God has a plan for all of us, bishop preaches at Mass
CHARLOTTE — Bishop Michael Martin urged people to reflect on the meaning of feast of the Immaculate Conception and how it relates to God’s plan for their lives.
The bishop celebrated the noontime Mass at St Patrick Cathedral in observance of the annual holy day, which fell on Dec. 9 this year. The feast of the Immaculate Conception commemorates Mary’s being conceived without original sin and illuminates her unique role as the Mother of God. It is the patronal feast day of the United States.
In his homily, Bishop Martin used God’s choice of Mary as Christ’s mother to remind the congregation of the many blessings God wants to provide. And just as God planned many graces for Mary’s life, He also has the same plan for people today – no matter their faults, shortcomings or sins.
Yet too often, Bishop Martin said, people use the term “God’s plan” when talking about something bad that has happened. That is an error, he said, because it makes it seem as if God’s vision calls for people to go through difficult times.
“We paint a picture of a God whose plan for all of us is to endure misery so He can then help us through it. Doesn’t that seem a little off to you? It certainly does to me,” he said. Rather, “the feast of the Immaculate Conception is a high point in the life of the Church as it regards God’s plan.”
The readings for the feast day Mass illuminate God’s plan for His people, the bishop went on to explain.
The first reading from Genesis, which recounts the story of Adam and Eve’s fall in the Garden of Eden (Gen 3:9-15,20), shows “God’s plan run amok,” he said.
God’s original plan was “for us to live in complete communion with Him, with one another and with all of creation,” he said, but that was crushed by humanity’s pride and disobedience – personified by Adam and Eve.
In response, God did not abandon His people, but instead planned to send His Son to redeem the world and to fill human lives with graces, the bishop continued – shown in the second reading from Ephesians, which focused on how God has “blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens” (Eph 1:3-6, 11-12).
“That is a God of love – that even when God’s plans are thwarted, God’s response to that is to walk with us, to care for us, to carry us, to bring us out of that,” Bishop Martin said.
The Gospel, focusing on the angel Gabriel’s visit to Mary to let her know she would give birth to the Son of God, lays out fully God’s plan, he continued.
“Our Gospel today shows us the ultimate of God’s plan where He desires to send His only begotten Son – not to just send any messenger, but to send His only Son to be with us, to share life with us, to lead us, to teach us. In order that that might be made real and manifest for all time, God preserves Mary, the mother of the Lord, from the original stain of sin.”
Just as God chose Mary to bring Christ into the world, He also chooses to give us special graces to live our lives and share Christ’s message – despite all of our sins, Bishop Martin said.
“Even broken and blameworthy as we are, we have been given all the grace we need to respond and to bear Christ in a world that needs Him so much.”
— Christina Lee Knauss, Troy Hull and Cesar Hurtado.
