Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Jan 13 2025

God’s Grace Draws Us Closer

I remember a young mother saying to me on Mother’s Day, “I hope you’re not going to preach to us about Mary. She makes us all feel so guilty. She never yelled or got angry. She was just perfect.”

The Immaculate Conception is often seen as a feast that puts Mary at a distance from us, since she was “free from all taint of sin.” But this feast is really a feast that should bring her closer.

God’s presence to and love for Mary surrounded and touched her life from its beginning. This was done because of the unique role she would play in God’s plan of salvation for all. Mary’s role was necessary to bring to fulfillment God’s desire that all be saved. So, her being graced in a unique way does not distance her from us, but places her even more at the heart of the human family.

As the Letter to the Ephesians reminds us today, God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world “to be holy and without blemish before him” (Ephesians 1:4). God “destined us for adoption” and destined us to exist “for the praise of the glory of his grace” (Ephesians 1:5, 6). We all are destined to be drawn closer to God and each other through God’s grace.

Mary’s gracious response to God is a model of what God desires from each of us singly and as a community: our saying “Yes” to God’s plan, so that the world can know and love and serve the living God revealed in Jesus.

Consider/Discuss

Do I think of Mary as one removed from or uniquely close to the community of believers?
Do you see yourself as having been chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy?

Responding to the Word

Today we can praise God for revealing to us that what was done for Mary is a sign of God’s will for all of us, that we know ourselves as chosen by God and as existing to praise the glory of God’s grace. We ask Mary to lead us more deeply into the mystery of the God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Jan 13 2025

Scripture Study for

The first reading was probably chosen for this feast because the traditional depiction of Mary as the Immaculate Conception has her foot on the head of the serpent. Actually, the text has “he will strike at your head” (Genesis 3:15), not she. However, the meaning of the passage continues to be important. Since there is no mention of a “fall” from grace, it is best to think of this story simply as an account of sin. After the sin, the woman and man are naked (spiritually exposed), and they refuse to take responsibility for their fault. Each blames another. The final words state that throughout their lives, human beings will have to battle temptation.

Paul insists that salvation in Christ was not an afterthought, but was in God’s plan from the beginning. Furthermore, believers are not chosen because they were holy and blameless, but that they might be made holy and blameless. In other words, salvation is the cause, not the consequence, of righteousness. Paul further states that we were destined for adoption through Christ, so we have been redeemed by his blood. Our redemption exacted a ransom, and that ransom was the shedding of Christ’s blood. All this was done so that God’s plan finally would be brought to fulfillment, the plan to bring all things together in Christ.

According to the passage from Matthew’s Gospel, the conception of Jesus took place within the broader picture of God’s plan of salvation. The angel’s words are both reassuring and perplexing. Mary, a virgin, will bear a son whose name indicates the role that he will play in God’s plan (Jesus means “God saves”). Her response does not question that all of this will happen according to God’s plan, but she wonders how it will happen. She is also a model of openness and receptivity, regardless of the apparent impossibility of what is being asked. The reading shows that the expectations of the past are now being fulfilled.

Jan 07 2025

Planted and Tended in the Soil of Faith

One afternoon, as I sliced a red onion to sauté in butter, the storyboard of my mind floated back to the previous January and the tiny onion seeds that I had planted. I kept the grow lights low. One day, up popped tiny blades that looked like grass. I was so excited! I watered. They grew. Every Saturday, I trimmed back those shoots of green to five inches tall so that they would grow stocky and strong. In March, I tilled the soil and prepared the beds. In late April, I planted small onion plants. Even when our border collie ran through the beds and trampled the tops in July, I kept weeding. I kept watering. Then, in December, one red onion slides off the cutting board to sizzle in the pan.

Mary of the Immaculate Conception was like that one tiny onion seed. Amid the brokenness of the human race, God spent centuries preparing the soil of the Chosen People. Born of the faithful remnant, the anawim, Mary was planted in the rich soil of faith, graced with every spiritual blessing. She was nurtured. She was cared for. She rejoiced and bore fruit. And even after the world had trampled her heart and crucified her Son, the Holy Spirit kept nourishing her with strength.

Do you remember your conception, before you were the size of an onion seed? I don’t either. But if I, as a gardener, can put so much care into one red onion, with how much more care does our Creator tend to us? Even though we are trampled and wounded as part of the human condition, the reading from Ephesians tells us that we too are nourished by Christ with every spiritual blessing. God is a good gardener.

Consider/Discuss

Mary probably didn’t recall the moment of her conception. But imagine the elation of the angels and the saints at that moment. They were so excited—a human being immaculately conceived! In reflection and prayer, travel back to that day when you were created. See how excited they were about you also. Perhaps not immaculately conceived, but most dearly beloved! Relish their jubilation. Be washed with their love. Be healed, and rejoice.
Think about what nurtured Mary’s spiritual life—the Psalms, the stories of Moses and the prophets, the prayers of her people. As this Advent continues to unfold, how can we purposefully enrich the soil of faith in which we grow? What do we need to trim back? What will help us to flourish?

Living and Praying with the Word

Lord God, Creator of the universe and our Creator, we remember your continuing kindness and faithfulness toward us. Give us the grace to glorify you by carefully nourishing ourselves and nurturing all those you put into our care. You have made us for yourself. Keep us trimmed. Mary of the Immaculate Conception, pray for our strong and stocky spiritual growth.

Jan 07 2025

Scripture Study for

The story of Eden describes an idyllic past marked by divine-human intimacy, which was destroyed when the snake suggested that God, jealous of divine prerogatives, did not have the humans’ best interests at heart. The result, as later chapters make clear, was a breakdown of the divine-human relationship as well as relationships between humans. God’s judgment on the snake, read on one level, explains why snakes are dangerous and why humans try to crush their heads rather than be bitten. But the story calls for a symbolic reading, in which the snake represents temptation, and thus the enmity between humans and the snake represents the constant and universal struggle to trust and obey God.

The reading from Ephesians focuses on divine election apart from human merit. Paul emphasizes that this election results in “blessing” from God in Christ, which takes different forms. One is holiness, perfect conformity to the will of God, “without blemish.” Another is adoption into the household of God, not having earned this as a right, but receiving it as a gift, “in accord with the favor of his will.” Those in God’s household achieve their salvation because this is God’s will, and this is therefore cause for praise and glory. The Gospel scene is filled with references to God’s earlier work, suggesting that Gabriel is announcing the culmination of a plan long in the making. References to David point toward the divine election of that king and his descendants, whose rule over Israel God promised to be “firmly established forever” (2 Samuel 7:16). The child who will fulfill this promise forever is to be born to Mary, who has found favor with God and so is prepared to be the mother of “the Son of God.” Mary, of course, is perplexed by how all this can be. Gabriel’s explanation itself might seem incredible, until he also announces that the aged and barren Elizabeth will also give birth, pointedly noting that “nothing will be impossible with God.”

Dec 13 2024

Scripture Study for

Contrary to the Marian interpretation captured in many depictions of the Immaculate Conception, the Genesis story states that it is the offspring of the woman who will have his heel on the serpent’s head, not the woman herself. This part of the story is really about the antagonism that will always exist between human beings and the forces of evil. Human beings will always have to battle temptation. However, this feast that celebrates Mary assures us that, regardless of the cunning nature of temptation, good will ultimately triumph.

Paul insists that the blessing of God comes to us through the agency of Christ. The blessings themselves are distinctively of a spiritual, even cosmic, nature. First is election in Christ. Though Paul suggests a kind of primordial predestination, there is no sense here that some are predestined for salvation and others are not. The point is that salvation in Christ is not an afterthought; it was in God’s plan from the beginning. The salvation ordained by God through Christ is the cause and not the consequence of righteousness. Adoption, redemption, forgiveness of sin, and the gifts of wisdom and insight are all pure grace, gifts from God, bestowed on us through Christ.

Mary’s Immaculate Conception sets her apart so that she might miraculously conceive Jesus, the event described in today’s Gospel reading. The opening angelic greeting, “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you,” emphatically states her extraordinary dignity. She is here invited to be the vehicle of salvation for God’s people. As in other stories of angelic appearances to women (Hagar, in Genesis 16:7–16; the mother of Samson, Judges 13:2–7), Mary interacts directly with God’s messenger, without the mediation of her father or intended husband. She is not only free of patriarchal restraints; her words show that hers is a free response to God. The expectations of the past are now being fulfilled; God’s plan is being accomplished through Mary.