LET US CELEBRATE THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION OF BLESSED MOTHER MARY

As we celebrate the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of our Blessed Mother Mary, I would like to wish us all “Happy Feast”! What we are celebrating today is beyond a Dogma proclaimed in 1854 by Pope Pius IX. We are celebrating the fulfillment of God’s promise in today’s first reading. Following the fall of Adam and Eve, God promised to salvage humanity through a woman when he said to the ancient serpent: “I will put enmity between you and the Woman…” (Genesis 3:9-20). Because of the fall of Adam and Eve, sin, disobedience, and death have entered the world. Individually and collectively, we experience these realities. The tendency to disobey God, to be lured into the seduction of Satan and his agents is an experience we have right from childhood. In Mother Mary, God has restored to us what we lost because of the sin of Adam and Eve.

Historical Recognition of Mary's Immaculate Conception

Before the proclamation of this dogma, Christians have honored Mary as the Mother of Jesus, as the Immaculate for centuries. The popular piety has many representations of Mary of the Immaculate and has invoked her intercession under the title of “Mary conceived without sin”. Therefore, what the Church did was to officially recognize this popular devotion and present it as a truth that is in line with the Gospel and thus should be believed by all Catholics. Until 1854, the year of the proclamation of the Dogma, there was no apparition of Mary where she presented herself as the “IMMACULATE CONCEPTION”. It was with this title that she presented herself to St. Bernadette, a little girl of 14 in Lourdes, France, on 25th of March, 1858. And for 18 times, our Blessed Mother Mary appeared at this holy shrine. I would like to underline today what I consider as the core message of Lourdes.

The Significance of the Lourdes Apparitions

Of the 18 apparitions that took place between 11th February and 16th of July 1858, Mother Mary only revealed her name during the 6th apparition on 25th of March, being the feast of the Annunciation of the Angel Gabriel to Mary. Before revealing her name, Mary taught Bernadette catechism, given that she hadn’t received any yet due to her difficulty getting educated. In the 3rd apparition, Mary first spoke to Bernadette. Bernadette had gone to the grotto on this very day with a paper and pen. She asked Mother Mary: “What is your name and what is it that you wish from me”. Mary smiled and said to her: “It is not necessary for you to write down what I have to say”. “Would you please return here for the next 15 days!”. Bernadette agreed. This was the covenant that Mary established with her friend Bernadette. The respect and simplicity with which Mary conversed with Bernadette is quite striking. Mary needed the consent, the “Yes” of Bernadette, just as God needed the Consent of Mary on the day of Annunciation.

Mother Mary's Message of Conversion

“Pray for the conversion of Sinners”: During the 8th Apparition, Mother Mary asked Bernadette to pray and do penance and invite people to do the same for the conversion of sinners. Mother Mary also asked Bernadette to kiss the ground and eat the grass growing below the grotto as a sign of penitence for sinners. Many could not understand this gesture and took her to be a fool. God’s ways and thoughts are not like ours, says the Lord in Isaiah 55:8. The obedience of Bernadette to Mary’s request was vital in the whole apparitions.

            The Revelation of Mary's Name

On the 25th of March, being the 16th apparition, when Mary had revealed to Bernadette the essential message of her mission, she then revealed her name to her saying: “I AM THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION!” Before this revelation, Mary made 3 gestures that represent the 3 theological virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity: Firstly, she joined her hands, teaching us that through prayer we grow in faith. Secondly, she spread her hands and extended her arms towards the Earth. In this way, she shows us that she cares about the fate of her children who are facing all kinds of difficulties here on earth and that she listens to our prayers by collecting them in her hands and offering them to her God.This second gesture represents the virtue of Hope. 

Then comes the third gesture: she brings her two hands up to her heart and raises her eyes to heaven, thus imitating her son Jesus (John 11:14 and 17:1). In this gesture, Mary contemplates how much she is loved by God. She teaches us to pray with Faith, Hope, but also Charity, discovering how much we are loved by God. She invites us to look unto her Son, Jesus. She is not at the center; she directs us to her Son, She is totally dedicated to God. It was after these gestures that she revealed her name to Bernadette. The little girl of 14 ran to meet her parish priest and share the Good News with him. On her way to the parish house, she kept repeating: “I am the Immaculate Conception”.

            Embracing the Immaculate Conception

We all know the verb “I am” is often used to qualify someone, define one’s identity, who we are essentially. Proclaiming and believing that Mary is the Immaculate Conception means that we recognize that by “a singular grace and privilege of almighty God, and in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race, Mary was preserved right from the first moment of her conception from ‘every stain of original sin”. In Mother Mary, we contemplate what St. Paul wrote in today's first reading: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens, as he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish (Immaculate) before him…” (Ephesians 1, 3-12). She is the “Immaculate” for us.

Let us with Mary praise and glorify God today. With her, we have become adopted sons and daughters of the most high God. Let us contemplate in her what God has destined us to be ever before the creation of the world, thus the fall of Adam and Eve. May Mary the Immaculate Conception intercede for us, for our world, every family, home, and lead us to her Son, Jesus!

 

Happy Feast to all. God bless you!