Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception [December 8]
Msgr. Thomas Gervasio
In order to appreciate today’s great solemnity, 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 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 relates, things went terribly wrong. Adam and Eve chose not to follow God’s way but their own. Their sin disrupted God’s perfect plan of happiness. 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.
Yet, in his great love for us, despite our sin, 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 into our world, his Divine Son 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 tainted by sin? How could the all-perfect God be nurtured in the womb of a person, weak and imperfect?
In the plan of salvation, the Eternal Father chose 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, the precious tabernacle for the Son of Man. 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 Mother of Our Lord. Her purity stands in contrast to our sinfulness. 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.
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, which is closely linked to the Holy Eucharist. Since we receive the Lord in the Holy Communion, we should be vigilant 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 sins. If so, the confession of our sins should precede our Holy Communion.
The purity and sinlessness of Our Lady Mother of the Lord should inspire us to avoid the occasions of sin, to stive keep ourselves in the state of grace. She points us to the transformative 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!
