December 8, 2012

Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception
of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Our Lady, the Mother of our Lord, Jesus Christ, was conceived without the stain of Original Sin.  That is the Doctrine known as the Immaculate Conception.  There are only three other people in the history of mankind who were immaculately conceived.  Jesus, Adam and Eve.  There are only two people in human history which the Church recognizes as never having sinned,  Jesus and Mary.

Read more about the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary.

Lectionary: 689

Reading 1 from the Holy Book of Genesis
Gn 3:9-15, 20

We are reading in the book of Genesis, at the time that our first father committed the Original Sin.  He disobeyed the Lord and ate the fruit from the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you don't know the story, read it Genesis 1, 2 and 3 here.

After the man, Adam, had eaten of the tree,
the LORD God called to the man and asked him, "Where are you?"
He answered, "I heard you in the garden;
but I was afraid, because I was naked,
so I hid myself."

Dr. Scott Hahn calls this a pre-Judgment Event.  God knew where Adam was.  But He asked him the question in order to test him.  The question itself, is metaphorical.  It doesn't mean, "where are you hiding?"  But "where are you in relationship to me?"

Adam, on his part, revealed his sin immediately.  Notice that his answer can also be taken in two ways. His reply indicated that he was physically near God.  But his heart was far away.  Since he was hiding from God.

Then he asked, "Who told you that you were naked?
You have eaten, then,
from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat!"
The man replied, "The woman whom you put here with me--
she gave me fruit from the tree, and so I ate it."

From his reply, God immediately knows that Adam has sinned.  And Adam immediately blames God for having given him an inadequate partner.  What once was the apple of Adam's eye, is now the cause of all his problems.

The LORD God then asked the woman,
"Why did you do such a thing?"
The woman answered, "The serpent tricked me into it, so I ate it."

So, God turned to the Woman and asked her why she committed her sin.  And she also had an excuse.  She blamed the Serpent.

Then the LORD God said to the serpent:
"Because you have done this, you shall be banned
from all the animals
and from all the wild creatures;
on your belly shall you crawl,
and dirt shall you eat
all the days of your life.

God doesn't ask the Serpent anything.  But immediately knows that the Woman has spoken truthfully.  The Serpent is immediately punished for the sin that he elicited from the humans.  Scripture reveals the identity of this Serpent in another verse:

Revelation 12:9
King James Version (KJV)
9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will strike at your head,
while you strike at his heel."

This is a very beautiful verse, dear to my heart, which is called the Protoevangelium.  That means, the "first Gospel".  My favorite version of this is the Douay:

[15] I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed: she shall crush thy head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel.

It is, on one level, a prediction of the coming of Christ.  On another, it is a prediction of the victory which all believers in Christ will have over Satan.  It also describes all believers as children of Mary.  And the idea that we who have the Gospel of our Lord in our mouths and the Commandments of God in our heart are children of Mary is confirmed in another verse:

Revelation 12:17
King James Version (KJV)
17 And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

The man called his wife Eve,
because she became the mother of all the living.

After the problems, Adam renamed his wife.  Originally he named her Woman.  But now she is named, Eve.  The name, Eve, which means "mother of all the living", seems a bit ironic to me since at this time,
Adam and Eve have fallen from grace and grace is the true life of the soul.  Their children will be alive in the world, but not in relationship to God, since they will inherit the effects of the Original Sin.

Responsorial Psalm
Ps 98:1, 2-3ab, 3cd-4

R. (1) Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous deeds.

Sing to the LORD a new song,
for he has done wondrous deeds;
His right hand has won victory for him,
his holy arm.

R. Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous deeds.

The LORD has made his salvation known:
in the sight of the nations he has revealed his justice.
He has remembered his kindness and his faithfulness
toward the house of Israel.

R. Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous deeds.

All the ends of the earth have seen
the salvation by our God.
Sing joyfully to the LORD, all you lands;
break into song; sing praise.

R. Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous deeds.

That's the first time I realized that this verse says we should sing a "new" song to the Lord.  I tend to prefer the old hymns.  But I also like some of the new songs, as I'm sure you can tell if you've seen the videos I've posted from Youtube.

I think this verse, though, is a reference to the new thing which God did when He sent His only begotten Son to save us from our sins:

Isaiah 43:18-25
King James Version (KJV)
18 Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old.
19 Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.
20 The beast of the field shall honour me, the dragons and the owls: because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen.
21 This people have I formed for myself; they shall shew forth my praise.

Jeremiah 31:22
King James Version (KJV)
22 How long wilt thou go about, O thou backsliding daughter? for the Lord hath created a new thing in the earth, A woman shall compass a man.

And this is the new song we should be singing:

Reading 2 from St. Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians
Eph 1:3-6, 11-12

Brothers and sisters:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who has blessed us in Christ
with every spiritual blessing in the heavens,
as he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world,
to be holy and without blemish before him.

St. Paul reiterates this teaching in another place:

Ephesians 5:25-27
King James Version (KJV)
25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.

Christ loves us so much that He gave us the Sacraments, wherein we are washed of all our sins in His Blood and may present ourselves before the Father, images of the First born of all Creation, Jesus Christ, Our Lord.

In love he destined us for adoption to himself through Jesus Christ,
in accord with the favor of his will,
for the praise of the glory of his grace
that he granted us in the beloved.

Love is the reason why God could not abandon us to our own errors and sent His only begotten Son to retrieve us from certain death.

In him we were also chosen,
destined in accord with the purpose of the One
who accomplishes all things according to the intention of his will,
so that we might exist for the praise of his glory,
we who first hoped in Christ.

We were created in Christ to do the will of God the Father.  And His will is that we do His Commandments and in so doing glorify His name in all the world.

A reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Luke
Lk 1:26-38

The angel Gabriel was sent from God
to a town of Galilee called Nazareth,
to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph,
of the house of David,
and the virgin's name was Mary.
And coming to her, he said,
"Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you."

This is another verse which I dearly love.  But again, I prefer the Douay version:

[28] And the angel being come in, said unto her: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.

And even though I don't understand Latin, I love to hear this verse in Latin:

28 Et ingressus Angelus ad eam dixit: Ave gratia plena: Dominus tecum: Benedicta tu in mulieribus.

Ave Maria Gratia Plena.  That is the starting phrase of the Hail Mary prayer.  Hail Mary, Full of Grace.

It is also the basis of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception which we celebrate today.  Read more.

But she was greatly troubled at what was said
and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.

At first, Mary did not understand the greeting.

Then the angel said to her,
"Do not be afraid, Mary,
for you have found favor with God.
Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son,
and you shall name him Jesus.
He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High,
and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father,
and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever,
and of his Kingdom there will be no end."

So the Angel explained that Mary would be the Mother of God's Son.

But Mary said to the angel,"How can this be,since I have no relations with a man?"

Mary was still a bit baffled.  Apparently, she understood that she would conceive a child.  But assumed that the conception of the child would be according to natural marital relations.  Which, she could not have since she was not married, yet.

And the angel said to her in reply,
"The Holy Spirit will come upon 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.

But the Angel explained further, that this child would not be born of natural process, but would be conceived in her womb by the Holy Spirit of God.  Therefore this Child would be the Son of God.

And behold, Elizabeth, your relative,
has also conceived a son in her old age,
and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren;
for nothing will be impossible for God."

As a sign to her that these things would come true, the Angel revealed that her cousin, Elizabeth, the elderly barren woman, was already with child.

Mary said, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.
May it be done to me according to your word."
Then the angel departed from her.

That was enough for Mary and she gave her famous "fiat", accepting without question, God's will for her.

Sincerely,

De Maria