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| Our Lady of Lourdes - "I am the Immaculate Conception" |
Genesis 3:9-15, 20
Psalm 98:1-4
Ephesians 1:3-6, 11-12
Luke 1:26-38
“I will put enmity between you
and the woman, between your offspring and hers.”
These words found in the third
chapter are often referred to as the ‘protoevangelium’ or ‘first gospel’
because they tell us the good news that humanity is not subject to the
consequences of that first sin forever, but that there will come a savior – the
offspring of the woman who is at enmity with the evil one. This anticipation of
a savior colors the whole Old Testament and finds its fulfillment in the coming
of Christ Jesus in His Incarnation at the Annunciation. Throughout that whole
story, though, we can see that God often works in similar ways, using a pattern
over and over. This use of patterns by God is not because He is uncreative, but
rather because the patterns permit us all to look at events and recognize its
significance because of its likeness to a previous event. We can see the hand
of God at work now because the signs were the same in the past. We see one of
those clear patterns in the story of Eve and Mary.
Eve was created by God and was
entirely free from sin, entirely immaculate, and is presented with an option:
follow the Lord or seek after her own desires. Manifesting her pride, she disobeyed
the will of God and ate of the forbidden fruit. In this, she brings sin upon
her, then upon Adam, and ultimately the two of them bring condemnation to the
whole human race. In this action, Saint Irenaeus, a great defender of the faith
in the early Church, says that Eve took the purity of humanity and, with Adam,
tied it into a great knot.
As we noted, God often works in
patterns, and we all know that the only way to untie a knot is to go back and
undo it in the same way it was formed. And so we must begin again with a woman
entirely clean from all sin. The Immaculate Conception of Mary in the womb of
Saint Anne, which we celebrate today, gives us that woman. Rather than being
cleansed from sin as all of us are, Mary was kept free from all sin from the
first moment of her conception by a special grace of God. She is indeed a blessed
Mother. In our gospel we hear the choice put to her as well: follow the will of
God and bear the Son of God or to turn toward herself. Mary manifests her
humility, submits herself to the gracious will of God and, by bearing the
Christ, helps to bring all of humanity not condemnation but redemption and
salvation. In this she unties that knot made by the first ‘mother of all the
living’ and helps to restore humanity to its purity.
While she has untied the knot of
sin for all humanity, it does not mean that we are now perfect. On the
contrary, quite often in our lives we model ourselves after Eve and reach out
for those forbidden fruits in our midst and tie knots ourselves, for which we later
suffer. On this feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, let us ask our
Blessed Mother to be conceived in our own hearts that she might also work in us
to untie the knots we have made there. She has much experience in this great
work, so let us place our hearts, souls, and lives in her loving hands,
confident that she will accomplish this in us so we might merit that great gift
of salvation.
O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!
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