Immaculate Conception

The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary

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

“If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” We’ve all heard the hypothetical question. But does sound, music, word exist if there is no one to receive it? Or is it at least incomplete in some way. For are not sounds, words and music meant to be heard, taken in, sensed?

Conceptions.

Are they not like a tree falling in the forest? They happen in the solitude of the darkness and silence of a woman’s body. The couple is unaware of the sacred moment. Yet life, though small, begins to bubble up and multiply and intensify and become.

I’ve wondered, though we call it the “Big Bang”, was it? Was it a bang! Or is the vast darkness and silence of our expanding universe a reflection of that first moment? Is the universe becoming more itself as we listen and watch…receive the moment?

This feast during Advent invites us to return and reflect on conceptions; the darkness and silence of the conception of Mary in the body of Anna; the silence and darkness of the conception of Jesus in the body of Mary; our own conceptions?

Conceptions are beginnings.

And as Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, has recently revealed in writing about the miscarriage of her second child; many women deeply know these silent beginnings of life can cease, sometimes as quietly as they began.

Life is fragile. Life needs to be protected and cherished.

Mary’s conception we believe was immaculate – sinless. I have to wonder if not all of our conceptions in some way were sinless as well. For in Christ, Paul writes, we too were chosen for holiness. Chosen to exist for the praise of God’s glory.

I am reminded of the words of the 2^nd century theologian – bishop, Saint Irenaeus, “The glory of God, is the human being fully alive”. Fully alive simply means to “be”. It is a very difficult lesson for humans to learn because we like to “do”. We measure ourselves and others by what is produced. That is why prayer, resting in the Lord, puttering, contemplation, are so challenging for us. In those activities of the spirit, we produce nothing and are only the glory of God. This is what Mary sings in the Magnificat, “My whole being magnifies God!”

The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, the Solemnity of quiet, dark beginnings, which occurs in the brisk, silence and darkness of winter when the stars shine more brightly that a quote of Martin Luther King, Jr. gives us insight. “Only in the darkness can you see the stars”.

Today, Mary conceived in dark silences is the star that enlightens our way to Christ, the Light of the World. A light that needs to be received, taken in, sensed whose brightness burns away our sins that we might shine in the silent darkness for others.

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PLEASE NOTE: Homilies presented here are also being videotaped and put up on the Saint Mary, Oneonta website: http://www.SMCCOneonta.org.