Immaculate Conception of BVM, Tuesday – 8th December 2020 — Gospel: Lk 1,26-38
Responding to Grace
On December 8, 1854 Pius XI defined the dogma of faith that “the Virgin Mary at the moment of conception was preserved from all defilement of original sin by a unique privilege of grace in view of the merits of Jesus Christ.” The Immaculate Conception was God’s way of giving Jesus a worthy mother on earth, and of giving us a worthy mother in heaven. The immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary also has served as a reminder of the need for redemption to a world that was complacent and self-sufficient.
The Gospel account of the Archangel Gabriel’s visit to Mary hints at her Immaculate Conception. The angel said to Mary “Hail, full of grace!” The phrase “full of grace” means that Mary was full of grace all her life, from the beginning of her life, and not just at the moment of the angel’s visitation and greeting. And her response was also full, “Fiat – Let your will be.” We find that she responded to God’s grace in her totality because she was full of grace and she was perfected by God’s grace. She was ever conscious of God’s love for her and she desired to do what God was asking of her. She struggled to fully understand God’s will, but always was willing to say “Fiat.” Because of this, God allowed her to be the blessed vehicle to carry and bring forth the Son of God in his humanity.
In his book ‘Jesus of Nazareth’ (The Infancy Narratives), Pope Emeritus Benedictus XVI mentions one powerful detail of the Angel-Mary encounter and finds it something very striking – it is Mary’s aloneness. The Pope wrote: “I consider it important to focus on the final sentence of Luke’s Annunciation narrative: ‘And the angel departed from her.’ The great hour of Mary’s encounter with God’s messenger, in which her whole life is changed, comes to an end, and she remains there alone, with a task that truly surpasses all human capacity.” She, with the burden of history on her shoulders, was prepared to change the world alone. She must have often been frightened or felt utterly solitary. However, she continued her journey of faith along the path that leads through many dark moments of her life. This singular woman, alone at the moment of the angel’s visit, is also alone in history. There is no one else like her. And, like no other, she devoted herself to God.
