Celebrating the Feast of the Immaculate Conception

Today, we celebrate the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. For Catholics, it is a Holy Day of Obligation. It’s a time to rest in the joy of the Lord and to spend our time reflecting His love to others while we get nurtured and nourished with God’s divine love through Christ’s perfect and living sacrifice of love in the Eucharist.

For those who are not Catholic, or for those who may be Catholic but not well informed about their faith, allow me to explain a little bit about why we celebrate this day.

It’s All About Christ

No, this isn’t the celebration of Christ’s conception. We celebrate that feast day every March 25th, nine months before His birth on December 25th. It celebrates the moment of His mother’s conception and the grace God bestowed upon her of cleansing her of original sin at the moment of her conception.

But while the focus on Mary’s conception may seem to make this a Mary-centered feast day, it’s all relative. Her conception only matters because of His mission – and that’s exactly why we celebrate this moment in history.

Eve’s Error Redeemed

When God created woman, He intended her to be the pinnacle of His creation. That’s why He formed her last. She held the greatest power to shape the future of humanity by being the first to influence each new generation that came forth.

Spoiler alert: She became the cause of humanity’s downfall. She chose to disobey God and eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil in defiance of His orders. Then, to make matters worse, she encouraged her husband to also eat it, which he did.

God promised her, though, that He would redeem the world through a woman in the fullness of time. Mary redeemed the error of Eve by her obedient submission to God’s will in becoming the mother of Christ. Through her obedience, humanity received the gift of salvation and the restoration of their ability to enter Heaven.

What Eve Destroyed, the Immaculate Conception Restores

Eve’s disobedience destroyed the unity of man, woman, God, and creation established in the beginning by God. It divided Eve from her husband, Adam. It destroyed the unity between humanity and creation. It also destroyed the unity of the internal human system.

Whereas in the original version of creation, the various needs did not compete with one another but operated in unity, now the body competed with the spirit and the mind and the heart for priority, and the soul – our direct connection to God – became weakened.

We struggled to respond to the soul’s promptings as our ability to receive God’s graces diminished. Protecting ourselves from harm, both from creation and from one another, became a priority.

We could no longer forgive or forget wrongs done to us with ease– remembering them became essential to survival. Sharing and loving others became something that involved high risk and required great courage since it might mean getting hurt or not having what we needed when we needed it.

Restoring the unity between man, woman, God, and creation required divine intervention. That’s why Jesus came to Earth and became one with humanity by allowing Himself to become a human infant in the womb of the virgin Mary.

God the Father’s first gift to God the Son came at the moment of Mary’s conception. He sent the Holy Spirit to restore her to the original pattern He’d intended for humanity. He fixed what Eve broke so that Mary could be the perfect mother to raise a child with the power to give life or destroy it with a single word.

The Perfect Mother We All Needed and Didn’t Get

We learn to love by seeing love modeled to us, but our mothers weren't perfect and so our love isn't perfect.

“We are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.” – Galatians 4:31

Sin enslaves us to satan. It keeps us from loving as we desire - and need - to love one another.

God knows this. He doesn't reserve the gift of a perfect mother for Jesus alone. All those who enter into the Body of Christ through baptism receive Mary as their mother. They gain the perfect mother God intended them to receive from the beginning.

Those who receive this gift with gratitude will find in her hands all the help necessary for healing the wounds that came because of the imperfections of our natural mother. She helps you to forgive your natural mother and to become a better parent as you follow her footsteps.

She models for you how to live a life for Christ, parent a child with complete surrender to God’s will, live in perfect harmony with a spouse even in difficult times, and become a spiritual parent to the spiritual orphans of the world as she did at the foot of the cross.

The Tabernacle of Tabernacles

In the Old Testament, the Tabernacle held the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark of the Covenant held three things: the manna from the desert, the staff of Aaron’s priestly authority, and the stone tablets on which the ten commandments were written by God.

Mary became the Tabernacle of Tabernacles. Her womb became the new Ark of the Covenant where the living bread from Heaven took His shape, the Great High Priest received His authority from God, and the Living Law made His presence known to humanity.

If the Ark of the Covenant exceeded all furniture created by human hands, Mary exceeded all human beings created by human relations in her Holiness. Just as the Holy Spirit overshadowed the original Tabernacle and filled it with God’s presence, so the angel promised Mary that the Holy Spirit would overshadow her and fill her with Christ’s presence.

God gave specific instructions to the people of Israel for how the original tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant could be made and what materials could be used. The gold required purification – just as Mary required purification at her conception.

The Immaculate Conception Does Not Negate Mary’s Need for Christ’s Saving Power

She received His saving power at the moment of her conception, but only because of the duties God required her to fulfill. God kept her from sin so that she could be a pure vessel of love to receive His son and a spotless bride for the Holy Spirit. That made her the perfect mother for Him – and, later, for us. And this is good news, which is why we celebrate.

How Will You Celebrate?

I'm celebrating today by spending time reflecting on my relationship with my mother and rededicating myself to her service. I'll also be attending Mass this afternoon.