She Said "Yes"

With Mary, God begins His work of restoring nature to the purity He intended- the beauty which is a reflection of Himself.

 Many have compared God's work of grace in our lives to snowfall which cloaks the barren tree, giving beauty to otherwise fruitless branches. Iced over with freshly fallen snow, the tree glimmers in the sunlight more brilliantly than its brown bark would allow. The glaze replaces the natural beauty of the leaves and fruit which the winter has stolen.

 But, that image of grace presupposes that we are too corrupt to be restored. It presupposes a winter that will never end. Grace, in this image, cannot bring us back to our original luster, but can only cover us over so we don't look so bad.

As Catholics understand it, grace is more like the sun whose rays warm the barren tree stimulating the bud, the leaf and, finally, the fruit. Grace restores the original beauty marred by the winter of sin.

 If grace were like snow, our branches would never bear fruit. They would remain iced over, unable to thrive. But, God wants us to grow and to reflect the beauty He intended for His creation.

 The Marian feasts- the Immaculate Conception, the Assumption, the Annunciation- all celebrate not what Mary accomplished, but what God accomplished through Jesus. Mary, as the first disciple of Jesus, is the first to receive the benefits of Jesus' saving work. She is the first to taste the victory over sin by being herself exempted from its stain at her conception. She is the first to celebrate the resurrection of the body through her assumption into heaven.

 What she has received is also what God holds in store for us. Like Mary, He wants to restore us to the sinless, pure creatures He intended us to be. We, like Mary, will one day know victory over sin when all the scars of sinfulness will be healed. And, like Mary, we will know God's victory over death when our bodies are raised on the last day.

So, today's feast of the Annunciation is not for Mary to celebrate alone. It's not like a birthday party in which only one person is honored. Today's feast is about the power and purpose of God's grace which restores the original beauty sin has deformed- not to cover over our shame, but to render us truly good and truly beautiful as God intended.

God achieved it in Mary so that she could be equipped with everything she needed to serve as Jesus' mother. God will achieve it in us when His work of restoration is consummated at our individual deaths and at the end of the world.

Grace Happens

 

 Saint Paul, on the way to persecuting Christians in Damascus, had an encounter with the Risen Jesus who interrupted his plans and changed his life forever. Instead of being the great persecutor of Christians, he became the greatest missionary for Jesus who ever lived. Grace “happened” in Saint Paul’s life, and the world has never been the same.

In last Sunday's second reading, Saint Paul writes, “even when we were dead in our transgressions, [God] brought us to life with Christ- by grace you have been saved.” Our salvation is a free gift of God. He doesn’t give it to us as a reward for any good we have done. In fact, it is precisely because we are sinners that He comes to rescue us. There is nothing we can do to earn it. It is a simple gift of His love. The word “grace” comes from the Latin word “gratia” which means “free” and communicates this idea of God’s love as a rich expression of His mercy to us.

 In last Sunday’s gospel, Jesus tells Nicodemus, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him might not perish but might have eternal life.” There are many ways that God could have saved us from our sins. But He chose to send His only Son. He chose to surrender what was most precious to Him to make it clear to us how great His love for us was.

So when the world seems most dark, when we are most lost, when things seem as though they couldn’t get any worse, that is when “grace happens”. That is when God steps in and makes the way clear for us, gives us strength to go forward, and puts within our reach what seemed impossible.

 God is not watching our lives from afar. He is intimately involved with us at every second of every day. He is close to us. He is near to us whenever we call Him. We don’t have to do anything to get His attention. Rather, it is He who is trying to get our attention! We can count on Him, especially when we are most in need. Like a loving Father, He will always give us what we need. His grace will “happen” in our lives when we most need it and often when we least expect it

The Lie At The Core Of Every Temptation

 

Temptation and sin are realities that all of us face, no matter how far along we are on our spiritual journey. The devil tempts us because he wants us to fall away from God and lose our hope. However, that doesn’t have to happen if we keep turning to our Heavenly Father with confidence in His mercy.

 In Sunday’s gospel, Jesus goes to the desert to confront Satan. Throughout Scripture, the wilderness is the place of temptation and testing. During their wanderings in the desert, the people of Israel fell to the temptation to worship a false God and to lose hope that He would provide for them during their journey. Though Saint Mark doesn’t tell us how the devil tempted Jesus, we know from the other gospels that they were similar to the ones the people of Israel and all people face - namely, to turn to something other than God for our well-being, security, and hope. Jesus does not fall to temptation but vanquishes the devil. In doing so, He gives us assurance that we can do the same.

So, we can face temptation with confidence. It doesn’t have any power over us because Jesus has already conquered Satan not only in the desert but by His cross and resurrection. Temptation only has power over us if we give in to it. If we resist it, push it out of our minds, and remind ourselves that Jesus has power over it, we will conquer our temptations. As Saint James tells us, “Submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (James 4:7).

 When we are tempted, we should always remember that Satan is the father of lies. At the core of every temptation is a lie. We might be deceived into thinking that giving in to sin will relax us and make us feel better. However, all sin can do is leave us feeling empty and guilty. Satan might whisper into our ear that it is only a small sin and nobody will get hurt. Then, consequences we didn’t anticipate arise from our sinful acts and innocent people are hurt in the process. In any case, our relationship with God is always damaged whenever we give in to sin. So, whenever we are tempted, we should ask ourselves, “What is the lie that Satan wants me to believe?” When we bring that temptation into the light of truth, we will see it for what it really is and it will lose its power over us.

This beautiful season of Lent is an opportunity for us to face our sinful selves and turn to Jesus with confidence and trust. As we prepare for the celebration of Easter, we spend these weeks renewing our baptismal vow to reject Satan, and all his works, and all his empty promises. We reject the glamor of evil and refuse to be mastered by sin. Standing up to temptation, arming ourselves with the word of God, and staying close to Jesus in the sacraments will ensure that we will share His victory over sin and one day reign with Him in heaven.

Building A Home Worth Living In

Paul was about to lose everything.

When the economy was good, he made a lot of money as a building contractor. But he overextended himself buying cars, eating out at expensive restaurants and taking lavish vacations. Now that his work had slowed down, he was left with a huge mortgage and credit card debt that he knew he could never pay off. His personal finances created so much tension in his home that his wife eventually left him. Finally, the bank foreclosed on his home and he had nowhere to go until a friend offered to let him live in his basement.

A client whom Paul had done work for in the past heard about his dire situation and decided he would try to help him. He had a piece of land sitting vacant and decided to hire Paul to build a house on it. He immediately agreed and was excited to finally have some work. At the same time, Paul was not sure when he would work again so he wanted to make as much money at this job as he could. He cut corners on the construction to save money and pocket the difference. Though his client provided good quality materials such as granite countertops and hardwood flooring, he would sell them to other contractors and buy cheaper quality products instead. At the end, it was not the house he agreed to build but a much inferior product. He figured he would probably never see this client again so he was happy just to make whatever money he could out of the project.

When the construction was complete, Paul went to the client’s house to deliver the keys to him. However, the client surprised him when he said, “No. You keep them. I am giving the house to you.” Paul was shocked. “What do you mean?” he asked. The client answered, “Well I knew you were struggling and I had this piece of land which I wasn’t using, so I figured I would help you out by not only giving you some work but providing a home for you to live in. It is yours.” Stunned by his client’s generosity, Paul was left speechless. At the same time, he realized that if  he knew he was going to end up owning the house, he would have done a much better job building it.

Today, we begin the great season of Lent. Forty days to reflect on our lives as we prepare to celebrate Jesus’ death and resurrection. It is a time for us to think about what kind of house we are building for ourselves. What are we doing with the materials God has sent us? Are we using them as he intended or are we trading them in for cheap substitutes? Are we putting our best effort into building a life that is pleasing to God or are we just trying to get by with as little work as possible? At this point in our journey, are our lives something that we can be proud of or have we really made a mess of things? These days give us time to look over what we have done, to repair what is broken and to resolve to do a better job going forward.

The key to building a strong home is first laying down a firm foundation. The foundation of our lives is Jesus. He created us and sustains us with His grace. He provides everything we need to build holy and good lives. If our lives are not what we want them to be, if we are not happy with the direction in which our lives are headed, the first thing to do is turn to Him. He will provide the answer. Once we fix our relationship with Him through confessing our sins, doing penance and resolving not to sin again, the other broken things in our lives will start to be repaired. These forty days of Lent, above all else, are a time for us to get back to what is most basic, our relationship with our Lord.

When our homes need repair sometimes it is very tempting just to make cosmetic changes and not fix the real problem. For example, if we have a hole in the wall, we may want to just hang a picture up to cover it rather than do the work of plastering the wall and repainting it. The same is true of our spiritual lives. We may show up at Mass, not eat meat on Fridays and sacrifice something small throughout these weeks of Lent out of a sense of obligation rather than out of a desire to make our lives pleasing to Jesus. We think we may be “covering our bases” but in the end we are really cheating ourselves. We are missing out on the opportunity to make a real change in our lives. Jesus explicitly tells us in today’s gospel that He is looking for more than outward expressions of faith. Rather He is looking for real, heartfelt conversion. He does not just want a change in our behaviour, but a change in our heart. That can only happen if we come to Mass and make sacrifices not out of a sense of duty but out of a sense of love. It can only happen when we allow Jesus to touch our hearts and change us.

That is what Jesus expects from us during this Lenten season. And it is possible because He has already provided us with all the materials we need to build lives that are pleasing to Him. Have we settled for cheaper substitutes? Have we failed to give Him our best effort in return for all He has done for us? As Saint Paul tells us, now is the time to change that with God’s help. 

Fully Human - Fully Saved

During the 1980’s, the rock band, Human League, had a hit song called “Human”. The refrain of the song was:

                                    I’m only human

                                    Of flesh and blood I’m made.

                                    Human,

                                    Born to make mistakes.

As fellow human beings, we can all relate to the words of this song. Throughout our lives we often experience ourselves as weak and imperfect. We sometimes want to do the right thing but find it to be too difficult. Sadly, many times we desire to do what we know is wrong. Despite our good intentions, we make mistakes and hurt one another. In our humanity, we experience brokenness and vulnerability.

However, that is not what God intended for us from the beginning. Early in the Book of Genesis,  from which today’s first reading is taken, we read that God made man and woman to be the pinnacle of His creation, with dominion over all the earth. Whereas God called His other creatures “good”, He called Adam “very good”. We were created for immortality, to walk intimately with God and to live harmoniously with one another and with all living things.

What happened? We chose a different path. We disobeyed God. We fell under the illusion that separating ourselves from our Creator would make us freer and more powerful. Instead, sin has only weakened our nature, darkened our ability to reason and harmed our relationships. By choosing to disobey God, we have fallen from the heights of glory He intended for us.

Though we turned our backs on our Creator, He did not abandon us. He sent us a new Adam - Jesus Christ. Jesus is fully human as was the first Adam but also fully divine as the angel Gabriel announces to Mary in today’s gospel: “Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.” Because Jesus never sinned, He came to show us what it means to be fully human as God intended. We are not most human when we sin. Rather, we are most human when we are close to God and when we serve one another out of love. By restoring our friendship with God, Jesus empowers us to overcome our fallen natures and live truly good lives.

Not only has our Creator sent us a new Adam. He has also given us a new Eve - The Blessed Virgin Mary. Today we celebrate the mystery of faith that she was kept free from the sin of Adam from the moment of her conception. Like Eve, Mary was created sinless. However, unlike Eve she never disobeyed God.  Her Immaculate Conception teaches us that God wants to restore all humanity to the goodness and glory we enjoyed before the Fall. While Eve is “the mother of all the living”, Mary is the mother of all those who are restored to friendship with God through Jesus Christ.

And so, the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary gives us hope. We continue to be weak and imperfect human beings. However, by the grace of God, our human nature can be healed and elevated. Whenever we hear the word of God with faith, it empowers us to turn away from sin and to practice good works. Whenever we receive the sacraments with devotion, we are strengthened to love God and neighbor. By the work of the Holy Spirit in our souls, we become truly good people despite our human weakness. God accomplished this in Mary at the moment of her conception. If we give our lives to Him, He will also accomplish it in us over time and, then, perfectly after our death.

Without God, we are merely “made of flesh and blood” and “born to make mistakes”. With God, we are raised up above our fallen nature to be truly good people capable of great things. The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary gives us that hope - that God intends to restore us to the glory Adam and Eve enjoyed before the Fall. Through her prayers, may we strive everyday for perfection and goodness in the hope that we too will one day be free from sin and stand before our Creator endowed with all the glory He intended us to enjoy from the beginning. 

Full Of Saving Grace

If there is one Catholic doctrine that many people find difficult to understand, including some Catholics, it is our belief about the special place that the Blessed Virgin Mary has in the history of salvation.

Why do we hold Mary in such esteem? The first answer to that question would be that, because we love Jesus, it is natural that we would also love His mother. If I have a special love and friendship for someone, it would be natural that I would also love his or her mother. Can you imagine ever being friends with someone who did not also like your mother? Therefore, it is only right that we who seek to imitate Jesus in all things would also seek to imitate his special love and affection for His mother.

The most significant reason, however, that we love Mary is that she said “yes” to being the mother of our Savior. God chose her to be the mother of Jesus. He sent Gabriel to ask her consent and permission to allow His Son to be conceived within her. Without her “yes”, without her saying, “May it be done to me according to your word”, Jesus would not have come into this world. Therefore, she has an indispensable role in the story of our salvation.

We also believe that God chose Mary to be the mother of Jesus from the beginning of time. When she herself was conceived, our Heavenly Father prepared her for her special role by already freeing her from sin. That is the mystery we celebrate today, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. Sin has never touched the woman God chose from the beginning to be the mother of His Son. From the first moment of her life, she never offended God by her thoughts, words or deeds. Though we can assume that she was tempted at times as Jesus was, she never fell to the tricks of the devil. In all things she remained pure and immaculate.

Christians throughout the centuries have come to believe in the Immaculate Conception of Mary in part because of the angel’s words to her which we hear in today’s gospel. When Gabriel speaks to our Lady, he calls her “full of grace.” These words have been understood to mean that Mary was so full of grace, so full of the life of God, that there was no room for sin in her. Just as a glass that is full of water would have no room for any other liquid, so Mary was so full of God’s goodness, truth and love that there was no room for pride, greed, hate or any of the other vices that we so easily fall prey to.

Those who do not believe that Mary was preserved from sin from the moment of her conception say that it would mean that she did not need Jesus to die for her. If she never sinned then she would not need the blood of Christ poured out for us on the cross for her salvation. However, this is not the case.

This is the way early Christians first explained the mystery of how a sinless Virgin Mary would need Jesus to die on the cross for her. They gave the example of someone falling into a hole who could not get out. If I come along and see that person  and help him to get out of the hole, then I have saved him. Now let us say that another person comes along and I stop him before he has a chance to fall in the hole. I have also saved that person but in a different way. The first person I saved by helping him out of the hole while the second person I saved by keeping him from falling in the hole in the first place.

The same is true with Mary. All of us who have sinned are saved by having our sins forgiven. Mary, on the other hand, is saved by being preserved from sinning in the first place. This beautiful grace that preserved her from sin is not something she earned or accomplished on her own, but a gift of God given to her for the special task of being the mother of Jesus.

We gather here today, therefore, to celebrate Mary, full of grace, preserved from sin from the moment of her conception. We celebrate also because of the promise given to us that we can also experience victory over sin in our own lives. While we cannot claim to have never sinned, we can, through God’s grace and Our Lady’s intercession, overcome temptation, break bad habits and grow in virtue. Though we cannot avoid falling into the hole of sin, God offers a hand to lead us out and keep us from falling back in. We hear that promise in today’s second reading, “....he chose us...before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him.”

Therefore, because Mary said “yes” to being the mother of Jesus, we have the forgiveness of sins. The same Holy Spirit who hovered over Mary to conceive Jesus in her womb lives in us, filling us with grace and strengthening us to avoid sin and choose good. That is why we gather to celebrate the Blessed Virgin Mary in her Immaculate Conception. In her and through her God has won the victory over sin. God wants to do great things in our lives as well. Therefore, we look to Mary to be our inspiration and to pray for us as we strive to live holy lives, to say “yes” to all the ways God calls us to serve Him and to look to heaven for the ultimate victory over death.

Sweet Victory

The pinata is a children’s game frequently played in Mexico whose popularity has been spreading throughout the world.

It is made of a paper-mache box filled with candies and decorated with colorful streamers hung from a tree branch or a ceiling. Children are blindfolded and then get turns trying to break the pinata open by hitting it with a stick. When the pinata finally is broken, the candy spills out onto the floor to the delight of the little ones who run up to grab as many of the treats as they can carry.

Those this game is associated with Mexico and other Central American countries, it is believed to have originated in China. As the story goes, Marco Polo brought the game to Europe. In Italy, it became customary to play the pinata at the beginning of Lent, so much so that it was common to call the First Sunday of Lent  “Pinata Sunday”.

The game of pinata as we know it today, however, took shape when it was brought to Central American by Catholic missionaries eager to convert the indigenous population to Christianity.  Because the native peoples already had a game similar to pinata, the missionaries thought they could use it to teach them about the faith and, in particular, about the reality of temptation and sin.

The paper-mache box decorated with streamers and confetti represented temptation. It always comes to us packaged in an attractive and alluring disguise. Because the devil knows that if we saw him as he really looked, we would run away from him, he changes his appearance to make it more pleasing and desirable to us. In just the same way, he presents sin to us as something pleasurable so that we will desire it.

The blindfold represents faith. As Saint Paul tells us, “we walk by faith and not by sight” (2 Cor 5:7). Though temptation and sin come to us in an alluring package, we have to close our eyes to it so that we can see it as it really is. In faith, we have to turn within ourselves and remember that, no matter how pleasurable sin may seem, we desire something greater - life with Jesus. Therefore, we do not rely on our eyes or on appearances, but on God’s promise which we hold on to through faith.

The stick that is used to beat the pinata represents all the weapons we have to fight against sin and temptation. It represents prayer which keeps us grounded in the promises of God and the desire to be in relationship with Him. It represents the virtues such as patience, self-control and wisdom which give us strength to fight against evil. It represents the sacraments such as Confession and the Eucharist which strengthen our resolve to be good, loving people. And it represents the Church which helps us to understand right from wrong so that we will see evil for what it is.

Finally, the candy that spills out of the pinata once it is broken open represents the joy we experience when we overcome temptation. It represents the sweetness of overcoming the devil and the traps he sets for us. When we persevere in fighting against temptation with all the weapons that God gives us, we find a satisfaction that is deeper and longer lasting than the fleeting and false pleasures sin offers.

So this children’s game has much to teach us about the Christian life, particularly as we begin this Lenten Season. Just as Jesus ventured out into the desert to confront Satan, so we live these forty days by practicing self-denial in hopes of conquering our weakness. During this first week of Lent, we can be enthusiastic about all the penances and good works we want to perform. However, as the days drag on, we can begin to lose focus and our motivation can wane.  As we  confront our sinfulness and selfishness, we will be tempted to think that it is more than we can handle and may want to give up. However, by calling to mind this simple children’s game and remembering the example of Jesus in today’s gospel, we can find encouragement to carry on.

One thing to remember - temptation always starts out as something which seems minor and insignificant. In today’s first reading from the book of Genesis, all the serpent was asking Eve to do was take a bite of a piece of fruit. What harm could come of that? And in the gospel, all Satan is asking Jesus to do is ease his hunger by turning stones into bread. How could that hurt anyone? However, we know that eating that piece of fruit directly contradicted God’s command and resulted in the loss of Paradise. Also, if Jesus were to turn those stones into bread, He would be using His power for His own good rather than for the good of others.

Just so, it is likely that we will be tempted in small ways throughout these forty days. It could be to tell what seems like an innocent lie. However, before long, we are telling other lies to cover up for the first lie and our friends begin to distrust us. It could be that we are tempted to skip praying one morning. It seems harmless enough. However, once we get out of the habit of daily prayer, we find it harder and harder to regain our rhythm and, before we know it, the days become weeks and we have lost precious time with our Lord.

If we are to make progress in holiness throughout this Lenten Season there are two truths we must remember - sin always comes to us disguised as something pleasurable and harmless and it always tries to convince us that the temptation is insignificant. Once we understand this, we can see sin for what it really is and then we will find the focus and motivation to fight it with all our strength and will all the weapons God provides us with. Then, like candy falling down from a pinata, we will know the joy that comes from overcoming our weakness and living in friendship with God. 

Forbidden Fruit

“Forbidden fruit tastes sweet”, or so the saying goes. When someone tells us that there is something we cannot do or something we cannot have, it automatically becomes appealing to us.

We know how true this is just from these first few days of Lent. Whatever we have sacrificed during these forty days all of a sudden tempt us in ways they did not before. Out of the blue, we cannot imagine how it will be possible to get through the day without a piece of candy or a glass of wine. During the year we may have no trouble having fish for dinner, but as soon as we begin abstaining from meat on Fridays we begin craving hamburgers, pulled pork sandwiches and chicken enchiladas.

It is human nature to desire what is forbidden to us.

The devil knows that and uses it to his advantage. In today’s first reading, from the book of Genesis, the serpent draws Adam and Eve to the tree that God has forbidden them to eat from. He invites them to look at it, to see how lovely the fruit is and, eventually, to taste it. He whispers to them that God does not want them to enjoy themselves. He tells them that if they do taste the fruit it will make them more knowledgeable and more powerful.

Unfortunately, we see just the opposite happen. Because they disobey God, Adam and Eve experience shame at their nakedness. They become self-conscious and uncomfortable in their own skins. Not only do they lose friendship with God but they lose their home in Paradise. The devil used the lure of forbidden fruit to cheat Adam and Eve of everything they had and held dear.

Looking at ourselves, we can see how the drama of Adam and Eve’s sin has played itself out in our own lives. We fell into temptation because we believed the lie that sin would liberate us from the constraints of our parents’ morality, that it would empower us to live the way we wanted to and that it would give us pleasure and fulfillment. Sadly, we discovered just the opposite. Choosing sin left us in bondage to addictions. It poisoned our friendships. It saddled us with guilt, remorse and shame.

Thankfully, by turning to God we learned that we could break free from the allure of forbidden fruit. We discovered that by confessing our sins, we could leave our shame and guilt at the foot of the cross. By reading the Bible daily and receiving the sacraments, we became empowered to make healthy, holy choices that gave us the fulfillment and peace we were seeking. As we grew in our faith, the lies of the evil one were exposed to us and we found it increasingly easier to not fall into his trap.

All this is possible because of Jesus’ victory over the devil. Saint Paul tells us that sin entered the world through Adam and all of us fell victim to it. However, through Jesus, forgiveness and reconciliation have now become possible to each of us. By His victory over the devil, each of us can know true freedom from sin, unhealthy habits and the grinding shame they inflict on us.

In today’s gospel, Saint Matthew tells us that Jesus goes into the desert specifically “to be tempted by the devil.” What He is doing is drawing the devil out from the shadows. Like a good soldier, He is forcing the enemy to reveal himself where there is nothing to hide behind. In the desert, the devil’s lies and deceptions are brought into the blazing heat of day. And Jesus defeats the temptations one by one causing Satan to make a hasty retreat with his tail between his legs. In the desert, Jesus won the victory for us and makes it possible for us to recognize the devil’s lies and defeat them ourselves.

The devil’s first temptation has a lot to teach us in this Lenten season. It would not have been a sin for Jesus to change stones into bread. He would be doing nothing wrong. However, Jesus had been fasting for forty days. Fasting was the way that Jesus was strengthening Himself to face the evil one. By saying “no” to food, He would then be strengthened to say “no” to temptation. The devil knows this and wants to undermine Jesus’ self-control and willpower.

The same temptation can happen to us, especially during Lent. The sacrifices and good works we are undertaking teach us good habits of self-control and willpower. They teach us how fulfilling it is to do good and control our emotions and desires. The devil knows this and will whisper to us that it will not hurt to take a break from our disciplines, that it will not harm anyone if we cheat on our resolutions. He hopes that if he can get us to fall to these small temptations we will be more vulnerable to serious temptation.

We have to fight those deceptions of the evil one, as small as they may seem. Remembering that Jesus has already won the victory for us in the desert, we can draw on His strength in our own temptations. The same Spirit that drove Jesus into the desert to do battle with Satan lives in us to vanquish all the his deceitful tactics.

At the same time, if we do fall because of our human frailty, we do not have to carry a burden of shame. We can turn to Jesus for forgiveness and for the strength to try again. Rather than believe the lie that our Lent is ruined because of one mistake, we can get up again and recommit ourselves to building up good habits and stronger discipline through our Lenten practices and sacrifices.

Just as Adam and Eve had everything they could ever want provided for them in Paradise, so we have every spiritual blessing in the heavens at our disposal through the Holy Spirit. Though Adam and Eve lost Paradise through their sin, we can never lose our friendship with God. Even when we fall, we can turn back to Him and expect mercy and forgiveness. Most importantly, we do not need to fall into temptation and sin at all because Jesus empowers us to fight it with the weapons of faith, love, joy, patience, kindness, generosity and self-control that He offers us. Strengthened by all these gifts we can know His victory in our lives and our homes.  

Original Beauty

What is original sin?

It is the wound in our soul that we inherited from the first human beings, Adam and Eve.

Adam and Eve were created by God without sin. Enjoying a perfect friendship with God, they spoke to Him face to face. With all of creation at their disposal, they wanted for nothing. They lived in perfect harmony with God, with one another and with all of nature.

However, as we hear in the first reading, our first parents disobeyed God. When they heard the serpent tell them that they would be like God knowing the difference between good and evil, they were quick to want that power. We hear the heartbreak in God’s voice when He discovers their sin and asks Eve, “How could you do such a thing?” By disobeying, they refused God’s love and chose something other than the Paradise that had been created for them. Therefore, they were expelled from the garden and were forced to work for what had been freely given to them before. The harmony they enjoyed with their Creator, between themselves and with nature was damaged.

Each of us who have inherited our human nature from Adam and Eve also have inherited the wound of that original sin. We feel torn within ourselves because we want to do good but find ourselves choosing evil. Many times we are even confused about what is good and what is evil. Though we want to live in harmony with others, we find ourselves preferring selfishness and greed. And rather than making God the center of our lives, we want to put ourselves at the center of the universe and make our Heavenly Father serve us rather than the other way around.

In today’s feast, the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, we celebrate God’s first step in redeeming us. Like Adam and Eve, Mary was conceived without the wound of original sin. However, unlike Adam and Eve, Mary did not disobey God but placed herself totally in the service of His saving plan. Because she was not wounded with original sin, she was not inclined to selfishness or greed and so was free to say “yes” to being the mother of the Savior. Because of that “yes”, Jesus Christ - the Son of the Most High - could be born to save us. Mary, therefore, became the New Eve, the mother of all those saved by her son, Jesus Christ.

Though we were not blessed with the same grace of being saved from the wound of original sin, we still celebrate this feast because it proclaims a great truth. God is able not only to forgive us of our sin but to give us the power to overcome our sinful inclinations. Through the blood Jesus shed on the cross, our sins are blotted out and by the Holy Spirit He breathed out upon us on Pentecost we receive the power to live good and holy lives. As Saint Paul teaches us in today’s second reading, our Heavenly Father has bestowed us with “every spiritual blessing in the heavens”....so that we might be “holy and without blemish before him.” Though we know that we are weak and sinful people, we are not left without hope. The same God who preserved Mary from the wound of original sin and who sent Jesus to take upon Himself the guilt of our sin, can free us from our sinfulness and teach us to live with freedom and peace.

By God’s power, Mary was the first to enjoy that renewed friendship with God. However, it is also offered to us. All we have to do is say “yes” as she did and abandon ourselves to His plan for our lives. As Mary shows us, it will not be easy, but it is our only hope to live meaningful and hope-filled lives.

So not only do we celebrate what God did in Mary’s life, we also seek to imitate it in our own. Not only is Mary given to us as an example, she is also in heaven praying for us. In our weakness, in our struggles, in our despair, we can turn to her and ask her to bring our prayers to her son, Jesus, who never fails to listen to her.

God, in His great mercy, has taken the wound we all bear from original sin and made it a blessing for us by sending us so great a Savior and giving us so beautiful a mother.

Grace Happens

Roy was going through the most difficult period of his life. He had just lost his wife to a long fight with breast cancer. His children were all struggling in their marriages. And, after being promoted to a managerial position in his company, he now had to decide which of his employees would be laid off.

Feeling sorry for himself, he took a long drive listening to the radio as loud as it would go. At a stoplight, he noticed a bumper sticker on the car in front of him which read “Grace Happens.” The words struck him to the core of his being, and he began to sob. He took it as a message from God that no matter what problems he had to face, his Heavenly Father would always be with him providing him with all he needed to make things work out.

Grace happens.

Many of us have had similar experiences. Just when we thought we could go no further, someone comes along to encourage us and support us in our struggle. When we had given up hope and thought our efforts were futile, someone came along to tell us just what a difference we had made in his or her life. When we were confused and could not make sense of what was going on in our lives, we read a Scripture passage that puts it all in perspective for us. That is grace at work in us. It is God whispering to us in His own gentle way, encouraging us to not give up, letting us know that He has not forgotten us and reminding us that we are not struggling alone.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us that “Grace is a participation in the life of God. It introduces us into the intimacy of the Trinitarian life....(CCC 1997).” Through grace, God Himself lives within us. This is what Jesus promised His disciples at the Last Supper as we hear proclaimed in today’s gospel: “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him.”

Grace, therefore, is not something but somebody. It is God Himself - Father, Son and Holy Spirit - living within us, inspiring us, moving our hearts with love and raising our thoughts to good and holy intentions. Jesus assures us that this will be the case when He tells us in today’s gospel that He will be sending us the Advocate, the Holy Spirit. This Spirit, living within us, teaches us about our dignity as children of God, reminds us of the words of Jesus and gives us whatever we need to carry out the will of our Heavenly Father. This wonderful gift is like God putting His own heart to beat in our chests, His own breath in our lungs and His own thoughts in our minds.

That is why Jesus can tell us as He tells the apostles at the Last Supper to not let our hearts be troubled or to fall into fear. He is always with us. Whatever may happen to us, He will always be by our side. There is nothing we can face that God cannot handle. Because He is within us, we can confront all life’s challenges with confidence. There is nothing we cannot overcome when we rely on the power of God at work within us.

What is the result of this mighty work of grace within us? It is the gift of peace. When we are aware of God’s presence within us, when we trust that He has all things under control, we stop worrying over the situations that we have no control over. We stop turning everything that does not go our way into a catastrophe. Instead of complaining or looking for someone to blame, we start taking charge of the circumstances in our lives and making the best of the opportunities they provide us with knowing that nothing is impossible for us if we can plug into the power of God at work in us.

The other result of this mighty work of God’s grace within us is love. Jesus tells us that we can only have friendship with Him and the Father if we keep His word. And we know that the greatest of all commandments is love. When we welcome the Father into our heart, we begin to overflow with love for others. When we realize just how much mercy He has shown us in choosing to live within us, we cannot help but show forgiveness to others. When we realize how much He has given us, we cannot help but share what we have with others. Our desire to help others becomes so intense that we stop making excuses for ourselves, stop  paying attention to all the obstacles that stand in the way, and begin doing what we can to make a difference no matter what the cost.

Finally, the work of God’s grace within us produces abundant joy. We cannot help but rejoice when we realize that our Heavenly Father loves us so much that He wants to make His home within us. As His love helps us to cast out our fears, doubts and anxieties we live with new freedom and enthusiasm that becomes contagious.

Grace happens. It can happen to anybody. It can happen anywhere and anytime. All we need to do is open our hearts to God’s presence in our lives and allow Him to take care of the rest. It can come from a bumper sticker, a kind word from a stranger or a random thought that pops into our minds. Most especially, however, it comes from the sacraments. The sacraments were instituted by Christ to give us grace. And the greatest sacrament of all is the Eucharist which we will now be preparing to receive. There is no better time to welcome Christ into our hearts than when receiving His Body and Blood. Once we have done so, the gifts of peace, love and joy will come streaming in, grace will happen to us and we will never be the same.

Not on schedule, but right on time

Arieh Czeislah, a native of Kosice in what is now Slovakia, was learning from his grandfather how to read from the Torah in preparation for his Bar Mitzvah when he was carried off along with forty-two other members of his family to the infamous Nazi concentration camps of Auschwitz-Birkenau.

He was one of only four members of his family to survive the Holocaust.

Four years ago, he returned to the concentration camps as part of a tour organized by the Israeli armed forces. And he has returned several times since out of a sense of duty to share with the citizens of his nation the horrors he experienced so that they will never be forgotten.

A group of officers who had accompanied Arieh on a trip learned that he never was able to make his Bar Mitzvah 66 years ago. With his family, they arranged a belated celebration for the 79-year-old man this past September 22 in the village in Northern Israel where he has been living since 1950. Though the festivities come much later than the customary age of 13, there is no doubt that they were any less heartfelt. He witnesses to the fact that it is never too late to become a son of the Law and the Covenant.

God's ways are not our ways, and God's sense of timing is wholly different from our own. We like to stick to a schedule: For Jews, Bar Mitzvah by 13 years old; for Christians, baptism shortly after birth, first communion by second grade, and confirmation in high school. But, God visits us when he wills. Each sacrament is a "yes" to God's invitation to a life of grace, but it may be many years before it matures into a whole-hearted commitment to God's word. And, we know how frequently that initial "yes" gets lost in the demands of everyday life. Like the religious leaders whom Jesus so often challenged, we can say "yes" right on schedule but fail to recognize the gift of salvation visiting us in the "fullness of time".

As a community, we are blessed by those who, like Arieh, go through the sacramental rites of passage "out of order", whether it be the catechumens in our RCIA programs or those who come to be married in the Church after many years of civil marriage. They remind us both of the gravity and the joy of taking those first steps toward full communion with God's People. They challenge us to take the "yes" we spoke many years ago out of our trophy case, polish it up and put it back on display. We should take every opportunity to recognize and celebrate them as instances of God's saving timing.