Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception Year A
Isaiah 2:1-5
Ps. 122:1-2, 3-4, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9
Romans 13:11-14
Matthew 24:37-44
On Dec. 8, the Church celebrates the Immaculate Conception, the unique privilege of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God. It means that when she was conceived in the womb of St. Ann, her mother, she was preserved, by the special intervention of God, from what Catholic theology calls Original Sin. The solemn dogmatic definition of this mystery took place in 1854, to be followed shortly after by the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin in Lourdes, where she used the same title for St. Bernadette Soubirous.
But the mystery had been present for a long time in the history of the Church. Ancient hymns like Tota Pulchra (“All Beautiful”) recall it. It had already been supported for a long time, especially in Spain (in Rome, the Column of the Immaculate Conception is in Piazza Spagna as a tribute of the Pope to that nation’s defense of the dogma). All Hispanic countries prayed one way or another to the Pura y Limpia Concepción (“Pure and Unstained Conception”), as countless images of the Blessed Virgin witness. Above all, we need to stress the fact that this is the title by which she is revered as the Patroness of the United States of America.
Today’s liturgical texts recall the mystery in a variety of ways. Thus, the prayers point out the way the Father acted to avoid the contamination of sin: “You preserved her from every stain by virtue of the Death of your Son, which you foresaw … ” (Collect Prayer), “on account of your prevenient grace” (Prayer over the Offerings), “in a singular way you preserved Blessed Mary” (Prayer after Communion). On the other hand, other texts present the positive aspect of the divine intervention: “He has clothed me with a robe of salvation, and wrapped me in a mantle of justice, like a bride adorned with her jewels” (Entrance Antiphon), “endowed (her) with the rich fullness of your grace” (Preface).
This last reference connects with today’s Gospel, which points out the root and origin of such a singular privilege as the Blessed Virgin enjoyed. When the Archangel greeted Mary, he addressed her not by name but by a revealing attribute. The translation we use says: “full of grace.” It is a good one, given the limitations we face to translate the term into our modern languages. The Greek term is kecharitoméne, which is a passive participle in perfect tense. The verbal root is char- from which comes the term “grace” (Greek cháris.) The perfect tense indicates an action performed in the past whose effects are still present. But what is especially relevant is the passive voice. The reason is what commentators of the Bible call the “divine passive.” The “divine passive” is a grammatical construction, primarily in Greek, where a verb is in the passive voice, but the context implies that God is the unstated agent performing the action. This is used to emphasize that the action is divinely produced (for instance, in the phrase “your sins are forgiven” in Mark 2:5, Jesus implies God is the one doing the forgiving). In sum, the term kecharitomene indicates an action gratuitously performed by God in the past whose effects are still determinant in the present.
Theological reasoning, in pondering the mystery of the Blessed Virgin Mary, reflected on her unique role as mother of the Savior and concluded with the necessity of preserving her from any stain of sin. The liturgy contains echoes of those considerations: “God, by the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin, prepared a worthy dwelling for (His) Son” (Collect Prayer), “so that in her … you might prepare a worthy Mother for your Son” (Preface), “Glorious things are spoken of you, O Mary, for from you arose the sun of Justice, Christ our God” (Communion Antiphon).
In the second reading, St. Paul points out that God “has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens, as he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him … ” If this is said of us believers, how much more must those words be applied to the Blessed Virgin? It is reflected in a Spanish popular saying: “If He wanted to do it and could not, then He is not God; if He could do it, but did not want, then He is not son; therefore, He could and did it.”
It is very fitting for the Church, especially in the United States, to rejoice in her mystery and therefore celebrate the dawn of the day of salvation.