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Gospel: Luke 1: 26-38
The angel Gabriel was sent from God
to a town of Galilee called Nazareth,
to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph,
of the house of David,
and the virgin’s name was Mary.
And coming to her, he said,
“Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.”
But she was greatly troubled at what was said
and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.
Then the angel said to her,
“Do not be afraid, Mary,
for you have found favor with God.
Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son,
and you shall name him Jesus.
He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High,
and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father,
and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever,
and of his Kingdom there will be no end.”
But Mary said to the angel,
“How can this be,
since I have no relations with a man?”
And the angel said to her in reply,
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.
Therefore the child to be born
will be called holy, the Son of God.
And behold, Elizabeth, your relative,
has also conceived a son in her old age,
and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren;
for nothing will be impossible for God.”
Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.
May it be done to me according to your word.”
Then the angel departed from her.
The Gospel of the Lord.
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On this Feast of the Immaculate Conception, we celebrate our belief that Mary was conceived without sin. For this reason, she becomes a worthy dwelling place of the Lord, who comes to us as child this Christmas.
Our need for redemption is rooted in the story of Adam of Eve, who disobeyed God while dwelling in the Garden of Eden, as we heard in our first reading.
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It began when Satan convinced Eve to eat from the tree of knowledge. Eve then shared that fruit with Adam. While Satan promised Eve possession of all knowledge, all that she and Adam learned is that they were naked.
This is the marquee tactic of the devil – making false promises.
In Eve’s case, Satan promised wisdom, sophistication, power, and maturity. She could be like God! It sounded so good, until she and Adam realized they were “naked” – broken, disconnected from one another, and estranged from God.
The impact of that decision still bears fruit today. How many people feel “naked” – alone, unhappy, disconnected from others, even from God?
As Saint Augustine reminds us, “Our hearts are restless, O LORD, until they rest in you.”
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Was all of this Eve’s fault? Or does Adam share some of the blame?
In Genesis, chapter 2, God commands Adam to “work and guard” the Garden of Eden. It was Adam’s responsibility to protect it. Eve didn’t let the snake in; it seems Adam did, either by choice or, more likely, by negligence.
This is how temptation often enters our hearts, when we’re “negligent”; when we let our guard down. As Jesus will later say in the Gospels: “Stay awake! Be alert! Watch!”
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The trickery of Satan in the Garden of Eden leads to the first prophecy given about the Virgin Mary’s birth: “I will put enmity between you and the woman,” the Lord says in Genesis, “between your seed and her seed.”
The sin of Satan’s “seed” never enters the Virgin Mary because she’s conceived without sin. This is what the Feast of the Immaculate Conception celebrates. As the angel Gabriel will say years later to Mary when he appears to her, “Hail, favored one!”
In the original Greek, Gabriel’s proclamation, “Hail, favored one!” is a single word: kecharitomene. It’s only used once in the entire bible – at the Annunciation – making it even more important…and difficult to translate with precision.
Some scholars have translated the angel’s words not as, “Hail, favored one,” but, “Hail, full of grace that will come.”
Such a translation makes sense when trying to understand the dogma of the Immaculate Conception because Mary’s conception without sin was only possible because of her redemption, which will be won by Jesus at the Cross.
“The power of the Most High will overshadow you,” Gabriel tells her. This term, “overshadow,” is used only four times in the Old Testament – most notably in the Book of Exodus, when the glory of God overshadows the tabernacle of Moses.
Just as God journeyed with the Jews in the desert by dwelling in the tabernacle, so now God will become fully present through his Son, dwelling in the tabernacle of Mary’s womb. Again, she is only worthy to be the dwelling place of the Lord because she was conceived without sin.
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Mary’s response to the angel Gabriel is one of surrender. “Let it be done unto me according to your word.”
Here we find the path to holiness for every believer. Holiness is not trying to do the Lord’s will while gritting our teeth; holiness is surrendering our future – in fact, our very selves – to the Lord in trust and humility.
This type of obedience stands in contrast to the sin of Adam and Eve, who believed they no longer had a need for God; they believed eating the forbidden fruit would make them happier people. In hindsight we see just how wrong they were.
Yet how many of us still struggle to surrender, placing our entire lives into the hands of God, as if we’d somehow be happier living life on our own?
As we continue our journey towards Christmas, what does it look like for me to surrender – to obey the Lord – as Mary did?
Doing so always leads to life in abundance.
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Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us.
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Image credits: (1) The Immaculate Conception, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (2) Biblical Archeological Society (3) EWTN.com