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Feast of the Immaculate Conception
December 8, 2004
The angel said to Mary, "The Holy Spirit will come over you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God."
Mary said, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word."
Luke 1: 35,38
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Immaculate Conception
I believe in the Immaculate Conception. It is the doctrine that says that the Virgin Mary was free of original sin from the first moment of her life. I also believe that this is not an esoteric doctrine reserved for discussion among theologians, but a central truth of Christian faith.
To bring the Son of God into the world as a man, and to raise him to be the Christ, required a woman who was willing to give herself unconditionally to doing the will of God. The Virgin Mary was that woman. God created her free of original sin, free of the inherited propensity we all have to choose our own will over the will of God, so that she could speak the fiat that would bring the Incarnate Word into the world. By the grace of God she was able to do what no other human has ever done - give an answer to God that was so pure and unconditional that it opened the way for God to become man.
Were it not for her fiat, we would still be in sin. For God could not come into the world as man unless man, or at least a perfect representative of mankind, was willing to receive him in the flesh. And if he could not thus become one of us, he could not lay down his life in expiation for our sins and reconcile us with God. Mary was willing to be the one to receive him in the flesh, and through her our Savior came into the world.
Mary in her lowliness knew that it was by God's grace alone that she was able to give her fiat to the invitation to be the mother of the Christ. God made her in her earthly life what we will be only in eternal life. In this respect she is our model in faith. We believe that by God's grace and her intercession we will one day be a new creation. We will be in eternity what she was before us. We will be free of the burden of our original sin, free of the enslavement to our own will that prevents us from giving ourselves unconditionally to the will of God. We will be restored to the purity of the children of God. At last our profession of faith will echo her words: may it be done to me according to your word.
Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
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