HOMILY FOR IMMACULATE CONCEPTION – DEC. 8
THEME: WAS THE EVER BLESSED MARY IMMACULATELY CONCEIVED?
BY: Fr A. N Abiagom, CM
In Luke 1:35 at the annunciation in relation to the birth Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour, Mary asked “How will this be, since I do not know man?” In the response given by the angel Gabriel who declared God’s plan of salvation through her, it was clear that through the Holy Spirit that would come upon her and the power of the Most High that would overshadow her, the possibility of the fulfillment of God’s plan cannot be doubted (v.35).
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In biomedical and scientific world with respect to our age, there are children born free of HIV even though their parents are infected with the virus. Many questions are not asked in doubt as to how this is possible due to faith in Biomedical Science. If the wisdom given to humanity by God could bring about such a breakthrough in the Biomedical Sciences, why should the Immaculate conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary be perceived as an impossibility before God to whom all things are possible (Mark 10:27)?
God who made possible the incarnation of Jesus Christ our LORD (John 1:14) made the Immaculate conception of Mary possible.
What is the doctrine of the “Immaculate Conception”? It is the belief that Mary was conceived without “Original Sin” (the Sin of Adam and Eve through which death entered the world). Every human person shares in this sin at birth and the reason why Christians are baptized in order to be cleansed from it, so as to become children of God and members of the Church in light of baptism as a sacrament.
Mary at conception in the womb of her mother (Ann) was preserved from “Original Sin” by God because she (Mary) would conceive and bear Jesus Christ in her womb. It is lucid in the gospel, that “Jesus will be born to save his people from their sins (Mt 1:21). Since it is a “good tree” that can bear “good fruit” (Mt 7:18) Mary was sanctified at conception to be bear the Holy Child who was born King, and is King forever.
In Genesis 3:15, at the proto-evangel (First Gospel) the “Immaculate conception of Mary” was implied in the ‘enmity’ that God said “He would put between the serpent and the woman, and between her seed and that of the woman”. The aforesaid ‘enmity’ can be construed in light of the battle between righteousness and unrighteousness, light and darkness, love and hatred.
Since light would always shine in darkness without the darkness being able to overcome it (John 1:5), the preservation of Mary from original sin is in relation to the birth of the victory over sin and death as fulfilled in the birth of Christ
Let us Joyfully celebrate this great Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary because it was through the act of her preservation from “Original Sin” that she was made to be full of grace (Luke 1:28b)and it is by being privileged to have the Lord with her (v. 28c) that the incarnation we celebrate at Christmas (Luke 2:7) became a reality.
Today and always, we give the “hyper- dulia” to the one who is “full of grace” (Luke 1:28b), and whom filled with the Holy Spirit declared that “all generations will call her blessed for the great things the one who is mighty has done for her ” (Luke 1:48).
Happy Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Love.
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