Friday 7 December 2012

An Advent feast : The Immaculate Conception



Tomorrow is the feast of the Immaculate Conception, when we celebrate God's grace active in Mary's life from the first moment of her existence. As the Anglican-Roman Catholic Commission puts it,
In view of her vocation to be the mother of the Holy One (Luke 1:35), we can affirm together that Christ’s redeeming work reached ‘ back’ in Mary to the depths of her being, and to her earliest beginnings.
It is very much an Advent feast day. Just as part of what we do in Advent is prepare to celebrate Christmas, so God prepared for the first Christmas in the life and experience of his People, which we read about in the Old Testament, and finally in the life of Mary. God's grace, working at the deepest level of her being, enabled her to say 'yes' to God, to say 'yes' to being the Mother of Jesus. In the anonymous, and no doubt to most eyes unremarkable, life of a Jewish peasant woman, the God of Israel prepared the way for the salvation of the world.

God's action in Mary's life is a supreme example of what Christians have historically called providence. Without in any way compromising our freedom or treating us like puppets, the God who surrounds all things works in our lives for the furtherance of his Kingdom. The way God is working in us might not be clear to us at the time, it certainly might not be clear where God is leading us - but the God who loves us and wants to restore all things is at work, and is calling us to co-operate with that work, to say 'yes' to his love.

God prepared the world for the first coming of Christ through the life of Mary. God prepares the world for the second coming of Christ through the life of the Church. We should look at our own lives, and ask where God might be at work, so that we can say a generous 'yes' to God. And we should look at the world - looking for the 'signs of the times', the places where God in Christ might be establishing his Kingdom of justice and peace, and again we should say 'yes' to God, 'yes' to God's future.



  

A modern take on a traditional hymn to Mary!
Thanks to Angharad for making me aware of this gem.

No comments:

Post a Comment