Immaculate Conception

The young teenager was busy doing her daily chores, going about the house and taking care of the things that were in her charge, when suddenly a blinding light came. She covered her eyes. Then, she heard a voice.

“Hail, one who is full of grace!” Mary fell to her knees. The voice was not the normal voice of a man. It had a more musical quality to it. She began to tremble. “The Lord is with you!”

What did this mean, she thought to herself. Full of grace?

Indeed, what does it mean? We know from our Popes, particularly Pope Pius the IX, that Mary was sinless from birth. We call this the Immaculate Conception. But what does that really mean for us today? It means that a young woman two millennia ago, did not do anything wrong. Yes... but that cannot be all. No. It’s not all. Mary is for us, in the here and now. She is for us a mother who helps. But she is for us a very special mother. She is a sinless mother. And so the Church today celebrates that fact. Our mother was conceived without sin: the Immaculate Conception.

God loved Mary a lot. This is clear since she was “full of grace.” That is to say, she had ever gift from God. She could have whatever she wanted, because God was there for her, always. To be immaculate means to be without sin. But to be full of grace means to have the gift of God himself, as well as being sinless. God gave her a tremendous gift in her sinlessness, and now we have access to that gift. If we want something, and we feel that our sins are keeping us from just asking for it, we can turn to our mother, Mary. Because she is “full of grace” she can do anything just by praying. She is the Virgin Most Powerful. She gets what she wants, mainly because she only wants those things that God wants. Mary doesn’t ask for anything that isn’t the will of God. She only asks for things that God himself wants to give. But let’s finish our story.

Mary was upset by what the angel had said to her. It frightened her to hear that she was “full of grace,” from this creature she did not know. But the angel reassured her.

“Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.” She was so confused, but she began to see that this strange messenger was an angel; she was still afraid, but a little bit calmer now. “Behold, you shall conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call him Jesus. He will be great, the Son of the Most High God, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end.”

Now Mary was thoroughly confused. The Son of God? Rule forever? His Kingdom will have no end?

But what she said was, “How can this be? I have not had any relations with a man.”

“The Holy Spirit will come upon you," the angel answered her, "and the power from the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God” And he proceeded to explain to her that her cousin, an old woman, was also pregnant after her husband had a similar vision.

Then Mary, not understanding much at all of what was going on, made a decision. If it is the will of God, then I must do it. Whatever happens, it will be in his hands.

To the angel she said, “I am the handmaid of the Lord. Be it done unto me according to your word.”

That last line is what the Immaculate Conception is all about. Mary was given the gift of complete freedom from sin. We are all, in some way, caught by sin. Some of us are slaves of it. But Mary was not. She was not even affected by it. And what did she do with that gift? “Be it done unto me…” she gave it all to God. As the humble handmaid, she let herself be given entirely to the Father, and as such became the mother of the Son.

Mary knew what to do with her gift. And from that, we received Jesus. Because of her tremendous wisdom in say “yes” with what gifts God gave her, she produced the greatest gift of all, Jesus Christ, our love, our savior, our dearest friend, our Lamb of God. If we are to learn anything from Mary this feast, let us learn how to say yes to God, how to use our gifts for his glory, and not keep them for ourselves.