Immaculate Conception

Immaculate Conception – 8^th December

Today’s Solemnity  of the Immaculate Conception brings us in a journey back through time. It begins in us to Lourdes in 1858 where the unlettered Bernadette Soubirous appealed to l’Abbe Peyremale that a woman declaring herself to be the Immaculate Conception had appeared in the quarry of Massabielle desiring that a chapel be built there. Imagine his astonishment and how convinced he must have been and determined from that moment on to be Bernadette’s defendant in the face of so many Commissions and Inquiries held in the years to follow in order to establish the authenticity of the apparitions of Lourdes! How could this girl possibly hear of such a phrase, let alone understand it. It is a scene replayed for us in the award-winning movie - 70 years old this year - The Song of Bernadette. The year of Lourdes was 1858, and four years earlier in 1854 in a statement for the Holy Father, it was declared to be an infallible dogma of the Church.

We must then go back to 1830 to the apparitions at Rue de Bac in Paris where Our Lady had asked of Catherine Laboure that a medal be struck in honour of the Immaculate Conception representing another stage of our journey. This journey brings us to the dawn of human creation and the Fall - what was described for us in the First Reading of the woman crushing the head of the serpent. With the Miraculous Medal we can, invokw her and ask for all the graces we need for salvation, wearing the medal with great confidence. If we didn’t have and wear one, let us begin!

The Solemnity and the Gospel refer to three miraculous conceptions, involving divine intervention – the intervention of God that Mary was conceived in her mother’s womb without original sin’; that Jesus was conceived in Mary’s womb without man (virginal conception); that Mary’s ‘kinswoman Elizabeth, in her old age, whom men had considered barren, was now in her sixth month’(Luke).

The Solemnity also has huge ramifications for us in today’s culture and society.

Because such mystery, hushed reverence and sacredness surround these conceptions and particularly today the Conception of Mary, then how wonderful and awesome is every human conception. As we honour Mary’s conception, we should reverence every conception, in the context of marriage. Today’s culture needs to hear this. How many couples through ignorance, heartache, and sheer desperation, not knowing where else to turn, defer the role of the marital embrace to a laboratory induced fertilisation of several embryos. These conceptions – these lives – are at scientists’ and technicians’ mercy, and literally, disposal.

Let us speak up for the dignity of every life from natural conception – as well as the dignity to be accorded these embryos in vitro.

Let us pray for all couples, the one in six, who have difficulties in this area of morality, many of whom are ignorant of the moral implications of what they are doing.

Mau this Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception remind us of the wonder of every conception and may we honour every human life upholding the dignity of marital love and human life. Let us also invoke Our Lady anew through our confident wearing of the Miraculous Medal of the Immaculate Conception.

 

Second Sunday of Advent

The Second Sunday of Advent - The Voice of the Baptist

Have you heard of Sr Cristina Scuccia?

Well if the name does not ring a bell, then you may have seen her on You Tube in a clip of the Italian version of The Voice

If you are unaware of the format of this talent competition, four judges in oversized red chairs turn to the audience, with their backs to the act on stage. They therefore judge the talent on the basis of what they hear.

What happened of course is well known Sr. Cristina, religious sister in full modest habit and veil sang her heart out a modern pop song to the rapturous applause of the standing and cheering audience as one-by-one the judges pressed the hot button of approval and turned around and - to their astonishment and utter surprise - saw Sr Cristina belting out the song unperturbed, with full gusto!

This tells us something of the sung or spoken word, the power of the human word, unhampered by image, costume, make up and visual effect. To be an effective speaker on radio, one does not need to have any special glamorous style or appearance to be an effective communicator. How often do we hear a song and a singer without knowing or needing to know their appearance? The message we hear or the manner of their speaking engages us sufficiently to gain our respect and our attention.

When we think of the Israel of the time of John the Baptist it is the voice of John the Baptist who speaks and whose voice is heard in the wilderness and this is the fulfilment of a centuries old prophecy. The voice of the Lord speaks through John and the people respond. Word gets out and people flock in their thousands to hear him speak and in the process of repentance they speak their sins aloud.

Te readings invite is to listen to the voice of the Lord in the stillness of the wilderness. The voice of others can influence us for good or ill. The voice of conscience prodding us to act, or the voice of a doctor or dentist requiring us to change certain aspects of our diet or lifestyle, or the voices of social commentators of the voices of commercialism. To whom do we listen? Who or what influences us?

The voice of God today speaks to us in the readings

A voice cries, ‘Prepare in the wilderness

a way for the Lord.

Make a straight highway for our God

across the desert.

Let every valley be filled in,

every mountain and hill be laid low.

Let every cliff become a plain,

and the ridges a valley;

then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed

and all mankind shall see it;

for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.’

..

Shout with a loud voice,

joyful messenger to Jerusalem.

Shout without fear,

say to the towns of Judah,

‘Here is your God.’

Here is the Lord coming with power,

his arm subduing all things to him.

The prize of his victory is with him,

his trophies all go before him.

He is like a shepherd feeding his flock,

gathering lambs in his arms,

holding them against his breast

and leading to their rest the mother ewes.

 

____________________

 

In the Psalm:

I will hear what the Lord God has to say,

a voice that speaks of peace,

peace for his people…

Or the voice of St Paul: . So then, my friends, while you are waiting, do your best to live lives without spot or stain so that he will find you at peace.

 

Or the voice of John the Baptist:  ‘Someone is following me, someone who is more powerful than I am, and I am not fit to kneel down and undo the strap of his sandals. I have baptised you with water, but he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit.’

 

To listen to the voice of the Lord means to turn away from sin and to turn to God, it is a double turning, like the judges of The Voice, who turn away from the audience because they have made their own decision, and who turn to see and hear the voice for themselves.

This is what Advent requires of each person, a personal individual response and decision to at last listen to his voice – and act.