Tuesday December 8 Luke 1:26-38
A lot is happening within the Catholic Church today. In addition to us still being in
the holy season of Advent, today is the 50th Anniversary of the closing of the Second
Vatican Council.
And back in March, when Pope Francis announced that he was declaring an
extraordinary jubilee year, a Special Year of Mercy he told the world that it would
begin today: on the the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed
Virgin Mary.
(Ordinary Jubilee Years, incidentally, are every 25 years. The last Ordinary Jubilee
Year was in 2000, the next will be in 2025. Having this “extra” one now, is why it is
called an extraordinary jubilee year. )
So with all this going on today, we certainly don’t want to lose sight of the
importance of the very holy-day we are celebrating: The Immaculate Conception of
the Blessed Virgin Mary. This is also one of the more misunderstood holy days in
that some believe we are celebrating the Conception of Jesus Christ today, we are
not: that took place 9 months before Christmas back on March 25th and is called the
Feast of the Annunciation of the Lord.
Today we celebrate that Mary was conceived, 9 months before her birth, by her
parents Joachim and Anne in the usual way children are conceived. But unlike the
rest of us, God preserved Mary immune from original sin. This belief is part of our
rich Catholic Tradition and has been for centuries, although the story of Mary’s
Immaculate Conception does not appear in our Bible.
And that’s the main reason why today’s celebration is often confused with the March
25th Feast of the Annunciation of the Lord. To “add” to the confusion, the Gospel
reading for each of these holy days is the same. Luke Chapter 1, verses 26-38.
So why are these two days so closely link? Well, the reason why Mary was chosen
by God to be preserved immune from original sin, is because God knew that
someday Mary would have this encounter with the Angel Gabriel asking her to be
the Mother of Jesus Christ. And the reason why God sent the Angel Gabriel to Mary
to invite her to be the Mother of Jesus Christ, is because God had preserved her
immune from original sin back at her Immaculate Conception. The two events go
hand-in-hand.
And now Mary’s Immaculate Conception is being linked with the Year of Mercy.
Why do you suppose we are doing that?
Mary has many titles: the Mother of God, Our Lady, the Blessed Mother, the Queen
of Heaven, to name just a few. But she is also called The Mother of Mercy. Which is
why it is so fitting to begin our special Year of Mercy on a day in which we honor
Mary.
The word Mercy has two meanings. It can be used to describe a situation in which
we receive something we do not deserve, or when we are spared receiving some
punishment which we do deserve.
Now if Mary is the Mother of Mercy, then Jesus could then be described as Mercy
itself. This seems to fit nicely with our two-part definition of the word “Mercy”:
receiving something good we don’t deserve, and being spared of something bad we
do deserve.
Jesus Christ is the greatest gift we will ever receive, without question we do not
deserve this divine gift. It is only through the Mercy of God, giving us far more than
we deserve that Jesus came to earth in the first place. Additionally, Jesus sacrificed
His own life so that we would be spared the deserved punishment passed down
from our first parents. It is only through God’s mercy that we are spared the
punishment we deserve.
And then there’s Mary. The only exception to the “who deserves what” rule. If
anyone could possibly be worthy to receive the gift of Jesus Christ, it would be Mary,
for God prepared her from the moment of her conception to eventually be the first
to receive this gift. And if there is anyone who didn’t deserve the punishment
handed down from our first parents, the stain of original sin, it would be Mary who
God preserved her immune from original sin.
Which is why we honor Mary today. All these other things going on in the Catholic
Church today are wonderful, but none of it is as wonderful as Mary: the Mother of
God, Our Lady, the Blessed Mother, the Queen of Heaven, and the Mother of Mercy.