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December 9, 2024Dear faithful of the Parish of Saint Mary, dedicated to her Immaculate Conception.
I am happy to be among you today on the occasion of your patronal feast. The solemnity of the Immaculate Conception is a very important celebration for the whole Church but I am sure it is especially important for you faithful who are members of this parish.
First of all, let us remember: what is essential to our Christian faith in this statement that the Church recognized as a dogma in 1854? What does the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary mean? It means that Mary, in anticipation of the redemptive death of Jesus, was conceived without the original sin that has instead marked the entire history of humanity since its beginning.
In a certain sense, we can say that Mary is the first redeemed in humanity because she participated in advance in the redemption and was thus able to perfectly accept the will of God. This is also suggested to us by the first reading from the book of Genesis, where in addition to the dialogue between God and Adam on the sin committed, God himself announces that a woman will crush the head of that serpent who deceived us.
Furthermore, how can we see that Mary was conceived without original sin? We can see it in the Gospel: the angel Gabriel addresses Mary calling her "full of Grace", which indicates God's predilection for this singular creature. She is totally enveloped in the grace of God from her conception. We see that Mary is without sin from her availability to the will of God, her total openness to accepting his Word, so that this Word becomes flesh in her.
We, on the other hand, are not immaculate. The consequence of original sin is our closure towards God and towards others, our resistance to accepting God's will, our unavailability to accepting God's Word, our resistance to love and to be loved. What we cannot obtain with our own efforts, God's grace can obtain. This is why the letter to the Ephesians tells us that we were loved, chosen and elected before the foundation of the world not for our merits but by the pure grace of God, which manifested itself in the Virgin Mary, who gave the world the son of God, our redeemer and savior. In Christ we were chosen to be children of God.
Brothers and sisters, how important it is to be aware that God loves us with an unconditional love. His is a totally free and gratuitous love, without calculation and without blackmail as is sometimes the love between people in the world. Today's feast reminds us of the infinite love of God who has predestined us in Christ to be children of God forever. Our task is to say yes to the grace of God, yes to the love of God for us. Mary pronounced her yes perfectly. That is why we turn to her in prayer and ask her intercession, that she may help us welcome the Word of God; she may help us to start over again, every time we sin and resume the path of holiness.
So, what does it mean to be parishioners of a parish dedicated to the Immaculate Conception, what does living intensely the spiritual reference to Mary, Immaculate Virgin, ask of every Christian? Let us first recognize her decisive place in the history of Salvation: it is Mary with her yes who made the incarnation possible. Mary always brings Jesus to us and brings us to Jesus. Her Immaculate Conception reminds us of our need for the grace of God.
No one can save themselves by their own strength. No one can save themselves all alone. Mary intercedes for us, and she is the Mother of the Church. We are all her children, and we turn to her. Finally, Mary urges us to be docile to the grace of God, to the will of God: let it be done to me according to your word. We too are called to obey God as she knew how to do.
Finally, I make you a proposal: there is a prayer that helps us remember the moment in which the Immaculate Virgin pronounces her full and free yes to the will of God. It is the Angelus prayer. It is a simple prayer in which we contemplate the angel's announcement to Mary and the Virgin's response: here I am, let it be done to me according to your word; and the mystery of the incarnation in her womb: the word became flesh and came to dwell among us. If we recite this prayer every day, we will be closer to the Immaculate Virgin and we will feel her intercession.
In this way, we too could be docile to the will of God, become bearers of the Word of God and announce the joy of the Gospel to the world.
