Reflecting on The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary
On December 8th, the Church celebrates a mysterious and miraculous event of such importance to God’s plan for salvation in Christ that it happened in a manner that went virtually undetected. This event is the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Not to be confused with another mysterious and miraculous event, the virgin birth of the Lord Jesus, the Immaculate Conception is about how God acted in an extraordinary way in the life of the Blessed Virgin Mary, so that from even the first moments of her conception, as Pope Pius IX reminded us: “she was preserved immune from all stain of original sin.”
Mary is a real person; and she’s your mother and mine. Take a moment to think about this. Do we see Mary and treat her-as she really is? In St. Luke’s Gospel, we see the illustration of how Luke would have likely sat down face to face with Mary herself in order to know the details he so carefully recorded in his Gospel. At the beginning of Luke 1, he states his firm intention to write an orderly account of real events.
Imagine sitting face to face with Mary as Luke did. He records details about what Mary felt and thought during her encounter with the angel Gabriel. He also tells us that after the visit by the shepherds following Jesus’ birth, Mary pondered “in her heart” what had occurred. How could Luke know about this unless he had been told firsthand? Indeed, Luke must have sat with Mary, looked into her eyes and listened with keen concentration as her motherly voice retold the events as she could remember them.
Who is Mary to you, here and now? As we know, we can’t love who we don’t know; and each new thing we learn about someone is something new to love. As we all know: Mary is a person, not just a dogma. God has told us much about Mary through the Church; hence there are somethings we can know dogmatically about her. She was born without original sin and she was full of grace and was free from all sin. She was the mother of Jesus, who was and is God, always and everywhere including of course when He was in Mary’s womb and thus she is rightfully called the Mother of God or Theotokos which means God bearer.
Mary is a person and moreover, she’s personal as are all of the saints. We believe since the beginning of Christianity that the saints are given special grace to intercede for us before God. Mary takes a special place in our lives as she is our intercessor, friend and mother.
Remember, we can’t love what we don’t know about someone. I encourage us all to get to know Mary-Our Mother, our Queen, even better. Pray the Rosary and really meditate on the mysteries. See the life of Christ through the eyes of Mary. Above all, speak with her and invite her intercession often through simple, little conversations just as you may do with your earthly mother (or your mom) in your life. Mary is always listening and ready to act. As St. John Vianney has written:
“Only at the Last judgement will Mary get any rest; from now until then, she is much too busy with her children.”
Today, we celebrate our Blessed Mother’s Immaculate Conception and not because of this special grace given to her but also because we regard Mary in a special way as a mother to all of us, a mother whom we love and a mother who loves us, a mother to whom we can tell everything, a mother who wants what is best for us.
Mary, Queen of heaven, pray for us. Amen.
