Scripture - not our emotions - is the foundation and guide for our lives and revealed truths. In today’s First Reading (Gn. 3:9-20) we learn how sin enters our perfect world. In the Second Reading (Eph. 1:3-12) we hear that ‘God chose us to be holy and without blemish’. Then in the Gospel (Lk. 1:26-38) we hear the Angel informing Mary that she will bear a son who will be called holy.
Let us now connect the dots: we were created by God to live in paradise; our disobedience robs us of the holiness that we were to live before the ‘foundation of the world’; to restore us, only the all-holy Son of God could come to rescue us. But for Jesus to be born, He had to be conceived in a womb that was “full of grace”. This grace of our holy Lord was given as pure gift to Mary to be His mother.
The celebration of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, is an acknowledgement of the real power of our God to make all things new (Rev. 21:1-3). She who was born without original sin is a direct result of God’s love and desire to save us, coupled with the reality that “if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come” (2 Cor. 5:17). Even as we respect the many different views of others, we need to know and stand firm in our own belief.
Loving Father, in order for us to be restored to the state of paradise that You first created, You sent Your Son to be our perfect sin offering. But for Jesus to come, You had to prepare Mary in that original state when we were first made without sin. She who was preserved by Your power and grace could become the vessel who brought the Son without blemish into the world. Pour Your grace upon us so that we too may live holy lives. Amen.
Blessings,
Fr. Howie
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