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Live
Letters Feast of the
Immaculate Conception |
Many people mistakenly think that the immaculate conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary has to do with the virgin birth of Jesus. Actually the "immaculate conception" has to do with the conception of Mary herself. The phrase refers to the fact that, from the first moment of her conception, through a special intervention of God and in view of the merits of Jesus, Mary was preserved immune from all stain of original sin. That is, unlike all the rest of us, Mary was never separated from God, never without the life of God that we call grace.
The second reading for this feast is part of the great thanksgiving section at the beginning of the letter to the Ephesians. The author is talking about the nature of the salvation that has been offered to all of us. In assigning this reading for this feast, the Church suggests that the special gift that was offered to Mary is somehow the same salvation that we have received, yet with differences.
The text offers thanks to God because God has conferred heavenly blessings on us. God has chosen us to be holy and without blemish, to be like Christ. This is not something we have earned or have deserved. It comes exclusively from God’s generosity. We have received a destiny from God, a calling to faith and hope in Christ that will bring us to a new existence whose purpose will be the praise and glorification of God.
Chosen, destined, blessed, holy, without blemish, for the praise of God’s glory: these are all gifts that belong to us who have accepted Christ. In part we enjoy them now, in part their fulfillment is still to come. These same qualities also apply to Mary, the mother of Jesus, but differently than to us. We are like her and she is like us, yet we are different.
We are like her because we are all recipients of God’s generosity. We haven’t earned and cannot deserve a share in His life, any more than Mary did. Yet grace is always there, at least as God’s offer. It is a consistent component of our lives, to the extent that we are willing to accept it. And like Mary, each of us is called to express Christ to the world "for the praise of His glory." God’s gratuitous consistency is part of our make-up as it was of hers.
But there are differences. God’s grace, God’s life has not always been present in our lives as it was in hers. We had to receive it at a certain point in time through baptism. Even after that, God’s grace has not been a constant part of our life as it was in hers. We have all sinned to a greater or less extent. And our lives have not been totally and fully oriented to bringing Christ to the world as hers was. We are not totally and always like our Blessed Mother.
But there is more. Mary is similar to and different from the individual believer, but she is also similar to and different from the Church. The Church and Mary are alike, but different.
The Church is like Mary because the Church is the recipient of God’s generosity. Its teachings, its sacraments, its structure are not the result of human ingenuity or human achievement, but of God’s gift. They are all grace. And these gifts of grace are not on-again off-again elements of the Church’s life, but continuous elements of its being. There never was a time when the Church has not been gifted and graced by God. And this state of ongoing giftedness is for the purpose of expressing Christ to the world. Gratuity, continuity, and mission are constituent elements in the Church’s being, just as they were in Mary’s.
The Church is different from Mary because the Church is not just a graced instrument of Christ’s salvation but also an ingathering of imperfect and sinful people. It is a mixture of bad and good. At some times the Church is more effective in its mission than at others because at some times its members are more in tune with God’s gifts. While the basic mission of the Church and God’s commitment to His people persist always, the response and cooperation of its members to God’s call and God’s gifts can and do vary. In Mary there is no mixture of bad and good, no variance in her response to God’s call, no deviation in her faithfulness to the destiny to which she was called. Mary and the Church are different.
Mary, the individual believer, the Church: we are all similar, but we are all different.
We do not celebrate the feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin just to remind ourselves of a wonderful thing that happened to one person a long time ago. We celebrate the feast of the Immaculate Conception to renew our awareness of God’s loving call to all of us and of the destiny of holiness for which we have been chosen. We celebrate this feast to renew our awareness of what we are as Church and as individuals, and also to renew our awareness, as individuals and Church, of what we are not.
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Conversation Questions.
How does my individual spirituality include Mary, the mother of Jesus?
What are the implications of Mary’s title, "Mother of the Church?"
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