God’s Passionate Love for Us
Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Genesis 3:9–15, 20 / Psalm 98:1a / Ephesians 1:3–6, 11–12 / Luke 1:26–38
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Reflecting on the Word
By Rev. James A. Wallace, C.Ss.R.
A stained glass window in the Redemptorist house chapel in Washington, D.C. offers visitors an image of the Annunciation. Mary looks like a beautiful princess, wearing a white gown embroidered with gold stars, shrouded in a dark blue cloak. Her blond hair falls around her face, her eyes are cast down in humility, and her arms folded across her breast. She is in a sunlit room with multicolored coverings on various pieces of furniture, a lily by her side. An open book of the scriptures is behind her. Most striking is the handsome angel hovering above her, hair wreathed with flowers, and wrapped in enough cloth to drape several large windows. Above them, a dove.
For years I confess I found it all a little silly. After all, wasn’t Mary an illiterate peasant woman, living in a small town? Her appearance, clothing, and household furnishings would have been quite simple. But one day, the look in the angel’s eyes caught my attention as it never had before. I realized what the artist was trying to communicate. Gabriel, whose name means “God is strong,” was looking so lovingly and protectively at her that I found myself thinking of those words in the Song of Songs that speak of a love “stronger than death,” one that “deep waters cannot quench, nor floods sweep away.” As Gabriel stands in for God in this scene, so Mary does for us. Today’s feast celebrates God’s saving love waiting again and again to become incarnate in all human flesh.
Consider/Discuss
- Consider God’s gift of grace to you, given at your baptism into Christ. You are chosen to be holy, destined for glory, as Ephesians reminds us.
- Does this feast separate Mary from us or bring her closer?
Responding to the Word
Creator God, your grace touched Mary from the moment of her conception, making her worthy to be the mother of your Son. May your grace work with our freedom so that we might bear your Son in our lives and be holy, all to the praise and glory of your name. Amen.