By Fr. Eugene Lobo, SJ –
Immaculate Conception of Mary: December 09, 2019
Genesis 3:9-15, 20; Ephesians 1:3-6, 11-12; Luke 1:26-38
On the 8th of December the Church celebrates the feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. In teaching that Mary was immaculately conceived, the Catholic Church teaches us that from the very moment of her conception, the Blessed Virgin Mary was free from all stain of original sin. This simply means that from the very beginning, Mary was in a state of grace, sharing in God’s own life, and hence she was free from the sinful inclinations which have beset human nature after the fall.
The Feast of Mary’s Conception has been affectionately celebrated even before the 7th century in the East. The feast spread to the West, at least by the 9th century. In the eleventh century it received its present name, the feast of the Immaculate Conception. Pope Sixtus IV in the fifteenth century while promoting the festival explicitly described it as the feast of the Immaculate Conception in 1476, to be celebrated on the 8th of December.
The feast tells us that the Blessed Virgin Mary was preserved by God immaculate from the moment of her conception for the sake of his Son. Mary is the second Eve who created in such a state equal to the state of holiness that the first Eve enjoyed prior to her displeasing the Lord God in the Garden of Eden. What we are celebrating today is that Mary, from the very first moment of her existence, was free from any taint of original sin, that tendency to evil with which all human persons are born into this world.
Special Privilege
The feast reminds us of the person of Mary conceived immaculate as a special privilege granted to her by God. In 1854 Pius IX gave the infallible statement after consulting the Bishops and the theologians: “The most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instant of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the saviour of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin.” The “splendour of an entirely unique holiness” by which Mary is “enriched from the first instant of her conception” comes wholly from Christ: she is “redeemed, in a more exalted fashion, by reason of the merits of her Son.”
The Father blessed Mary more than any other created person in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places and chose her in Christ before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless before him in love. In simple terms, this dogma proclaims that: first and foremost the entire being of the Blessed Virgin Mary, her physical and spiritual natures, were created by God himself at her conception; and, second, she who was to become the tabernacle of the incarnation, was never subject to original sin, but was completely preserved from all the effects of the sin of Adam.
Redemption at Work
In the Immaculate Conception we can see the redemption fully at work. We can say that through this gift Mary is the fully healed one: she never had the spiritual flaws that hold us back from total love of God. Thus the Immaculate Conception allowed Mary’s yes at the Annunciation to be limitless, without any unconscious restriction. In several places the liturgy speaks of Mary as the beginning of the Church. She is also where the grace of redemption reaches its highest expression. What the whole church will one day become is already perfect in Mary through her Immaculate Conception and Assumption.
These are consoling mysteries since they are the real pledge and guarantee that God’s grace is more powerful than our guilt. So the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin reveals that God loves humanity as such. The Immaculate Conception also means that God surrounds this life of humanity with loving fidelity.
Break of Relationship
In the first reading we are told of the privileges enjoyed by Adam and Eve. They had each other as perfect partners. They could walk with God whenever he visited them in the garden. They had the continual guidance of God with whom they could talk like a friend. They were created immaculate in their physical and spiritual natures for the Divine purpose. But the woman allowing her to be tricked by the evil one lost the glory and beatific vision that they enjoyed in the Garden of Eden along with her Adam.
This blessing that they had enjoyed was a conditional gift from God. Now they become uncomfortable in God’s presence because of their nakedness. They hide from God’s sight which necessitates God to call them personally. There is the break of relationship between man and God, man and woman, and man and nature. Yet there is still a promise of life. Man calls her Eve because all generations owe their existence to her. In the new Eve, the Blessed Virgin Mary, God planned to reclaim His Kingdom and save His people from death.
Immaculate State of Grace
In today’s Second Reading, Paul marvelling at God’s astonishing plan for our salvation, praises God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in and through Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Through our living faith in Christ and the Church Sacraments, we now qualify to receive the blessed hope of enjoying our rightful inheritance that was taken from us. Our blessing of God is a kind of reflection or echo of the blessings God has poured on to us.
God chose us in Christ from all eternity to reflect his holiness. His choice is an expression of his love by which he made us his adopted children and destined us to praise his glory forever. Through our living faith in Jesus Christ and the Sacrament of Baptism, we now have the opportunity to once more become holy and blameless children before God in perfect love. We now qualify to be raised to the blameless and immaculate state of grace that the Blessed Virgin Mary enjoyed throughout her life and continues to enjoy to this date.
The Royal Line of David
The Gospel of today from Luke narrates the account of the Annunciation. As the angel comes into the little house at Nazareth, he greets Mary. He tells her: “Rejoice, so highly favoured! The Lord is with you”. The older translation with which we are familiar in the prayer is, “Hail, Mary, full of grace.” It is this term, ‘full of grace’ which led theologians to asserting that Mary, not only at the moment of Jesus’ conception, but at every moment of her existence was totally free from any kind of sin.
From these words, the angel Gabriel was expressing that the Blessed Virgin Mary enjoyed a unique state of grace that far surpassed the creation of all men and the angels. Her soul, spirit and body were immaculate because of her immaculate conception. Not only was the Blessed Virgin Mary immaculate in her conception, but she remained faithful and immaculate to God to the end of her earthly life. During the annunciation Angel Gabriel tells Mary what is going to take place in her life.
The message he gave was very clear but the way it would take place was not at all clear. She would become pregnant and have a child of the royal line of David who will be called Messiah. This is a miracle as the Holy Spirit would over shadow her and she would be with child who is the son of God. The Angel tells her how God works miracles in the life of people as he has done in the life of Elizabeth and he can do anything without any hindrance. Nothing is impossible for God and Mary accepts his word and says God your will be done.
When Angel Gabriel appears to Mary without warning or preparation, he simply proclaims to he what is going to happen. The message he gave was incomprehensible to Mary because there was no understandable way it could happen. She would be going to bear a child who would be the Son of God and the Kingship will be his. She would become pregnant and have a child of the line of David who will be called Messiah was indeed a privilege. This is a miracle as she would gather as the Holy Spirit would over shadow him and she would be with child. The Angel tells her how God has worked a unique miracle in the life of Elizabeth and he can do anything without any hindrance.
Even though the form of Gabriel’s announcement is similar to the way of the births of great dignitaries would be announced, it made no sense to Mary who is totally baffled by it. However she became aware that God had a great role to play in this miraculous pronouncement. She believes in what the angel tells her and accepts God’s plans in her life. She gives her consent saying that she is the handmaiden of the Lord. Her response is one of total faith in the divine and from that point on she is the model believer.
Sanctifying Grace of Mary
The papal definition of the dogma declares with absolute certainty and authority that Mary possessed sanctifying grace from the first instant of her existence and was free from the lack of grace caused by the original sin at the beginning of human history. Mary’s salvation was won by her son Jesus Christ through his passion, death, and resurrection and was not due to her own merits. For us Christians the dogma of the Immaculate Conception has gained additional significance from the apparitions of Our Lady of Lourdes in 1858.
At Lourdes a 14-year-old girl, Bernadette Soubirous, claimed a beautiful lady appeared to her. The lady said, “I am the Immaculate Conception” and the faithful believed her to be the Blessed Virgin Mary. In fact, the doctrine had only been infallibly declared a doctrine of faith four years previously in 1854. It was most unlikely that a girl from an impoverished family without access to the “media” of the day would have been familiar with such a theological expression, still less that she could have made it up. In spite of much scepticism on the part of both civil and church authorities, Bernadette won through and Lourdes became a place of pilgrimage. Today millions of people go there to find healing in body and soul.
Speaking in Rome on the feast of the Immaculate Conception, Pope Benedict XVI said that Mary Immaculate helps us rediscover and defend what is inside people, because in her there is perfect transparency of soul and body. She is purity in person in the sense that the spirit, soul and body are fully coherent in her and with God’s will. The Holy Father said that Mary teaches us to open up to God’s action and to look at others as he does, starting with the heart, to look upon them with mercy, love, infinite tenderness, especially those who are lonely, scorned or exploited. Where sins increased, grace overflows all the more.
Further the Pope said that he wants to pay tribute publicly to all those who in silence, in deeds not in words, strive to practice the Evangelical law of love which drives the world forward. He mentioned that there many such persons even in Rome. They are persons who work silently and do not make the headlines. They are men and women of all ages, who realise that it is not worth condemning, complaining or recriminating; that it is better to respond to evil doing good; to changes things; or better, to changes people, hence improve society.
Giving his reflections on the feast of the Immaculate Conception, the Holy Father explained the title of “Immaculate” by referring to the book of Genesis and the account of the Annunciation given in the Gospel of St. Luke. He said that it is through woman that God Himself will triumph. That woman is the Virgin Mary from whom was born Jesus Christ who, with his sacrifice has defeated the ancient tempter once and for all. For this reason, in so many paintings and statues of the Immaculate, she is shown in the act of crushing a serpent under her foot.
He further added that the Evangelist Luke shows us the Virgin Mary receiving the announcement from the heavenly messenger. She appears as the humble and authentic daughter of Israel, the true Zion in which God wishes to establish His dwelling. She is the branch from which the Messiah, the just and merciful King, will grow. … Unlike Adam and Eve, Mary remains obedient to the Lord’s will. With all of herself she pronounces her ‘yes’ and fully places herself at the disposal of the divine plan. She is the new Eve, the true ‘mother of all creatures’; that is, of everyone who, through faith in Christ, receives eternal life. The Pope concluded by rendering thanks unto God “for this marvellous sign of His goodness”, and by entrusting to the Virgin Immaculate “each one of us, our families and communities, the whole Church and the world entire”.
A New Hope
On this great feast day we can say that by the grace of God, we have received a new heart, a new spirit and the indwelling Holy Spirit to raise us to the level of holiness that the Blessed Virgin Mary enjoyed during her earthly life. Through faith in Jesus and the Sacrament of Baptism, having been born again of water and Spirit, we have been adopted into the Body of Christ in the living hope of receiving our salvation. Through our living faith, including the reception of the Sacrament of Confession, we receive the righteousness of our souls.
Today we thank God for all the blessings and graces he showered on the Mother of his Son. We ourselves have been far from immaculately conceived and are aware of both the sins we have committed and of all the tendencies, appetites and urges which drive us away from God and into conflict with our brothers and sisters. Let us pray today to Mary our Mother to be with us, to guide us, to protect us through her prayers of intercession with her Son. Above all, let us ask her to respond as generously to God’s call as she did and to be as faithful a disciple of her Son as she was. As we continue with the celebration of the Holy Mass, let us be thankful to the Immaculate Conception for answering her special calling that was instrumental to our salvation.
Not only was the Blessed Virgin Mary immaculate in her conception, but she remained faithful and immaculate to God to the end of her earthly life. Through the Immaculate Conception of Mary who fully cooperated with the Divine Plan of God, we are led to Jesus. The glorious Feast of the Immaculate Conception is a reminder that the Blessed Virgin Mary is the new Eve, our spiritual Mother, she who has become co-redeemer with Christ in our salvation by allowing her womb to become the humble instrument and Sacred Temple of the Living God.
Be Thankful
As we continue with the celebration of the Holy Mass, let us be thankful to the Immaculate Conception for answering her special calling that was instrumental to our salvation. Let us praise her for having remained immaculate to the end. Let us look up to her, a precious gem of the Holy Catholic Church, as a perfect model of virtues. Let us always remember that, by the grace of God, when we will be glorified to the fullness of our beings, we also will become immaculate in nature. Let us pray today to Mary our Mother to be with us, to guide us, to protect us through her prayers of intercession with her Son. Above all, let us ask her to respond as generously to God’s call as she did and to be as faithful a disciple of her Son as she was.
An officer, who had some urgent business to transact, reluctantly dialled an assistant at six o’clock in the morning. After several rings a sleepy female answered him saying that he had got the wrong number. He apologized and hung up and scouted in vain for his telephone diary to re-check the number. Sometime later he risked dialling again and he was embarrassed to hear the same voice of the early morning. Expecting a strong rebuff, he started to apologize profusely. But the lady interrupted him with warm reassuring words and said that she was sitting by the window and enjoying a bright and beautiful sunrise. She would have lost it but for his call. In her turn she thanked him generously for this gift.
Fr. Eugene Lobo, SJ is a member of the Jesuit Province of Karnataka. He was the former Principal of St. Joseph’s College, Bangalore and St. Aloysius College, Mangalore. For the last few years he worked at Vatican Radio. He is currently the Secretary, Regional Commission for Education, Karnataka.