December 4th, 2022
Second Sunday of Advent
by Fr. Boniface Endorf, O.P.
Dear St. Joseph Parish Family,
I hope that everyone’s Advent is off to a good start! This Thursday we have a Holy Day of Obligation: The Immaculate Conception. We’ll celebrate our usual Holy Day of Obligation schedule—7 pm Vigil Mass (Wednesday), 12:10 daily Mass, and 7 pm evening Mass on the day of (Thursday). We’ll have music at the 7 pm Thursday Mass.
During the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, we celebrate Mary’s Immaculate Conception—that she was conceived without the effects of original sin. She was born without the wounds that mark our humanity after the fall of Adam and Eve. She was granted this singular blessing because of her unique vocation: to be the mother of Jesus. It would not be fitting for the Son of God the Father, the Second Person of the Trinity, to be born as a human by anyone but the most noble and perfect of mothers. And so He ensured that Mary would be the highest of all the children of Adam and Eve. Mary in fact has become the new Eve, as Jesus has become the new Adam, because He recreated humanity through the graces He won for us on the cross, thus becoming the first of recreated humanity. The doctrine of Mary’s Immaculate Conception is thus tied to who Jesus is and who then Mary must be in light of that. Her dignity was foretold in the Old Testament and was crowned upon her Assumption into heaven and her coronation as Queen of Heaven and Earth. Today we celebrate the first of the blessings Mary received, which are all a foretaste of our future in heaven.
Mass Tidbit
After proclaiming the Gospel, the priest then preaches the homily. The homily should help expound on the Mass—on the readings, the prayers for that Mass, or something related to that particular Mass, such as the saint or divine event celebrated that day. The goal is to draw the people deeper into the mysteries of the faith that are especially prominent at that Mass. Hopefully, the homilies preached assist people in encountering Christ in the Mass and help them to live the faith well.
Besides the homilies you can hear at St. Joseph’s, there’s a rich tradition of published homilies by saints that make for great spiritual reading. I especially enjoy the homilies of St. John Henry Newman, which Ignatius Press publishes as “Parochial and Plain Sermons.” Also, St. Augustine’s sermons on the Gospel according to St. John, and on his letters, are fantastic and can be found online.
God Bless,
Fr. Boniface
