Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception
Scripture:
Genesis 3:9-15, 20
Ephesians 1:3-6, 11-12
Luke 1:26-38
Reflection:
Mary, Conceived Without Sin, Pray for Us Who Have Recourse to Thee
Have you ever felt your daily world was just not meshing with the world around you?
I walked through crowded downtown Manhattan this Advent day. The streets are crowded with holiday shoppers and explorers. I knew my world was different. Everyone was stopping to talk, admiring this or that, laughing. I was on a mission and being greatly delayed. No straight paths that Isaias promised to speed us along.
I am grieving with a dear friend whose baby was due three days ago, but a month before being born the baby died. He was beautiful, perfectly formed and ready to live, but no. Now all the things of Advent that she could identify with – the waiting and good anticipation, hopes and so, so much more, will not come to pass. There is the world of Advent so beautiful that promises our darkness will be overcome. For my friend who grieves there is only darkness, a world made even darker by failed promises.
We celebrate the Immaculate Conception today. This may be ‘Push Over Mary Monday’, but the beautiful readings for this second Monday of Advent remind us that Mary shares with Jesus this work of Salvation. There could be no better readings than those of this Advent day to accompany the ones for the Immaculate Conception.
Isaias says the deadest desert will provide the most beautiful bouquets. From what we dread, even our cherished neuroses that friends cannot cure, we will find comfort, joy and gladness, sorrow will flee. We will know the impossible is possible with God.
And the hope of a paralyzed friend whom we carry pushes us to new heights of creativity, or at least to the rooftop of the house where Jesus preaches. How could we have done such a thing? When it was over, we five, sat and laughed ourselves silly from the miracle we were part of. Even our promise and plans to repair a damaged roof made us laugh all the more.
Mary is our new Eve. Our first Eve and Adam were just like you and I. The apple doesn’t fall from the tree. So, then we are also just like them. All that God made was good, of course. Only Eve and Adam didn’t do what Mary did. Mary said, “I am yours, Lord. I will do anything for you. I say, ‘yes’. May I do what you desire’”. Mary is so pure. Mary is created without that inherited likeness to Eve. She is given the same opportunity as Eve – sinless and new – a daughter of Eve by God’s gift is sinless. And Mary will say, “Yes, your will be done”. How Eve must have cried for joy after sharing her tears for every other daughter who followed their first mother, placing themselves as more important when it came to saying ‘your will be done’. Some made Eve proud, given the family history, but none could do it on their own. And Mary, pure without sin, is one with her Son on Calvary, united with that openness to the Father’s will. Jesus one with Mary, the Word made flesh; Mary one with Jesus doing the Father’s will.
Your ‘yes’ is light in our world. We need a savior, and your ‘yes’ has brought Jesus into our world. Mary conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.
Fr. William Murphy, CP is a member of Immaculate Conception Community in Jamaica, New York.