The Beginning and the End

December 8 (again) Feast of the Immaculate Conception

GENESIS 3:9-15, 20; EPHESIANS ;1:3-6, 11-12;LUKE 1:26-38

Click here for the complete text of today’s readings.

The man blamed the woman for his sin. The woman blamed the devil. God blamed all three.

It was a defeat: for God and humanity. Making humans free was a risk. God lost. We misused freedom and made our Creator look like a failure.

People still reject God when he allows others to cause them pain by choosing to sin.

But the Responsorial urges: “Sing to the Lord a new song.” Genesis wasn’t the end of the story. Nor are the sins of human history. God “has done marvelous deeds. His right hand has won victory.”

God remembers that “before the foundation of the world, he chose us in Christ to be holy and blameless in love.” Mary’s immaculate conception is the promise and preview of our “immaculate conclusion,” when Christ “presents the Church (us) to himself in splendor, holy and without blemish.” Then “all the ends of the earth will see the salvation by our God.”

God wins by forgiving. “He has remembered his kindness and his faithfulness.”

At the end, we will all be perfect “in Christ.” Because God has “destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ.”

So what are you waiting for? Strive for perfection now.

Pray: 

“Lord, make me perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect.”

Practice: 

Try always to do what is divine, not just human.