Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary (II)

The Solemnity of our Lady’s Immaculate Conception takes us back to the Garden of Eden, the place where our First Parents lived. I believe that it is hard for us now to imagine how fresh and lovely everything was in the garden. Nothing had grown old; nothing had withered. Everything was strong and full of life. Everything was full of promise and possibility.

Well, God originally made the world to be like that. He created us in innocence. We could have lived that way forever—without any deceit or betrayal, without any hurt or meanness, without selfishness or hardness of heart.

BUT, as we know very well, the human race did not persevere in innocence. We sinned. We had to leave the garden. Years, centuries, millennia went by—and the world grew cynical and crusty with malice, ignorance, and sorrow…

BUT, you know, the Garden of Eden was never completely forgotten, it became like a dream. The holy men and women of ancient times longed for a fresh start, for a new birth, for another garden of freshness and promise. And God answered. God planted the new Garden in the womb of St. Ann. God made a new Eve, untouched by the sin of the world, to be the mother of the new Adam. That new Eve is our blessed Mother, the Virgin Mary.

We human beings cannot refresh the world. We cannot make the world clean and promising and new. But God can. God can bring good out of evil. God can turn the cross, which was an instrument of inhuman torture, the perfect symbol of mankind’s malice—God can turn the cross of agony and death into the tree of life.

God can give the world a new Eve, a new mother. And He did! He made the Blessed Virgin Mary, that’s why we are so happy today, that’s why we celebrate her Immaculate Conception!!

This is what Advent and our Year of Faith is all about – not just waiting for Christ, but recognizing His coming and doing something about it. HOWEVER, my brother, my sister, this kind of discipleship is not without cost. A sword shall pierce your heart, Mary was told. And so shall it pierce the heart of every true disciple. But like Mary we can take comfort in God’s presence within us. As Jesus told us, if we love Him and keep His word, His Father will love us and they will come and make their home with us.

Christ within us. Christ all around us. Christ leading us. We need only murmur with our Lady, “Whatever you say, Lord,” and then do it ■