Today we celebrate the feast of the Immaculate Conception of our Lady. Pope Pius IX proclaimed the dogma ‘Immaculate Conception of Mary’ on 08Dec1854. This article of faith declares that Mary was born without the traces of original sin caused by the first parents when they disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden. This was confirmed by our Lady herself to Bernadette on 25March1858 when Bernadette asked our Lady, during one of her apparitions, to identify herself. Our Lady told Bernadette, “I am the Immaculate Conception” – Our Lady is the mediator between us, sinners, and the Holy Lord.
Mary is also a meditator: There are two obvious occasions when Mary did not speak a word. When Jesus was born, Shepherds as simple folk came in and praised the little Baby; and the Wise Men from the East came offering costly and significant gifts. Life was a cycle of joy and sorrow, for Mary. When Child Jesus was presented in the Temple, Simeon told her that she would be pierced by sorrows. Mary never spoke a word but she was pondering or reflecting over the events unfolded and words spoken. Again, at the death of our Lord, Mary never spoke as well. Jesus was beaten and broken on the Cross but Mary never uttered a world. Standing at the foot of the Cross she suffered, in silence, with Jesus, when Jesus breathed his last. But after the death of Jesus, we find her with the disciples and friends of Jesus expressing her solidarity and accompaniment in keeping them together and preparing them for the future arduous and challenging life of witness to Jesus.
Today evening we blessed the statue of our Lady of Good Health, which is at the entrance to Loyola Hostel. Mary is with the Child. When we look at the loving and benevolent face of our Lady we are assured that just like the Baby Jesus, Mary would protect us; we also feel that she wants to give this Child to us so that we become Christophers, that is, ‘bearers/carriers of Christ’ in our lives; and we are convinced that she wants us to be like her Son, as today we are here as her sons to renew the world and to create a new world of meaning filled with God’s blessings.
The readings today point out what we are and what direction we should take in life: Isaiah expresses his vision as hope that people would gather from all directions and converge on the divine Baby who brings in salvation. And God assures us that we are precious to Him and He would honour us as He loves us. He indicates His intention of creating us: It is for His glory. This is what Irenaeus said that ‘the glory of God is human being fully alive’. And in LoHo students have come in from all directions of the country and today we celebrate our hope that Mary Immaculate would protect us all. And Jesus, in the words of Luke, expresses His expectation from each one of us: He wants us to be the image and likeness of Jesus and bearers/carriers of Christ and His compassion. He wants us, especially during the season of Advent and Christmas, that we shed His light of joy and peace, the gift brought from heaven, to others. Further, Jesus wants us to live His life of doing good – We could summarize His life as: He went about doing good. Today, Jesus wants us to be the light glowing in the dark – As we see the Child in the protective hands of Mother Mary, we too are invited to stream this light of hope and confidence as the disciples of Jesus.
To make this possible, LoHo has been all along a home away from home. Fr Sauliere, the first Director, was director for 23 years. He and all the Directors have done their best to make LoHo pleasant and comfortable. Now, Fr Louie is making life in LoHo beautiful and comfortable. Fr Augustine Saluiere: a Botanist, an expert in fauna and flora of Palni Hills, collaborated in research with Royal Botanical Garden, known as Kew Garden, in the UK. He was an accomplished author as a result of extensive reading and research. Some of his books are His Star in the East (about the disputed Mission of the Jesuits in Tamilnadu in 17th Century), Red Sand (about St John de Britto, martyred in Oriyur), The Life of Fr Robert de Nobili (from original and contemporary sources), and a couple of books in French. Sauliere was a man of thoroughness and in-depth investigation. He comes across as a person of critical thinking, thorough investigation, adaptation to the cultures of people – in short, an integrated person. He stands out as a model for us students and teachers to know everything with clarity and conviction.
While we celebrate the feast of Immaculate Conception of our Lady in the renovated Sauliere Hall, we also realize that we are preparing ourselves to welcome the Lord who was born for us. From our Lady we learn the complete surrender to the Lord, saying: ‘I am the handmaid of God, let it be done to me as you wish’ – an openness to God’s way of handling us. And Sauliere inspires us academic people with thirst for knowledge. Knowledge leads us to truth; and truth would set us free. Christmas is the time to celebrate the birth of Jesu who said I am the light, the way, the truth, and the life (Jn 14:6). Let us prepare ourselves for Christmas with a renewed spirit of reaching Jesus through Mary following the example and inspiration of Fr Saluliere.
Mary, our Mother, has been most of the time meditating on the events in her life and whenever needed she mediated for others – She was most of the time pondering over events that took place and she was also a protector of all who came to her. Let us contemplate her and do our best. Christmas season invites us to look at the various players in the event and to learn what is good for us to make our lives and the lives of others happy and joyful. I have just finished reading the novel Friends of Jesus (Easuvin Thozhargal, 2006) by Indira Parthasarathy – It is his experience in Poland where the population is Catholic; the Government is communist; but still there was workers’ union rising against the regime. The central message of the novel is: Let us see the good in the present and look for the better in the future. Let us imbibe this spirit from the life of Mary and let us do our best as Fr Sauliere did. Amidst a world full of confusion and contradiction, let us become the light of hope. Wish you all grace filled Advent and a Christmas season that would lead us into a new year 2023 with hope and confidence.
Francis P Xavier SJ
08Dec2022