Chosen

A comedian once said that when George Washington was a boy, nobody knew that he was the George Washington.

Today's feast of the Immaculate Conception reminds us that, even at the first moment of her conception, God knew that she would freely become the mother of her Savior.

One might imagine God speaking to Mary as he spoke to the prophet Jeremiah (1:5):

Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
before you were born I dedicated you,
a prophet to the nations I appointed you.

Yet Mary was no mere prophet, she was to be the mother of Jesus Christ, true God and true man, and thus even more wonderful and unique was the grace bestowed on her before she was formed in the womb.

She was chosen.

We, of course, have not been chosen to bear Christ physically in our womb nor to have that unique mother-child relationship with the Eternal Word made flesh.

Yet, as St. Paul reminds us in today's second reading (Ephesians 1:3-6, 11-12), we too have been chosen by God in Christ.

He chose us in him,
before the foundation of the world,
to be holy
and without blemish before him.

In love
he destined us
for adoption to himself
through Jesus Christ,
in accord with the favor of his will,
for the praise of the glory of his grace
that he granted us in the beloved.

As we go through our daily lives - struggling with work, relationships, or even the lack thereof - we may sometimes not feel very special.

Today God reminds us that, in Christ Jesus our Savior, we are indeed special: truly special, eternally chosen.

In him we were also chosen,
destined in accord with the purpose
of the One who accomplishes all things
according to the intention of his will,
so that we might exist for the praise of his glory,
we who first hoped in Christ.

May we live that way.