Immaculate Conception

The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conceptionof the Blessed Virgin Mary

Genesis 3:9-15,20; Psalm 98; Ephesians 1:3-6, 11-12; Luke 1:26-38

Anne and Joachim. Theirs was a grief known by many women and men in all times and places. They grieved their inability to get pregnant. It is a grief whose burden becomes heavier to bear for many couples during this expectant season of Advent.

Joachim and Anne like all such couples waited and prayed a long time for a child. They were one of the lucky ones. They finally conceived. Her name was Miriam – Mary.

There was nothing special about Anne and Joachim or their life in Nazareth. Mary herself was an ordinary child. An ordinary conception and birth.

Yet we have called this gracious and human act, The Immaculate Conception. The Church’s preaching has stressed the ‘immaculate’ part of the feast, the part that is God’s gracious gift to the woman who will bear God in her womb. But the liturgical calendar stresses the ‘conception’ part. With its nine-month spread between the holy days of Mary’s conception, 8 December, and her birth, 8 September, the liturgy does not ignore the very human and earthy conception of Mary.

The two feasts of conception and birth are anchored in the early weeks of nausea and vomiting to the leg cramps and backaches of the final weeks.

In the conception of Mary the divine and the human act in concert producing a symphony of expectation, new life and gratitude.

Anne and Joachim offer thanks to the God who is the source of all life; the gracious gift of human life borne out of their committed love for each other.

It will be years before Miriam – Mary will voice her “thank you” when she’s sings her Magnificat to the God who is the source of her sinlessness.

The church believes and teaches that Mary is immaculate – without sin – from the moment of her conception. She is not without sin because she is divine, but because God chose to give that gift of grace to her.

With any gift there is a giver and a recipient. The giver offers the gift. The recipient’s task is simple, to either accept or reject the gift. Mary says, “Yes.”“Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word” [Luke 1:38a]. With her whole being, she says, “Yes.”“Magnificat anima mea…My soul magnifies the Lord…” [Luke 1:46].

When the Archangel Gabriel at the conception of Jesus calls Mary, “full of grace”, the angel is acknowledging both that God has given Mary a gift and that Mary has freely received and accepted the gift. She has accepted the gift of being clothed in Christ as her body clothes the baby within her. She has accepted the gift of walking always as a child of light as new life breaks forth the darkness within her womb to enlighten the world.

But the gift Mary is given is not so different from the gift we are all offered in baptism. In baptism…We are freed from sin and brought to new life. We are anointed with the chrism of salvation united with God’s people. We are clothed in Christ. We are enlightened by Christ to walk always as children of the light. We are filled, like Mary, with an abundance of God’s presence.

It was this divine presence that Anne and Joachim waited for in their own Advent for life to appear among them.

Maybe you’ve known the grief of Anna and Joachim. Though it may be past the child bearing years for you are we not all called to wait upon our God who brings forth life where there is none. Divine life where we least expect.

[Gratia tibi, “The meaning of the Immaculate Conception” by Melissa Musick Nussbaum, National Catholic Reporter, 8 December 2016]