICH YOU FORESAW, SO, THROUGH HER INTERCESSION, WE, TOO, MAY BE CLEANSED AND ADMITTED TO YOUR PRESENCE. THROUGH OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, YOUR SON, WHO LIVES AND REIGNS WITHIN THE UNITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, GOD, FOR EVER AND EVER. AMEN”
Gen 3:9-15,20; Ps 97:1-4; Eph 1:3-6,11-12; Lk 1:26-38.
“The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary….” (Lk 1:26-38).
The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, which Mother Church celebrates today, is one of the doctrines of the Catholic Church. In short, Mother Church teaches that right from the conception of Mary by her parents (Joachim and Ann), God created and preserved her free from every stain of sin: that is, Mary, right from her conception, was preserved and set free from the contamination of Original Sin (sin of our first parents), as well as from personal sins. This doctrine was defined officially as an article of faith in the Catholic Church by Pope Pius IX in the 19th Century.
The reason behind this doctrine is that God’s plan and purpose for creation had been altered, distorted and disturbed. Right from the beginning, even before the creation of the world, God chose us in Christ, to be holy and without blemish before him (Cf. Eph 1:1-12). This plan or purpose of God for creating and choosing us in Christ was disturbed and, in a way, altered because of disobedience and sin, leading to the Fall of our first biblical parents (Adam and Eve).
However, since God is always faithful, though we are sometimes unfaithful, he loves his creation and he does not want any of us to fall into damnation except that one chooses to, he designed another plan to save fallen humanity and restore us, if not back to his original state of innocence and holiness, but close to that state.
Therefore, God preserved the Most Blessed Virgin Mary from all stain of Original Sin, so that in Mary, endowed with the rich fullness of God’s grace, God might prepare her as a worthy instrument and Mother for her Son, the Saviour. Put in another way: “The sin of our first parents could not frustrate the ultimate plan of God, who foreknew that a woman’s ‘Yes’ would lead to the undoing of Satan’s schemes”.
This solemnity we are celebrating has a lot to teach us. We can learn and gain a lot from this celebration when we compare our first biblical parents (Adam and Eve) briefly with our second biblical parents (Mary and Joseph).
• Our first biblical parents disobeyed God, sinned and fell out with God. Our second parents did not disobey God, sin and fall out with God. We continue to disobey God, creation and humanity. We continue to sin and to fall out with God and with fellow human beings. Can we learn something good from this?
• There was betrayal between our first parents (“The woman whom you put here with me…”). There was no betrayal between our second parents (“Joseph, being an upright man and wanting to spare Mary’s disgrace, decided to divorce her informally…” Mt 1:19ff). Any lesson for me/you? Let us work on the betrayals in our relationships with God and with fellow human beings, betrayals in marriages, in families, in offices and in workplaces, betrayals in Churches, in politics, etc.
There was a ‘blame game’ with our first parents (Adam blaming Eve, Eve blaming it on the serpent, the serpent had no one to blame). There was no ‘blame game’ with our second parents. There are a lot of us who are not ready and willing to accept full responsibility for what we do, especially when the consequences of our actions are bad.
Most of us easily like to pass the buck, shifting the blame to someone else, sometimes even to an innocent person. There are times we blame it on Satan with the popular slogan that: “Satan entered me”. Did Satan force you to do the evil thing? What can we learn today from this celebration?
One way we could be like our second parents, to cooperate with God to transform the world and humanity, so that his ultimate plan for us could be achieved, is to emulate and imitate some of the virtues of both Joseph and Mary. We should be upright, God fearing, just and honest, forgiving and loving, responsible, supportive and caring, faithful and obedient like Joseph.
We should be obedient like Mary, always wanting God’s will to be done in our lives for humanity. The Litanies of Mary teach us lots of virtues we could acquire and use them to cooperate with God to transform the world and humanity and eventually achieve his plan for creating us. Happy feast day, stay blessed and may Mother Mary keep interceding for us.
WE MEDITATE TODAY, MONDAY, ON THE JOYFUL MYSTERIES: ‘THE ANNUNCIATION, THE VISITATION, THE BIRTH OF JESUS, THE PRESENTATION IN THE TEMPLE AND THE FINDING OF THE CHILD JESUS IN THE TEMPLE’. (LET US PRAY FOR HUMILITY, LOVE OF NEIGHBOUR, POVERTY IN SPIRIT, OBEDIENCE AND JOY IN FINDING JESUS) “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you, blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus: Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us, sinners, now and at the hour of our death, Amen”.
PRAYER: “MAY THE SACRAMENT WE HAVE RECEIVED, O LORD OUR GOD, HEAL IN US THE WOUNDS OF THAT FAULT FROM WHICH IN A SUNGULAR WAY YOU PRESERVED BLESSED MARY IN HER IMMACULATE CONCEPTION’. THROUGH CHRIST OUR LORD. AMEN”.
Rev. Fr. Aloysius Kpiebaya, Catholic Diocese of Wa, UW/R, Ghana. (00233) 0207867239/0545462863. Email: aloybaya20@ya@yahoo.com
No comments yet. Be the first to comment!