Have you ever seen The Family Man, a film starring Nicholas Cage? Cages character is an wealthy businessman whod made a choice thirteen years earlier to leave behind the woman he was to marry to pursue his professional dreams. But then one day he wakes up to find hes been given a glimpse of what might have been if hed made a different choice. Hed married the woman instead of having left her. Shes loyal and loving, and they have two beautiful children and a supportive network of friends. Having experienced this, Cage comes to regret the choices hed made. So when hes returned to his real life, he fights valiantly to restore what he had lost, and make a reality the glimpse hed been given of what might have been.
In Mary, our mother, you and I are given a glimpse of what might have been if different choices had been made, if the choice to sin had never been made, leaving us with a fallen human nature. Through the Immaculate Conception, God preserved Mary from this condition, allowing us to behold in her a life of perfect faith, love, and obedience to Gods will. We see in Mary what we might have been today.
However, Marys witness should give us, not only a longing for what might have been, but also a sign for what might yet be. This is because Marys Immaculate Conception made possible the Virgin Birth of Jesus Christ, who came to heal us, and restore what had been lost. Through Jesus, we can hope that the perfection Mary enjoyed on earth might be ours to enjoy one day in heaven. Which makes our commemoration today, not an occasion of longing and regret, but a celebration of gratitude and hope.
Collect: O God, who by the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin prepared a worthy dwelling for your Son, grant, we pray, that, as you preserved her from every stain by virtue of the Death of your Son, which you foresaw, so, through her intercession, we, too, may be cleansed and admitted to your presence. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Today the Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, the solemn dogma defined by Blessed Pope Pius IX in 1854. As Our Lady Immaculately Conceived is the patroness of the United States of America, this is a holy day of obligation in the United States.
Through the centuries the Church has become ever more aware that Mary, "full of grace" through God, was redeemed from the moment of her conception. That is what the dogma of the Immaculate Conception confesses, as Blessed Pope Pius IX proclaimed on December 8, 1854: "The most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Saviour of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin." Catechism of the Catholic Church
Immaculate Conception of Mary
"Hail Mary, full of grace". For thousands of centuries, millions of times per day the Virgin Mary is greeted by the faithful with the greeting of the Archangel, that we hear resonating a new in todays Gospel. The sons of the Church learn from the words of the Archangel Gabriel that the fullness of the mystery of Gods grace was realised in Holy Mary. St Paul, the Apostle teaches us that the Father made all fullness dwell in His Incarnate Son (c.f. Col 1:12-20), which overflows from Christs head and spills out on His Mystical Body that is the Church. Before descending in Body, Christs fullness was spread in a unique and unrepeatable way on Mary, predestined from eternity to be the Mother of God.
Significantly in the first reading, the liturgy recalls the figure of Eve, the mother of all the living. The Fathers of the Church saw in Mary, the new Eve that unties the knot bound by the first woman. The knot of disobedience tied by Eve, was untied by the obedience of Mary. As Eve was created in purity and integrity, also the new Eve was miraculously preserved from the contamination of original sin because she had to give humanity the Word, who was incarnated for our ransom.
Saint Irenaeus compares the virginity of the pure earth from which Adam was drawn to the virginity of the immaculate humanity of Mary from which the Second Adam was drawn. And as the protoplast himself Adam, had his substance from untilled and as yet virgin soil (for God had not yet sent rain, and man had not tilled the ground (Genesis 2:5) so did He who is the Word, recapitulating Adam in Himself, rightly receive a birth, enabling Him to gather up Adam [into Himself], from Mary, who was as yet a virgin (Adversus hereses III, 21:10).
Blessed Pope Pius IX on the 8th December 1854 proclaimed the Dogma of the faith revealed by God that the Blessed Virgin Mary "in the first instant of her conception, by a singular privilege and grace granted by God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the human race, was preserved exempt from all stain of original sin" (Denz.-Schonm, 2083). If the official proclamation of the dogma is relatively recent, the profession of faith by Christians and the liturgy is very ancient in this regard. Furthermore, four years later the same Virgin Mary, appearing in Lourdes to St Bernadette, confirmed the truth of the doctrine by presenting herself with the title I am the Immaculate Conception.
Marys predestination to this singular graceconsistent with the suspension of the universal degree by which every man, from the moment of his conception is contaminated with original sinleads us to ponder in the deepest depths the mystery of the Most Holy Trinitys salvific plan. God, One and Triune had foreseen from the very beginning the future incarnation of the Word cumulating in the redemption of human nature that had fallen into sin. He therefore predestined pure Mary, so that He could draw from her uncontaminated humanity, which the Son could adopt in order to re-establish in Himself the original purity of creation and reorientate it to eternal glory.
For this reason, in the second reading of todays liturgy, St Paul reminds us that God wants to see us holy and immaculate before Him. The purity of our origins seamed to be irredeemably lost. However, in Immaculate Mary, God found the perfect solution to reverse the disaster made from the misuse of our liberty, and returned humanity to the original purity that seamed hopelessly lost.
Marys Immaculate Conception is a direct consequence of her Divine Maternity. St Anslem of Aosla wrote: Assuredly, it was fitting that the Virgin be beautified with a purity than which a greater cannot be conceived, except for God's. For, toward her, God the Father was so disposed to give His only Son was naturally one and the same common Son of God the Father and of the Virgin. (De conceptu virginali et originali peccato, XVIII)
This link between the privilege of Divine Maternity and Marys Immaculate Conception results also in her superiority with respect to us. She is a perfect image of the Church in heaven, the new triumphant Jerusalem, that wont have any marks nor will there be pain and death. This is why todays preface recites: ' she was to be a worthy mother of your Son, your sign of favour to the church at its beginning, and the promise of its perfection as the bride of Christ, radiant in beauty. Also in heaven Mary isnt or will ever be only a disciple, but her Sons most exalted. She is and will always be the Mother of God, the Mother of the Church, the Queen of the Angels and Saints. Therefore, the preface of the Mass adds: You chose her from all creatures to be our advocate with you and our pattern of holiness.
Mary was Immaculate because she had to be the Mother of God. She, herself has received the original grace of purity and the final state of the blessed life that we also, by collaborating with Divine Grace, hope one day to receive.
Immaculate Mary is full of grace. She is not only Christs disciple, that with the help of grace has overcome the chains of sin, but she is totius Trinitatis nobile triclinium, the noble resting place of the Holy Trinity (St Thomas Aquinas, Exposito Salutatioris Angelicae, I). The Immaculate, full of grace will always be Mother and Queen for that elect part of the Church that we hope one day to join, that will one day will joyfully sing in front of the Almighty.
From the Congregation for the Clergy
Patron: United States.
Symbols: crown and monogram; lily; enclosed garden; crown of stars; glass (symbol of purity) lily often placed in a vase of transparent glass; lily of the valley.
Things to Do:
Ideas for dinner:
Appetizers: Rice crackers and white cheeses;
Soups: cream soups, such as clam chowder, pototo soup, cream of celery;
Main Course: chicken breasts, pasta with alfredo sauce;
Side Dishes: mashed potatoes, white rice, cauliflower with (or without) white cheese sauce, white bread (with crusts removed), white corn;
Dessert: White cake with white icing, meringue kisses, vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, white chocolate.