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During this Advent season as we celebrate the new relationship between God and his people, may that be mirrored in our renewed relationships with spouses, children, family and those near and dear to us. May we speak tenderly to each other amidst all the rush of the season and transform the
shopping days till Christmas into the true Advent of Christ. - Casely Essamuah |
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- Feast of the Immaculate Conception
GN 3:9-15, 20; PS 98:1-4; EPH 1:3-6, 11-12; LK 1:26-38
R. Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous
deeds.
Sing to the LORD a new song,
for he has done wondrous deeds;
His right hand has won victory for him,
his holy arm.
The LORD has made his salvation known:
in the sight of the nations he has revealed his justice.
He has remembered his kindness and his faithfulness
toward the house of Israel.
All the ends of the earth have seen
the salvation by our God.
Sing joyfully to the LORD, all you lands;
break into song; sing praise.
USCCB Lectionary
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Reflection on the Scriptures |
The Hebrew word for compassion is “heshem” and the word-root of that word is “rechem”
meaning womb. The Prophet Isaiah writes of God’s love as that of a mother who might indeed forget the child of her “womb”, but God’s embrace is deeper and longer even than that. (Is 49:15) Later the same prophet describes the comforting of God as a mother comforting her child.( Is. 66:13) In today’s First Reading, Adam has eaten from the tree forbidden him by God. Adam tells God that the woman gave him the apple and now they have lost their innocence and are
ashamed. Mary, as the “New Woman,” is herself invited now to eat of the apple of mystery and dignity. She responds, not out of shame at who she is, but out of a humility of self-acceptance. Instead of being naked in the shame of sin, Mary is clothed with a motherhood of mercy, comfort and healing. She would have been familiar with the Adam and Eve tradition and was taking her turn in waiting for the return of the loving-God’s embrace of the
world.
It is her not having been stained by sin that frees her spirit to be available to give the world “Jesus Christ, the face of the Father’s mercy.” (cf Misericordea Vultus, 1).” As God came looking for Adam who was hiding out of shame, God
came asking Mary, not where she was, but how available would she be to give God a face. Eve is given the name at the end of the First Reading, “Mother of all the living.” In today’s Gospel, Mary is given the name, “Mother of the Holy Son of God.”
In the Catholic Church there is a prayer to Mary which begins, “Hail, holy queen, Mother of Mercy…”, which mercy is “our life, our sweetness and our hope.” The prayer continues,, “Turn then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us…”, and concludes with, “O clement, O loving, O sweet virgin Mary.” Gerard Manley Hopkins, the Jesuit poet of the late nineteenth century compares Mary’s place in God’s relationship with us to the air we breathe. “I say that we are
wound with mercy round and round as if with air..” “She wild web wondrous robe, mantels the guilty globe….”. Mary then is the motherly face of the mercy which Jesus was, is and always is.
Creighton Online Ministries
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Revelations of Divine Love
- by Julian of
Norwich Second Revelation, Chapter
10
“God willeth to be seen and to be sought: to be abided and to be trusted”
One time mine understanding was led down into the sea-ground, and there I saw hills and dales green, seeming as it were moss-be-grown, with wrack and gravel. Then I understood thus:
that if a man or woman were under the broad water, if he might have sight of God so as God is with a man continually, he should be safe in body and soul, and take no harm: and overpassing, he should have more solace and comfort than all this world can tell. For He willeth we should believe that we see Him continually though that to us it seemeth but little [of sight]; and in this belief He maketh us evermore to gain grace. For He will be seen and He will be sought: He will be abided and he
will be trusted.
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