SATURDAY HOMILY: A Most Amazing Grace
In our own struggle to be 'holy and without blemish before [God]' we have no greater aide than Mary
In our own struggle to be "holy and without blemish before God" we have no greater aide than Mary Most Holy who by her free and total "yes" to God crushed the head of the ancient serpent, the devil, and opened the door of the world to the Word made flesh, our Redeemer.
The Feast of the Immaculate Conception in Rome
PrintLONG BEACH, CA (Catholic Online) Today we celebrate with profound joy the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
At the outset, I hasten to stipulate what the Immaculate Conception is not because, for whatever reason, people, even Catholics, often confuse the Immaculate Conception with the Incarnation.
The Immaculate Conception does not refer to the conception of Jesus in the womb of His mother, Mary. That exceedingly momentous event, 'when the Word became flesh and dwelt among us," in the virginal and spotless womb of His mother is solemnly commemorated by the Church nine months before Christmas on March 25 (Solemnity of the Annunciation).
The Immaculate Conception, in contrast, refers to the conception of Mary as the fruit of the pure, marital embrace of her holy parents, St. Joachim and St. Anne. The Church has solemnly defined that "from the first instant" of Our Lady's conception God mightily intervened and by a singular grace and privilege, and in view of the foreseen merits of her Son's saving Death, preserved her from every stain of sin.
This means that the Blessed Virgin Mary was conceived without original sin and furthermore that she never committed any sin, not even a venial sin, throughout her whole life, until the day she was gloriously assumed into heaven body and soul.
The Collect from today's Mass expresses this sublime truth in succinct, precise and accessible language:
"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 ." (Collect from the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary)
Many modern Protestant Christians reject this teaching and see it as one fraught with serious flaws. They argue that it is a Catholic invention that has no basis in Scripture. They further contend that if Mary never sinned then she did not need a savior and this is not only wrong but an affront to Christ Himself who shed His blood on the cross for the redemption of all mankind.
Before I give a brief response to these objections, I think it is illustrative to point out that the Protestant reformers of the 16th century would not exactly agree with many of their modern Protestant counterparts, especially some in the Evangelical wing who tend to be more pronounced in their denial of Catholic Marian doctrines.
The German reformer, Martin Luther, was profuse in his praise of Mary and defended not only her sinlessness but also her Divine Maternity, her Perpetual Virginity, her Assumption into heaven and Marian devotions. Most Evangelical Christians, for whom I have the utmost respect (they are our allies in the defense of life, marriage and religious freedom), would be shocked to know this. But it is true and easy enough to find out but not so easy to explain away.
One of the scriptural sources of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception is Luke 1:28. Tons of ink has been spilt over this verse alone and one could go on endlessly examining it. The key element of this verse is the Greek word, kecharitômenç. Some translations render this word, "highly favored." Indeed, the Blessed Virgin Mary was "highly favored" by God but the original Greek conveys something more.
Without going into a long, detailed word analysis, suffice it to say that, kecharitômenç, translated properly, "full of grace," implies a permanent quality of utter holiness that embraced Mary's whole life, from beginning to end, and that this perduring sinlessness was not of her own making but rather one which was received as a free gift from God, a grace (in Greek, charis, a word which is contained in the very word kecharitômenç).
This is, in Biblical terms, what is meant by the theological term, Immaculate Conception. Immaculate comes from the Latin, sine and macula, literally, without stain. Mary is, by God's grace, full of grace from beginning to end.
The dogma of the Immaculate Conception, far from indicating that Mary had no need of a savior, teaches that she was redeemed, but in a most lavish way.
We are redeemed by the grace of Christ after the fact of our sins. Mary was redeemed by the grace of Christ before sin could even get near her. This was so God could "prepare a worthy Mother for [His] Son" (Preface of today's Mass).
Here's how the Catechism of the Catholic Church explains it:
"The 'splendor of an entirely unique holiness' by which Mary is 'enriched from the first instant of her conception' comes wholly from Christ: she is 'redeemed, in a more exalted fashion, by reason of the merits of her Son'" (492).
We might say, tweaking the ...
At the outset, I hasten to stipulate what the Immaculate Conception is not because, for whatever reason, people, even Catholics, often confuse the Immaculate Conception with the Incarnation.
The Immaculate Conception does not refer to the conception of Jesus in the womb of His mother, Mary. That exceedingly momentous event, 'when the Word became flesh and dwelt among us," in the virginal and spotless womb of His mother is solemnly commemorated by the Church nine months before Christmas on March 25 (Solemnity of the Annunciation).
The Immaculate Conception, in contrast, refers to the conception of Mary as the fruit of the pure, marital embrace of her holy parents, St. Joachim and St. Anne. The Church has solemnly defined that "from the first instant" of Our Lady's conception God mightily intervened and by a singular grace and privilege, and in view of the foreseen merits of her Son's saving Death, preserved her from every stain of sin.
This means that the Blessed Virgin Mary was conceived without original sin and furthermore that she never committed any sin, not even a venial sin, throughout her whole life, until the day she was gloriously assumed into heaven body and soul.
The Collect from today's Mass expresses this sublime truth in succinct, precise and accessible language:
"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 ." (Collect from the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary)
Many modern Protestant Christians reject this teaching and see it as one fraught with serious flaws. They argue that it is a Catholic invention that has no basis in Scripture. They further contend that if Mary never sinned then she did not need a savior and this is not only wrong but an affront to Christ Himself who shed His blood on the cross for the redemption of all mankind.
Before I give a brief response to these objections, I think it is illustrative to point out that the Protestant reformers of the 16th century would not exactly agree with many of their modern Protestant counterparts, especially some in the Evangelical wing who tend to be more pronounced in their denial of Catholic Marian doctrines.
The German reformer, Martin Luther, was profuse in his praise of Mary and defended not only her sinlessness but also her Divine Maternity, her Perpetual Virginity, her Assumption into heaven and Marian devotions. Most Evangelical Christians, for whom I have the utmost respect (they are our allies in the defense of life, marriage and religious freedom), would be shocked to know this. But it is true and easy enough to find out but not so easy to explain away.
One of the scriptural sources of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception is Luke 1:28. Tons of ink has been spilt over this verse alone and one could go on endlessly examining it. The key element of this verse is the Greek word, kecharitômenç. Some translations render this word, "highly favored." Indeed, the Blessed Virgin Mary was "highly favored" by God but the original Greek conveys something more.
Without going into a long, detailed word analysis, suffice it to say that, kecharitômenç, translated properly, "full of grace," implies a permanent quality of utter holiness that embraced Mary's whole life, from beginning to end, and that this perduring sinlessness was not of her own making but rather one which was received as a free gift from God, a grace (in Greek, charis, a word which is contained in the very word kecharitômenç).
This is, in Biblical terms, what is meant by the theological term, Immaculate Conception. Immaculate comes from the Latin, sine and macula, literally, without stain. Mary is, by God's grace, full of grace from beginning to end.
The dogma of the Immaculate Conception, far from indicating that Mary had no need of a savior, teaches that she was redeemed, but in a most lavish way.
We are redeemed by the grace of Christ after the fact of our sins. Mary was redeemed by the grace of Christ before sin could even get near her. This was so God could "prepare a worthy Mother for [His] Son" (Preface of today's Mass).
Here's how the Catechism of the Catholic Church explains it:
"The 'splendor of an entirely unique holiness' by which Mary is 'enriched from the first instant of her conception' comes wholly from Christ: she is 'redeemed, in a more exalted fashion, by reason of the merits of her Son'" (492).
We might say, tweaking the ...
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I is amazing how slow we are as Catholics to really understand the dogmas of the Church. The homily for the vigil of the Immaculate Conception. Repeated the confusion that most catholics have about the Incarnation. It is further confused by the scripture in the Gospel which describes the Incarnation.He also repeated the fact that we do not worship Mary. It is shameful that priest have to do this at Mass when what they should be focusing their homily on Mary as our model. She is fully human. Let it be done to me according to Thy word. She was a gutsy women who by letting it be done to her she risked death right then and there. Remember they stoned unmarried pregnant women in her day. What faith and what a model for us. Amen
Beautifully explained, and thereby helpful in this Year of Faith. We may need to explain what the Immaculate Conception means.
It is common reasoning that here on Earth an average child comes to know its Father through its Mother, even unto grownup children it usually is the Mother who appraises the Father of their requirements & for a child to come to its fulness requires the Father & the Mother to a wholesome healthy family through the respective qualities of the parents again to the reason why the Bible says a woman shall not dress as a man & vice versa referring to the given Qualities to be maintained & developed which God had created in each & to this Quality in the woman(meant for her children) did the serpent take advantage of which basically is to get at the Man, but then "the seed of the woman" come as Jesus to bruise his head through the Enmity that God but between the woman & the serpent unto their seeds, which seeds refer to the First fruits of the Lamb, them who keep the Commandments of God & have the testimony of Jesus mentioned in Rev. Ch 12. Mary as the given Mother of mankind pleads for us to the redemption, against the accusations of the serpent, through Christ unto God to be called as the Mother of the Redeemed, the very reason why she was Chosen by God. For the God who created man knows their needs.
I ask my Catholic brothers and sisters who agree with me to ask the Blessed Mother to pray for the enlightenment of Catholic democrats as we face as dark a time as I have known in my half-century in this life. Catholic democrats just voted a second time for a candidate who is waging an unjust, immoral and unprovoked war against God's Church, our Church. Our only crime, as the Catholic democrats' candidate sees it, is that we choose to obey Our Lord, regarding respect for His precious gift of life, as opposed to obeying a rabidly secularist executive branch and their contempt for God's precious gift. Our Church leaders have made clear they will not obey this unjust law. I am sickened that this is happening in the country which, in my childhood, was a beacon of freedom of religion. What hurts the painful wound even more is that Catholic democrats could go to Mass on Sunday and vote for the author of this monstrous "law" on Tuesday. What could cause Catholic democrats to vote for this? Surely not that their candidate thinks it should be legal to kill girls and boys outside of their mom's womb just after they survived the attempt to kill them in the womb? Surely not that what God calls an abomination, the Catholic democrats' candidate calls marriage? Surely not his refusal to acknowledge Our Lord on Thanksgiving Day? Perhaps Catholic democrats saw dollar signs in front of their eyes. But the brutal "social justice" economy brought on by their candidate is sinking us in unsustainable debt like Greece. It is giving us high unemployment, high poverty, lower incomes and declining personal wealth. I offer the pain I feel to Our Lord. As a child, this attack on His Church is something we heard was happening in countries so far away. Our nuns led us in prayer for those countries. I ask the Blessed Mother to get the Catholic children in other countries to pray for the conversion of Catholic democrats so we in America can have a restoration of freedom of religion and respect for human life and for God's Sacrament of Holy Matrimony.
We are ready to celebrate Christmas once again and everyone who thinks he is "Christian" will for a while be thinking of that wondrous event a couple of thousand years ago.
There is no need to go into how it has been so commercialized that the real meaning of the most significant event in all human history has been more or less reduced to glamorizing the art of gift giving for adults and a child's best bedtime story ever with new toys or clothing to boot.
We should recall the birth of Christ was a really very personal thing for one young woman as well as the amazing singular moment in time which changed the course of history for mankind's existence.
This awesome moment came about as a result of the decision that a young woman made nine months earlier when asked if the Spirit of the Most High God could be allowed to come into her very soul and body in order to bring salvation to suffering humanity. Frightened by the very presence of the Spirit of God to which she had dedicated her life there before her, yet certain of her desire to please her Lord she humbly surrendered herself to His personal plan for her and His universal plan for mankind. That decision, that surrender and that act of faith formed the foundation for what we proudly cherish as Christianity today.
Knowing this we need to view the joy of Christmas not only for God's great gift of His redeeming Son but also the opportunity to thank Mary for her most gracious and humble offering of total personal submission to the will of God for the benefit of all mankind. The shouts and praise hailed to all the kings of this world for their triumphs over the centuries are whispers compared to Mary's gentle but earthshaking voice that night when she softly answered "yes" to God and said "be it done unto me according to your Will".
So, with this perspective, whether we realize it or not we can and do in fact celebrate Christmas every time we devotedly and faithfully say "Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death"..