Texts taken from the Missalette “On Your Word” November-December 2023

Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary (memorial)
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FIRST READING

From the Book of Genesis (Gen 3:9-15, 20)
[After the man had eaten from the fruit of the tree,] the Lord God called to him and said: “Where are you?”. He answered: “I heard you in the garden: I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid”. Then he asked: “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree from which I commanded you not to eat?”. The man replied: “The woman whom you put here with me—she gave me fruit from the tree, so I ate it”. Then the Lord God said to the woman: “What have you done?”. The woman replied: “The serpent deceived me, so I ate”. Then the Lord God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, cursed are you among all livestock and all wild animals! On your belly you shall crawl, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike at your head, while you strike at his heel”. The man named his wife Eve, because she was the mother of all the living. – The Word of the Lord.

Reflection on the first reading

Adam and Eve disobey God and, enticed by Satan, decide to become immortal - “you will certainly not die; rather, you will become like God” (cf. Gen 3:4-5), the serpent had insinuated. They also want to know “good and evil” and, like God, want to “give life” to descendants, but without docility, without waiting for God's timing, essentially wanting to decide for themselves what their true good was. The Lord's subsequent intervention surpasses expectations, because a woman is promised who, docilely accepting God's invitation to be his Mother, will overturn the entire system, giving the world the author of life made Flesh, Jesus, the second divine Person. God created only one enmity in the world - writes Saint Louis Marie Grignion de Montfort - that between the Virgin Mary and Satan. And what is created is created forever. And, although it may sound strange to our ears, this enmity helps us, because it shows us the way to follow: to welcome Mary as Mother and let ourselves be led by her, to obtain Christ's forgiveness in her and be made “virgins” again in the world of grace.

SECOND READING

From the Letter of Saint Paul the Apostle to the Ephesians (Eph 1:3-6, 11-12)
Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens. In him he chose us, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him in love, predestining us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, in accord with the purpose of his will, for the praise of the glory of his grace that he granted us in the beloved. In him we have also been chosen, destined in accord with the purpose of the One who accomplishes all things according to the intention of his will, so that we might exist for the praise of his glory, we who first hoped in Christ. – The Word of the Lord.

Reflection on the second reading

God created us not so that we might live immersed in evil and without hope, but to be holy and without blemish. Saint Porphyrios, a monk of Mount Athos, writes: “With Christ, man becomes full of grace and thus lives above evil. Evil does not exist for him. Only good exists, that is, God. Evil cannot exist. In other words, as long as there is light, darkness cannot exist. Nor can darkness seize him, because he lives in the light”. We are so accustomed to living in situations of distress, sin, and darkness, worrying about everything, that these words seem exaggerated to us. Yet in one creature this blessing was fully realized: in the Immaculate Virgin. Her concern is God, love, worship, and goodness. She is completely turned toward the Father, contemplating the greatness of his gift: Jesus, who saves us from our sins. We too can, in the Church, possess Jesus, the Spirit, grace, and all the charisms! We poor sinners have obtained, thanks to Mary's “yes”, the possibility of living for the praise of God's glory. Mary is our Paradise on earth.

GOSPEL OF THE DAY

From the Gospel according to Luke (Lk 1:26-38)
In that time, the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary. And coming to her, he said: “Hail, full of grace: the Lord is with you”. But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. Then the angel said to her: “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end”. But Mary said to the angel: “How can this be, since I do not know man?”. And the angel said to her in reply: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called the Son of God. And behold, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren; for nothing will be impossible for God”. Mary said: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word”. Then the angel departed from her. – The Gospel of the Lord.

Reflection on the Gospel of the day

Today we read the Gospel that changed the history of humanity. That day everything happened in secret and no one noticed, because redemption takes place in the depths of the heart. True life is the life of the heart: external events pass, but life in Christ (or without him) remains. The Virgin Mary accepts God's unheard-of plan, which asks to be born from her. God could have become incarnate by descending directly from heaven already as an adult man; there would have been nothing strange about it, because nothing is impossible for God. Instead, he wanted to live through man's life from its beginning and assume his humanity from humanity, and in this specific case from a woman, one of his creatures. From that moment on, nothing human is foreign to God, and the involvement is total. He wants to live in us and, after the resurrection, he lives in the human person who is in a state of grace. Most Holy Mary welcomes him and exclaims: “Let it be”. This is the Marian principle par excellence: “Fiat”, let it be done. Everything depends on God, but nothing happens if man does not cooperate, if he does not enter into the Marian principle. From that moment on, God is no longer “alone”, but with Mary, and with me; nor is man alone anymore, but with God and in God, if he accepts and welcomes him.