It seems that every feast of the Church provides us with a lesson and a mission. What is the lesson and mission we find in today’s Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception? Very often, the Immaculate Conception is confused with the virgin birth of Christ. What we celebrate in the Immaculate Conception is that from the first moment of her conception in the womb of her mother, Saint Anne, Mary was preserved from every trace of sin.
Why? Because Mary was to be the Mother of God. The Eternal Father would prepare a worthy dwelling for His Son in the womb of Mary. God could not touch in any way anything tainted by sin and so He would take flesh in her who was pure, stainless, immaculate.
There is a little more to this lesson. Although Mary was full of grace and preserved from every stain of sin did you ever notice that God did not preserve her from the hardship and poverty of Bethlehem. He did not preserve her from the fear of exile in Egypt. Nor was she spared the struggle of work and suffering. But he preserved her from sin. Why? Because in the eyes of God, there is no condition worse than sin.
If this is today’s lesson, what is its mission? It is to take sin seriously, to never lose sight of its reality, its gravity and its power to harm us. We should never become so numb to sin and we sort of become comfortable living with it.
In my fourth grade classroom there were four bulletin boards on which my teacher, Sister Matilda, posted messages that remained the entire year: “Order is Heaven’s First Rule;” “Cleanliness is Next to Godliness’” “Do your Duty and Leave the Rest to God.” My desk was directly in front of the words: “Rather Death Than Sin” a quote of the young St. Domenic Savio! Imagine displaying that message today fourth graders! But I think that Sister Matilda wanted us, even at the tender age of nine to take sin seriously.
The very reason for the Incarnation, for the Lord’s suffering and death was to redeem us from sin. Sin damages, ruptures our relationship with God and our relationships with others.
Mary’s purity, stands in contrast to our own weak humanity. She models what we must strive for as disciples. We were not immaculately conceived. We know the effects of original sin. We were not preserved from sin by “prevenient grace,” the privilege God granted to Mary. But in his love, God has given us the means to rise from sin. He has given us the remedy to heal the wounds of sin. It is called the Sacrament of Penance.
Today, the Immaculata points us to the transformative power of God’s grace and urges us to take advantage of this gift the Lord offers us—the gift of mercy, peace and of a new beginning. Christmas is approaching! Confession is the path to true Christmas joy! Keep the priests busy this Advent! [Don’t give us a chance to sleep!]
