DECEMBER 8. Feast Of Immaculate Conception

Genesis 3:9-15, 20: Ephesians 1: 3-6, 11-12,Gosple: Luke 1: 26-38
A humor going around like this: The Pharisees brought the woman, caught red-handed in adultery, to Jesus for judgment. He said, "Let the person who is without sin cast the first stone." They fell silent, and then, all of a sudden, a stone came flying from the crowd. Jesus looked up, surprised and amused, caught the stone and then said, "Hold it, mother? I was trying to make a point, here." This gives a humorous slant to the Catholic belief that Mary was born immaculate to lead an immaculate life.
Mary’s prophecy given in her Magnificat, “Behold all generations will call me blessed,” was fulfilled when the Catholic Church declared four dogmas of faith about her: 1-Immaculate Conception, 2-Perpetual Virginity, 3-Divine Maternity, and 4-Assumption. The Immaculate Conception is a dogma based mainly on Christian tradition and theological reasoning. It was defined in 1854 by Pope Pius IX . It reads thus :“From the first moment of her conception, Mary was preserved immune from original sin by the singular grace of God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, savior of the human race.” (CCC). This declaration means that original sanctity, innocence and justice were conferred upon her, and that she was exempted from the evil effects of original sin, except for sorrow, pain, disease and death, the temporal penalties given to Adam. The Fathers of the Church from the fourth century believed and taught that the Blessed Virgin Mary had been kept free of all traces of sin by the grace of God because she was to become the Mother of the Lord Jesus. Church history makes known to us that as early as the seventh century, there was a liturgical observance that proclaimed the Blessed Virgin Mary to be free from sin. Mary herself approved it by declaring to Bernadette at Lourdes: “I am the Immaculate Conception.”
Proofs from Holy Scripture:
1) God purified prophet Jeremiah in the womb of his mother and anointed John the Baptist with His Holy Spirit before John’s birth. (Jer. 1/5: “Before I formed you in the womb of your mother I knew you and before you were born, I consecrated you”). Hence it is reasonable that God kept the mother of His Son, free from all sin from the first moment of her origin.
2) The angel saluted Mary as “full of grace”. This greeting means that she was never, even for a moment a slave of sin and the devil. Scripture says “ one who commits sins is a slave of devil.
3) Gen. 3/15: “I will put enmity between you and the woman and her seed shall crush your head.” The woman stands for Mary and the promise would not be true if Mary had original sin.
Argument from reason:
1) If we were allowed to select our mother; we would select the most beautiful, healthy and saintly lady. That’s what God did.
2) The All-holy God cannot be born from a woman who has been a slave of the devil, even for a moment in her life.
The celebration of this feast calls us to place an honorable position to Mary in our life. Saints used to say :to Jesus through Mary. Mary first gave Jesus to the world, she keeps giving Jesus to the church and the world.
An outdoor statue of Mary at a church in St. Mary’s, Kansas was especially popular with native Americans. Over the years, it lost most of its paint so that Mary's eyes looked as if she were blind. When a new pastor wanted to repaint the statue, the tribal chief opposed it vigorously saying, “We could never make her look as beautiful as she is in heaven. On the other hand, if we keep the statue the way it is now, it reminds us of how Mary looks down on us from heaven. Her eyes are blind to our faults, but her ears are open to our prayers. Mary is also called the refuge of sinners and the prayer memorare says “ that it is never heard that anyone who went to her protection left unaided.
Let us ask her to obtain for us the grace to respond as generously to God's call as she did and to be as faithful in discipleship to her Son as she was. On this feast day, let us ask her to be with us, to guide us, to protect us through her prayers of intercession with her Son, and to share her privilege with us, making our bodies worthy resting places for her son. And let us learn to respond to God always as Mary said : "May it be done in my life according to your will." .