Reflection/Homily for the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary 8th December 2023

Reflection/Homily for the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary 8th December 2023 

Genesis 3:9-15,20. Psalm 98:1,2-3ab,3cd-4. Ephesians 1:3-6,11-12. Luke 26b-38.

The Solemnity celebrates Mary as the virgin who is "full of grace" (Luke 1:28), as the Archangel Gabriel said at the Annunciation. From the earliest times, the Catholic Church expressed and developed the belief that Mary was conceived without original sin, but it was only in 1854 that Pope Pius IX proclaimed it a dogma. We give thanks to God for having chosen the Blessed Virgin Mary as the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, and our mother, and having preserved her from sin.

Mary is the sign of victory over the serpent. She is the woman mentioned in today's first reading, "I will make you and the woman hate each other; her offspring and yours will always be enemies. Her offspring will crush your head, and you will bite her offspring's heel" (Gen.3:15). Mary is the new Eve from which a new race, the Church, will be born.

The woman's offspring that will crush the head of the serpent is being fulfilled through the coming  of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Blessed Virgin Mary whose coming was announced in today's Gospel by the Archangel Gabriel. He greeted Mary, saying, "Hail full of grace, the Lord is with you" (Luke 1:28). Mary was greatly troubled with these greetings and wondered what these words meant (cf.Luke 1:29). Archangel Gabriel then broke the news that she was to be the mother of our Saviour. He explained to her in detail how this will take place by the power of the Holy Spirit. She consented to God's will, saying, "I am the handmaid of the Lord, let it be done to me according to your words" (Luke 1:38).

Through the merits of Christ and an extraordinary special grace, Mary is preserved from all stains of origin sin from the very first moment of her conception. God loved her with a unique predilection. He filled her with the greatest abundance of his celestial gifts, and her participation in the divine nature exceeds that of all the angels and saints together. Her life reflects so great a fullness of innocence and sanctity that a more exalted creature cannot be conceived of, except by the Creator himself. She thus occupies a unique place among the sons and daughters of men because, after Christ, she possesses the greatest dignity of any being in the whole of creation. At the same time, she remains very close to us. In her unsurpassable excellence, she is a perfect type of the Church on account of her faith, her charity, and her perfect union with Christ. Moreover, she is an example for us in our practice of all virtues. We need to look up to our mother, Mary, as the ideal we must strive to emulate. Coupled with the grace of Christ, her intercessory power is so great that the more devotion to her spreads, the more believers are drawn into closer union with her Son and the Father.

As Catholics, we owe no apology to anyone for our devotion to her. If God, the Father, could honour her by making her his beloved daughter, making her, the Mother of his only begotten and the spouse of the Holy Spirit, who are we not to honour the one that is full of grace? Let us fulfil our resolution to have recourse to Mary more frequently during the day, beginning now, we will experience the fruit of entrusting our needs to her as described by one of the Fathers of the Church. The Blessed Virgin Mary is rest for those who work, consolation for those who mourn, and relief for those who are sick. She is a refuge for those caught in the storms of life, a fountain of compassion for sinners, a sweet relief for the sorrowful, and a sure source of aid for those who pray.

Through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary, may God grant us the grace to accept and do his will at all times through Christ our Lord. Amen.