Immaculate Conception

Two prayers come to mind when I think about the meaning of the fest we celebrate today. The first is the prayer that is familiar to anyone who wears the miraculous medal: “O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.” The second is the prayer that is even more familiar to all of us: “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.”

Both of these prayers express succinctly the mystery we celebrate today: Mary, conceived without sin, and Mary, full of grace.

T he Church's official expression of the first aspect of this mystery – Mary conceived without sin -- can be found in the formal definition of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception by Pope Pius IX in 1858: “We declare, pronounce, and define … that the Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin.”

A more poetic expression of the second aspect of this mystery – Mary full of grace – can be found in the work of the Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, who described the entire world as being “charged with the grandeur of God … Because the Holy Ghost over bent the World broods with warm breast and with ah! Bright wings.”

Neither a single prayer nor any theological or poetic description can capture the fullness of the mystery we celebrate today.

Mary was indeed conceived without sin, and she remained sinless throughout her entire life here on earth.

Mary was indeed a child, a girl, a woman full of grace, whose mind and heart and soul were always one, and at peace, and in harmony with the mind, heart, and soul of God.

The absence of sin in her life made it possible for her to be a perfect vessel of God's grace.

The fullness of grace made it impossible for sin to have any attraction for her.

We live in a world in which we, along with every other generation, in Hopkins ' words “have trod, have trod, have trod; and all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil.”

We know the burden of sin and sorrow in what we sometimes call this vale of tears.

But St. Paul tells us today that like Mary, we too have been blessed by “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ … with every spiritual blessing in the heavens.” He chose us, like Mary, in His Son Jesus, “before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before Him.”

Although not conceived without sin, we know freedom from sin because of our Baptism, because of the sacrament of Reconciliation, and because of our faith in the saving death and resurrection of Jesus.

Without presuming to claim to be full of grace, from the fullness of God we have all received grace flowing upon grace.

Today we honor Mary, conceived without sin and full of grace. Today we give thanks to God for our freedom from sin and for the gift of His grace in our lives.

Together with Mary, let us acknowledge and be grateful to God who is mighty and who has done things for us. Holy is His name, and His love endures forever!

Thomas P. Ferguson
December 8, 2005