Gn 3:9-15,20
Ps 98:1-4
Eph 1:3-6, 11-12
Lk 1:26-38
Today we celebrate the Solemnity
of the Immaculate Conception, a major feast in the Church and a holy day of
obligation. The dogma of the Immaculate Conception declared by Pius IX in
1854 states that " .
. . from the first moment
of her conception, by a singular privilege and grace granted
by God,
in view of the merits of Jesus
Christ, the Savior of the human
race, Mary was preserved exempt from all stain of original
sin."
This feast has a long and controversial history.
Reading an abbreviated account of it in the Catholic Encyclopedia gives
the impression that compared to debates over the
Immaculate Conception in the 12th and 13th centuries, the current debates on global
warming have been civilized, cordial and extremely polite. Much of the debate centered on
determining the moment when Mary's soul was sanctified. Was it before, during or after its infusion
into her body? These are arguments that don't surface often today. Thus,
rather than focusing on the metaphysical we are better served by considering
the readings from scripture and contemplating their meaning on the occasion of
this great feast.
The reading from Exodus recounting the sin of
Adam and Eve and the recounting of the Annunciation from Luke’s
Gospel form a parentheses. Action and
reaction. Doing and undoing. Disobedience and obedience. The sin of Adam and Eve had little or nothing
to do with an apple or any other kind of fruit in the objective sense.
The interchange with the serpent about the fruit found on the tree in the
center of the garden, the tree which God explicitly forbade Adam and Eve to
taste, is a metaphor for something complex and uniquely human, that is, the
action of free will. The ability to say
yes or no. The ability to choose or
reject a course of action. The conscious
decision to obey or disobey. The battle between humility and hubris. Even today much of human sin turns on the
same axis of obedience and disobedience that we hear of in this most ancient book.
In Genesis we hear of Eve's
radical disobedience. Despite being aware of the injunction not to eat of
the tree's fruit, it took little persuasion on the part of the serpent for Eve
to eat the fruit and share it with Adam.
The ancient author of Genesis understood modern human nature well. It is amazing how little persuasion we need
to intentionally sin. The contrast
between Eve's intentional disobedience and Mary's obedience could not be
greater.
Because she was preserved from original
sin, Mary's "yes," her radical obedience to the will of God, could be
perfect. There was most certainly fear and confusion on Mary's part. We hear it in her word's in the Gospel, “How
can this be?” What thoughts went
through her mind as she said this? What
thoughts came into consciousness when she heard the angel's message? The answer matters little because we hear her
yes. That yes is the only thing that matters.
Mary's yes, her fiat, changed the history of the world.
That exquisite yes continues to govern the
movement of the world in the present.
Mary's
yes that echoed, and continues to echo, through the universe more loudly than
the cumulative sound of all the bombs ever dropped.
Mary's fiat,
"Ecce ancilla Domini; fiat
mihi secundum verbum tuum" continues to
echo through the universe. Her yes will
echo even after the universe as we know it has ended.
“Behold,
I am the handmaid of the Lord.
May it be done to me according to your word.”
May it be done to me according to your word.”
_________________________________________________________________________
The photo at the top is of the Basilique
Notre-Dame de Fourvière in Lyon, France, built between 1872 and 1884. It
is dedicated to the Virgin Mary, who is attributed with saving Lyon from the
bubonic plague that devastated Europe in 1643.
Each year on 8 December, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, Lyon
thanks the Virgin for saving the city in the Fête des Lumières or the Festival
of Lights. The Virgin is also credited
with saving the city a number of other times, such as from a Cholera epidemic
in 1832, and from Prussian invasion in 1870.
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