December 8, 2024

Immaculate Conception of the B.V.M.    

The Restoration Begins

Msgr. Thomas Gervasio

In order to appreciate today’s 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 God created, there was order, beauty, and life. In the beginning, there was 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 tells us, things went terribly wrong. Adam and Eve chose not to follow God’s way but their own. Their sin upset God’s perfect plan of happiness. This Original Sin affected the entire human race throughout all history. 
 
We only have to look at our own 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.
 
Yet, despite our sin, in his great love for us, God began a restoration. God would come to our rescue. We call it Redemption. He could have redeemed us in many ways, but he chose to send his own Son into our world who would be born just as any person is born. He would choose a mother to bring his Son to birth. But how could Divinity be conceived in a person stained by sin? How could the all-perfect God be nurtured in the womb of a human person who was weak and imperfect? In the plan of salvation, the Father chose Mary of Nazareth—from all eternity—and prepared her to be the Mother of God by preserving her, exempting her from all sin from the very moment of her conception in the womb of her mother St. Anne.
 
Mary would then be the perfect dwelling, the precious tabernacle for the Son of God. 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 as we honor Mary, the immaculate, pure, sinless, full of grace. Her purity stands in contrast to our sinfulness. We struggle with sin; we journey through life stumbling along. 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.
 
We were not immaculately conceived, but we know that God in his love has given us a way to rise from sin and share in his divine life. We call it the Sacrament of Penance, which is closely linked to the Holy Eucharist. Since we receive the Lord in the Holy Communion, we should take care that we are in a worthy state to receive Him. We should want to receive the Lord often, but we should not receive him if we are aware of any serious or mortal sins. If we are, we should go to Confession before receiving Holy Communion.
 
Mary Immaculate, our Blessed Mother, should inspire us to avoid the things that lead us to sin. She points us to the power of God’s grace—the gift of mercy, peace, and a new beginning that we have in the Sacrament of Penance. This is a powerful message as we make our way toward the joy of Christmas! O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee