Homily Immaculate Conception 2020: Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee

 Homily for Immaculate Conception December 8, 2020

Genesis 3:9-15; Ephesians 1:3-6,11-12 · Luke 1:26-38

Introduction

Imagine a Protestant, Jewish or Muslim neighbour saw you coming to church and asked: “Today is not Sunday, why are you going to Mass on a Tuesday?”  I am guessing that being the good Catholic that you are, you would tell them that today is a holy day of obligation, a special day, like a high holy day.  And we are honouring the Blessed Mother, under the title of the Immaculate Conception.

But the neighbour might still ask: “Why?  Why are you honouring this woman?”  I am sure you already have a good answer for her.  But I would like to offer you a few more things you might say to her, especially by reflecting on the Hail Mary prayer. And I will do so by reflecting on two questions:

1.    What is the Immaculate Conception?

2.    Why is the Immaculate Conception a big deal for us?

Scripture and Theology

If you paid close attention to today’s gospel, you could be forgiven for thinking that today we are celebrating the Immaculate Conception of Jesus.  We heard the angel announce to Mary: “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.”  Clearly, this passage is more fitting for the feast of the Annunciation which we celebrate on March 25, which remembers, as it were, the conception of Jesus, who was also immaculate from the very beginning.

This would be like if you attended a 50^th wedding anniversary and a person stood up to speak; but instead of speaking about the golden couple, he focused his remarks on their children or someone else.

But in fact, the Immaculate Conception we celebrate today is that of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  In 1854, Pope Pius IX declared this dogma, confirming what Catholics and even the Eastern Christians had always believed.  He said:

The most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin (CCC 491).

Thus we believe that not only did Mary not sin in her life, but even at her conception, she did not inherit the sin of Adam and Eve; she was born entirely clean, just like Adam and Eve were when God created them, before they sinned.

Now we don’t get this belief out of thin air; we get it from what God has told us in the Scriptures.  And we can this in the Hail Mary prayer, which comes from gospels.  And when we pray it, we not only profess our belief in the Immaculate Conception, but its words also show us where that belief comes from.

We begin the prayer by saying: “Hail [Mary], full of grace! The Lord is with you.”  We just heard these words said by the angel Gabriel in the gospel.  He greeted her by telling her that she is full of grace, or translated another way, she is highly favoured by God.  You see, grace is God’s free gift of his life to us.  The Catechism defines grace as ". . . favor, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become children of God, adoptive sons, partakers of the divine nature and of eternal life" (CCC 1996).  The angel thus tells Mary that she is full of this divine gift.  A few verses later he says to her, “you have found favour with God.”  This greeting, among others led the first Christians and those that came after to believe that Mary was conceived without original sin.

But there is more.  In the second part of the Hail Mary, we say: “Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb" (Lk. 1:42).  These are the words of Elizabeth, Mary's cousin.  When Mary visited her, Elizabeth cried out twice that Mary was Blessed and John the Baptist, confirmed this, by leaping in her womb, because he recognized a special presence of mother and child.

And so, think about that!  God decided that this one woman, among all human beings, would be exempt from something which befalls all the rest of us, original sin!  What a special privilege for her!  What a great example for us to behold!

Christian Life and Conclusion

But besides being in awe at this great thing God has done for Mary, we need understand what this Immaculate Conception means for us.  Surely it is easy to understand why Jesus was without sin from the very beginning, being God and all.  But why Mary?

I remember a story I heard told about an Italian man, a high-ranking officer in the army.  His mother died and he went home for the funeral.  At the funeral Mass, the man could not stop crying, I mean not just tears rolling down his cheeks, but the whole works, audible crying.  His father then whispered to him and told him to knock it off as he was embarrassing himself and the family; he was a man, after all, a man’s man, a military man.  Well the son looked the father squarely in the eye and said, “My mother has died; leave me alone.”  And then added: “If it were you there in the coffin, I would not be crying.  But it is my mother.”

No wonder then that this boy, Jesus, had such an intimate bond with his mother that he made her pure from the very beginning, an inviolate vessel to bring God into this world.  The reality is that none of us gets to choose our mothers.  But supposing you could choose or mould your mother, would you not make a perfect one in all things, especially one without sin?  What son would not do everything in his power for his mother? Well, Jesus could do that, and he did! 

We are fortunate that what Jesus did for his mother in a singular manner, he does promise to do for us his brothers and sisters in a general way

·        Just as the angel told Mary that she was "full of grace," the Lord says the same thing to us in his Word and in his Sacraments.  We too can be filled with grace when we attentively hear his Word and worthily approach the sacraments, seeking especially the grace of forgiveness and mercy, the grace of healing, the grace of communion with God.

·        Just as the angel told Mary "the Lord is with you," Jesus assured us that he would be with us until the end of time, when we are gathered together in his name, and especially in his Body and Blood which we celebrate at the Eucharist.

·        Just as Elizabeth was inspired to blurt out that Mary was blessed among women, we too can count on the many blessings we receive from the Lord, especially those that come from our living out the teaching of Jesus in the beatitudes, when we are blessed to be poor in spirit, humble, meek, persecuted and most of all living righteously.

The Blessed Mother’s special place in the Church was an inspiration for centuries of Christians until the Protestant Reformation 400 years ago.  And you may not know this but in Islam, Mary has a special place, because she is the mother of Jesus, who they honour, not as the Son of God, but as a prophet of God. Even more recently, football invokes her when they must make a desperate pass and win the game, in the so-called Hail Mary pass. 

Conclusion

We must continue to honour the Blessed Mother, who has paved the way for us, warmly receiving the grace of her Immaculate Conception and preserving it undefiled until her Son took her to the Father.

That is why we invoke her help whenever we say the Hail Mary, asking her to pray for us, now and at the hour of death, so that we too might be filled with grace, we too might be blessed, so that we too can worthily bear her son in our bodies and souls, he who comes to us in the Eucharist.  And most of all, may her example and her intercession allow us to respond to God like she did: "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.  May it be done to me according to your word."