Fr. Arturo Sosa, SJ
Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary
December 8, 2018
I am always struck by a dramatic contrast when I do the contemplation on the Incarnation in the Second Week of the Exercises. First, St. Ignatius invites us to contemplate the Three Divine Persons looking on the whole world, so immense, so diverse, with some people “in peace and others at war,” “some weeping and other laughing,” “some being born and others dying.” Ignatius invites us to hear the Trinity, moved by love, saying, “Let us bring about the redemption of the human race.”
Then, Ignatius changes the scene, and asks us to see, not the whole human race, but “the particular house of our Lady,” this small house in an obscure town in an insignificant province of the Roman Empire. The contrast is striking. The Trinity does not bring about the redemption of human race by planning universal apostolic preferences to be carried out by an international body with many institutions! Instead, God sends his angel to this barrio woman, this young girl, this “nobody” in the eyes of the great. The girl, although she is frightened, says YES to God. Nothing seems to change, but because she says YES, the world is changed forever. Divine LOVE is born into the world, Jesus who is the Love of God in the flesh.
Brothers, our Gospel reminds us that this is how God saves the world. Universal apostolic preferences are very important, and planning and implementing them are necessary. But all these preferences and plans will not move this world closer to new life, joy, love, peace, and hope, unless each ordinary, seemingly insignificant Jesuit, is able to say YES to God, in the concreteness of his life, like Mary.
The universal apostolic preferences cannot just be new work to do. They must call us to say a new YES to God. As with Mary, this YES may mean saying goodbye to our old plans and dreams, so as to embrace God’s plan and dream. As with Mary, this YES will mean moving forward even in uncertainty, but with complete trust in God. As with Mary, this YES will mean knowing that there are others, like Elizabeth, who are also called to share in the fulfillment of God’s plan, and to humbly support them and serve with them.
In our first reading, God asks Adam, “Where are you?” Adam admits that he is hiding from God, because he is afraid of God. We Jesuits can also be very good in hiding from God. And we can do it even when we do our daily meditation, our daily Eucharist, our annual 8-day retreat, and our apostolates and ministries. We hide from God when we are no longer open to the surprises of God. We hide from God when we no longer want to ask what is God’s will, so that we can continue saying that what we are doing is God’s will.
In a few months, we will receive from the Holy Father our universal apostolic preferences for the next few years. My request and invitation to each one of you is this. When they are announced, please take the time, not just to read and to think about them, but to bring them to personal and community prayer. Do not simply say: “I am already doing my share”; or “This is something for superiors to worry about”; or “This does not apply to me, to my ministry, to my country.” Not just once, not just twice, but several times, pray about them, and ask the Lord, with the total openness and freedom of Mary: “What are you asking me of me? How are you calling me to cooperate in fulfilling your will for the redemption of the world? What do you want me to be and to do, so that I can contribute more to redemption and healing of this broken world that God loves so much?”
Brothers, on this solemnity of the sinless Virgin Mary, let us ask her to pray for the whole Society and for each of us, that she may teach us not to hide from God like Adam did, protecting our attachments and securities. Rather, may she beg for the whole Society and all our partners in mission the grace that she herself received, of complete freedom and generosity. May we open our lives every more fully to God, so that, no matter how small or insignificant we may seem, we may learn to say YES to his will, and in so doing, bring Love, Jesus, salvation, into this world.
We, like Mary, can do this, because “with God nothing is impossible.” If we really believe, like Mary, the gap between our humble contribution in our daily work and the “impossible” redemption of the human race, becomes not only possible but real. If we let Jesus be born in our lives, in our body, the universal Society of Jesus, as a part of the body of Jesus in history, the Church…we can collaborate in making the impossible happen…because “with God, nothing is impossible.”
This homily was originally preached to Jesuits during the mass on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary at the Oratory of St. Ignatius of Loyola, Loyola House of Studies (Quezon City).