Immaculata

Blessed Pius IX defined the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in 1854, but in fact the Angel Gabriel had beaten him to it by so many years. When the said angel addressed the Virgin, he did not call her Mary, but used a term which defined her total being: kecharitomene in Greek, gratia plena in Latin, in English: full of grace. By declaring Mary full of grace, Gabriel also declared her totally free from sin. That freedom, being total, was not only total at that moment, but in every moment, from the first instant of her existence, that is, from her Conception. Modern minds find the Immaculate Conception irrelevant, since they fail to grasp the beauty and power of God's grace. Mary did not merit her sinlessness, so what value has it? But that is precisely its value! Mary's Immaculate Conception proclaims the power of God to do for us what we can never do for ourselves. Her he preserved from sin from the beginning; us he can preserve too, now, if only we allow him to, if only we are open to his grace. We celebrate the Immaculate Conception at the heart of Advent. Mary reminds us that sinlessness was necessary for the sinless Son of God to enter the world. And so she reminds us that we too must free ourselves from sin if we wish, in our own poor way, to offer the Son of God a place to be born.