Mary of the Immaculate Conception

By Fr. ROY CIMAGALA, roycimagala@gmail.com
December 4, 2017

WE once again celebrate this Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary on December 8, a holy day of obligation in our country. With it we are reminded of the great privilege given to one of us, Mary of Nazareth, who was chosen many centuries ago to be the mother of the Son of God who had to become man to save us and to bring us back to God, our Father.

With this celebration, we are told that Mary was conceived without original sin. This is how the Eucharistic preface of the solemnity explains the reason why.

“For you (referring to God the Father) preserved the Most Blessed Virgin Mary from all stain of original sin, so that in her, endowed with the rich fullness of your grace, you might prepare a worthy Mother for your Son and signify the beginning of the Church, his beautiful Bride without spot or wrinkle.”

The Eucharistic preface continues: “She, the most pure Virgin, was to bring forth a Son, the innocent Lamb who would wipe away our offenses; you placed her above all others to be for your people an advocate of grace and a model of holiness.”

It’s good that we go through these words, this prayer, slowly if only to savor the tremendous, awesome truth of faith that should richly nourish our souls and inspire us to pursue holiness wholeheartedly no matter what.

This truth about Mary in relation to us should fill us with joy and a great sense of confidence that what seems to us to be impossible to reach and attain can indeed be achieved.

We may not have the privilege that Mary had of being conceived sinless and remaining sinless all throughout our life, but it’s good to look at Mary, now our Mother as given to us by Christ himself, so we can be inspired and consoled to pursue holiness in our vale of tears here on earth.

To be sure, Mary, though conceived without sin and sinless all throughout her life, was exposed to all the temptations and the sins of men, because she was and continues to be most close and most identified with her Son who bore all the sins of men.

Her sinlessness was not one of a blissful ignorance of the reality of sin. Her closeness and complete identification with her Son made her know the very core of evil and sin in the world. But like her Son too, she knew how to handle all those. And that is by suffering the way Christ suffered for our sins. That’s why she’s referred to also the Mother of Sorrows.

It’s true that she was not crucified the way Christ was crucified. But her suffering perfectly mirrored the extreme suffering of her Son. In fact, we can consider her suffering a very heroic since it was experienced in a quiet and hidden way.

While all of us who try to follow Christ can be regarded as co-redeemers with Christ in the sense that we also have to suffer, die and resurrect with Christ, Mary can be described as the co-redemptrix par excellence.

Deepening our devotion to Mary of the Immaculate Conception can only help us to effectively handle the reality of evil and sin in this world as we pursue the real and ultimate purpose of our life. And that is to be holy as our heavenly Father is holy.