IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
Genesis 3:9-15, 20
Ephesians 1:3-6, 11-12
Luke 1:26-38
In her book Born Contemplative, Madeleine Simon writes about the spiritual development of young children and explores her thesis that we are all born with an innate capacity for God. She says that a child’s faith journey begins the moment the mother knows that she is pregnant. As we celebrate today’s Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception the church invites us to stand back and to imagine that moment when Mary was conceived, the beginning of her faith journey. All that we know of her parents comes from pious legend and so we are left to imagine the upright, God-fearing couple, Joachim and Anne, who have followed the path of Torah all their lives.
In our liturgy today we are engaged in a collective looking back over the story of our salvation. The story of the Fall in Genesis Ch 2 looms large and lays before us the human dynamic of sin and shame. It’s always important to hold Genesis Ch 1 alongside Ch 2, as here we find a theology of blessing: ‘And God saw that it was good.’ Our relationship with God is ruptured, but it is not beyond repair. God never loses sight of our innate capacity to live with Him in love.
The whole of Biblical revelation charts the path of God’s relationship with his people. We see in each page God’s desire to restore harmony. God will use the lowly and the weak to fulfill his plan. Mary enters the story of our salvation as one who is poor and lowly. She has been nurtured in a tradition of God’s Word (Torah), God’s Service (Prayer) and God’s Work (Kindness). She had learnt the ways of faithfulness and love.
In today’s Gospel story of the Annunciation we see the flowering of God’s plan, as Mary is told that she has ‘won God’s favour’. Every small choice from the very moment of her conception has led to this day. It’s easy to feel inadequate when Mary is held up as ‘the one without sin’. But perhaps we could see today’s feast as an invitation to make each of our own small choices count?
‘As we progress in this way of life and in faith, we shall run on the path of God’s commandments, our hearts overflowing with the inexpressible delight of love.’ Rule of St Benedict, Prologue
The day to day life of a monastic is made up of many little things. At the beginning of my novitiate my novice mistress said to me: ‘Never underestimate the energy it takes to turn up at the right place, at the right time, with the appropriate expression on your face.’ These were wise words indeed and I revisit them frequently. Saying my ‘Yes’ to God opened up a world where faithfulness is needed for the big things and the little. You largely don’t go in search of the big things, they come to you. But the small things are there around every corner in the monastery. When life seems overwhelming and there are many calls on your heart and your mind, I have learnt the wisdom of just doing the next right thing.
How is God calling you to say ‘Yes’ this Advent?