The Immaculate Conception

So that she could be a fitting mother for our Saviour, God willed that Mary be born without the stain of original sin. She was conceived in her mother's womb with the same innocence that Eve had before being tempted by the serpent. And she lived her life free from any thoughts, words or deeds which would have offended God or wounded her neighbor. Mary was completely and thoroughly pure.

With Mary, God begins His work of restoring nature to the purity He intended - the beauty which is a reflection of Himself.

Many have compared God's work of grace in our lives to snowfall which cloaks the barren tree, giving beauty to otherwise fruitless branches. Iced over with freshly fallen snow, the tree glimmers in the sunlight with a brilliance that its brown bark could not allow. The glaze replaces the natural beauty of the leaves and fruit which the winter has stolen.

But that image of grace presupposes that we are too corrupt to be restored. It presupposes a winter that will never end. Grace, in this image, cannot bring us back to our original lustre, but can only cover us over so we don't look so bad.

As Catholics understand it, grace is more like the sun whose rays warm the barren tree stimulating the bud, the leaf and, finally, the fruit. Grace restores the original beauty marred by the winter of sin.

If grace were like snow, our branches would never bear fruit. They would remain iced over, unable to thrive. But God wants us to grow and to reflect the beauty He intended for His creation.

The Marian feasts - the Immaculate Conception, the Assumption, the Annunciation - all celebrate not what Mary accomplished, but what God accomplished through Jesus. Mary, as the first disciple of Jesus, is the first to receive the benefits of Jesus' saving work. She is the first to taste the victory over sin by being herself exempted from its stain at her conception. She is the first to celebrate the resurrection of the body through her assumption into heaven.

What she has received is also what God holds in store for us. Like Mary, he wants to restore us to the sinless, pure creatures he intended us to be. We, like Mary, will one day know victory over sin when all the scars of sinfulness will be healed. Like Mary, we will know God's victory over death when our bodies are raised on the last day.

Saint Paul tells us as much in today's second reading from the letter to the Ephesians: God has chosen us in Christ from the foundation of the world to be holy and without blemish before him. For our part, we must strive everyday with God's grace to make our lives mirror the goodness he has restored in us through faith.

So, today's feast of the Immaculate Conception is not for Mary to celebrate alone. It's not like a birthday party in which only one person is honored. Today's feast is about the power and purpose of God's grace which restores the original beauty sin has deformed - not to cover over our shame, but to render us truly good and truly beautiful as God intended.

God achieved it in Mary so that she could be equipped with everything she needed to serve as Jesus' mother. God will achieve it in us when His work of restoration is consummated at our individual deaths and at the end of the world.