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The Lord Is My Chef Daily Recipe for the Soul by Fr. Nicanor F. Lalog II Thursday, Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, 08 December 2022 Genesis 3:9-15, 20 ><}}}*> Ephesians 1:3-6, 11-12 ><}}}*> Luke 1:26-38
The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. And coming to her, he said, “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.”
Luke 1:26-28
Praise and glory to you, God our Father for the gift of life, for the gift of salvation in Jesus Christ through Mary's Immaculate Conception! Every joy in the gift of life, in the gift of every person is also a gift of your great mercy: wherever there is life, there is joy, there is grace, there is mercy.
How lovely to keep in mind that "joy" in Hebrew is "raham, rahamin" - the same word for "womb" that is why in describing "joy" to his disciples on the night before he was arrested, Jesus used the image of a woman in the pangs of childbirth: "When a woman is in labor, she is in anguish because her hour has arrived; but when she has given birth to a child, she no longer remembers the pain because of her joy that a child has been into the world" (John 16:21).
So many people are sick at this very moment, some are awaiting death, some are alone; many people are hungry, barely surviving in life every day amid the world's waste of food and water; many children are dying too without even seeing the light because they are seen as burdens to one's dreams and goals, thinking only of themselves, of their rights, of their body.
On this day as we celebrate the beginning of the coming of Jesus to us in the Immaculate Conception of his Mother, remind us anew that every life is from you, O God: what must prevail is your will, your beautiful plans, not ours; teach us to trust you like Mary.
Loving Father, make our joy complete in your Son Jesus Christ; make us realize and experience the many spiritual blessings you have bestowed on us in Jesus Christ (Eph. 1:3); let us take a rest today, rest in the real sense like Sabbath when we return to you in Paradise obedient not like Adam and Eve; most of all, may we recall in the story of Dimas, we enter Paradise on the Cross with Jesus when amid all pains and sufferings, like the Blessed Mother Mary staying behind, we may firmly say to you, "I am your servant, O Lord. Be it done unto me according to your word." Amen.
