December 8, 2021 Immaculate Conception

Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception (Dec 8)

Msgr. Thomas Gervasio

In order to understand and appreciate this great feast we have to go back to the beginning…to the Book of Genesis, to Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden. In the garden there was order, beauty, and life. In the beginning was a perfect harmony in creation and in humanity’s relationship with God. Beauty was found in the souls of Adam and Eve. But then, as our first reading relates, something went terribly wrong. Adam and Eve chose not to follow God’s way but their own. They disrupted God’s perfect plan of happiness and through them, sin entered the world.

This Original Sin affected the entire human race throughout all history. We need only to look at our human experience to know the effects of Original Sin. We are imperfect. We are weak. We struggle with sin. Like our first parents, we prefer to go our own way even when we know the right way.

Despite our sin, God, in his great love for us, began a restoration, he had to turn things around. God  would come to our rescue. We call it Redemption. He could have redeemed us in many ways,  but he chose to send his Divine Son into the into the world who would be born just as any person is born. He would choose a mother to bring his Son to birth in the world. But how could Divinity be conceived in a person tainted by sin? How could the all-perfect God be touched and nurtured in the womb of a person, weak and imperfect?

In the plan of salvation, the Eternal Father chose a woman—Mary of Nazareth—from all eternity and prepared her to be the Mother of God by preserving her, exempting her if you will from all sin from the very moment of her conception in the womb of her mother St. Anne. Sinless, Mary would be the perfect dwelling for the Son of Man. She would be the precious tabernacle for the Lord.
This is why the Angel Gabriel was able to say, “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you…The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.”

Today we honor Mary as the immaculate, pure, sinless Mother of Our Lord Jesus. Her purity stands in contrast to our own weak humanity. We struggle with sin; we journey through life stumbling along. We call this concupiscence. Let us ask Our Lady to help us along the road of life. May she be at our side and help us rise to our feet when we fall. May she, a good mother, nudge us to confess our sins and seek God’s forgiveness so that we can begin again.

We were not immaculately conceived, but we know that God in his love has granted us the means to rise from sin and share in his divine life. We call it the Sacrament of Penance and it should be an ordinary part of our spiritual life. We tend to make it an extraordinary or rare part of our spiritual life.

When we receive the Holy Eucharist, we carry the Lord within us. We must be alert that we are a worthy place for him to come. We should want to receive the Lord often, but we should not receive him if we are aware of any serious sins. If we are aware of any, we should go the Sacrament of Penance before receiving Holy Communion.

This beauty of this feast is found in this ancient prayer:           

“Eve ate of the fruit of sin, but Mary gave us instead the sweet fruit of the Savior. Through Eve the wickedness of the tempter prevailed;  in the grace of Mary the Savior’s majesty found cooperation. Whatever we lost in our common father, Adam, we have recovered in Christ.”

O Mary conceived with sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!