Immaculate

Genesis 3:9-15,20; Psalm 98 Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous deeds; Ephesians 1:3-6,11-12; Luke 1:26-38

"I am the immaculate conception." Words of the Blessed Mother to St. Bernadette at Lourdes in 1858.

The celebration of the "Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary" was made a feast of the church by Pope sixtus IV in 1476, a holy day of obligation by Pope Clement XI in 1708, and defined a dogma of the church by Pope Pius IX in Ineffabilis Deus in 1854.

Its scriptural foundation can be found in the words of the angel to Mary in today's gospel, "Hail, full of Grace the lord is with you."

The question to ask is "what does it mean to be full of grace?"
The answer according to the church is to be without sin, without stain, without spot or blemmish hence the "Immaculate" title given to this woman of women who has been given the dignity and honor of becoming the mother of God.

In the words of St. Anselm, "without God's son, nothing could exist; without Mary's son, nothing could be redeemed."

How does this grace work. The grace Mary recieves is a grace that comes through Christ and his redeeming work. IT is prevenient grace or grace that prevents sin from occurring in advance.

For instance, one can be saved from falling into hole in two ways. The first way and the normal ways is by being rescued from the hole once we have fallen into it or secondly being prevented from falling into the hole in the first place altogether. In both cases we are saved, in the first case we have to deal with the effects of the fall, bruised and battered, in the second we are saved from those effects completely.

Mary's immaculate conception is the result of the latter; the rest of us fall into the hole and thus suffer the effects of the fall, the effects of original sin, whereas Mary, does not.

So she is perfectly free and full of grace which makes her "yes" so much more beautiful and meaningful.

The second scritpural reference for this feast is found in the first reading of today, Genesis 3:15. We find ourselves right smack in the middle of the fall. Adam and Eve have already eaten from the forbidden fruit and they are hiding and covering themselves up and God is interrogating them as to what happen and what ensues is the blame game: the man blames the woman, the woman blames the snake and so on and so forth.

Right in the middle of this darkness, this disobedience, this fall of man their is a glimmer of hope in the words God speaks to the serpent 3:15, "I will put enimity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike at your head, while you strike at his heel."

This passage is considered the protoevangelion, the first gospel or foreshadowing of the gospel of Christ in the bibilical record.

The woman and her seed, her offspring shall fight against the serpent. The woman is Mary and her offspring is Christ.

Even in the middle of this fall from grace, God is not concerned with blaming but rather with correcting. Already God has a plan to pull man from the pit of his self destructive ways; God already has an answer to Man's "no" that has echoed through the ages and the answer is found on the lips of the one who is immaculately conceived, "Behold, may it be done to me according to thy word."

Mary's yes to God undos all the nos throughout history. Thus we disocver grace far surppasses sin, as St. Paul tell us in the letter of Romans, "but despite the increase of sin, grace has surpassed it, so that, as sin reigned through death, grace may reign by way of justice leading to eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord," Son of God and Son of Mary.

A few words from the Pope
""On the path of advent shines the star of Mary Immaculate, "A sign of certain hope and comfort. To reach Jesus, the true light, the sun that dispels all darkness of history, we need light near us, human people who reflect christ's light and thus illuminate the path to take. And what person is more luminous than Mary? Who can be a better star of hope for us than she, the dawn that announced the day of salvation. For this reason, the liturgy has us celebrate today, as Christmas approaches, the Solemn Feast of the Immaculte Conception of Mary: the mystery of God's grace that enfolded her from the first instant of her existence as the creature destined to be Mother of the Redeemer, preserving her from the stain of original sin. Looking at her we recognize the loftiness and beauty of God's plan for everyone: to become holy and immaculate in love, in the image of our creator."

As eve was the mother of all living, Mary,the New Eve, becomes the mother of everlasting life in Christ her Son.

Here is a bit from honoring the Blessed mother, with song, images and quotes from the saints: ave Maris Stella