Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.

Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Many people confuse this with the Virgin Birth of Jesus. The Immaculate Conception really is a Catholic dogma of faith which states that the Blessed Virgin Mary was conceived without Original Sin.

Many people have trouble accepting this and argue that Mary is only human. How can she be given such a privilege? If we really think about it, this privilege is a privilege to her not for her own sake, but for the sake of who she was to bear, Jesus.

If we can understand that the merits of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus is not bound by time, then it is not hard to understand that this merit was applied to Mary right at the start of her conception.

We must understand that our salvation is not only because of the divinity of Jesus, but rather His humanity. If it were only His divinity, then He could have just parted the clouds and said, “Alright guys, all of you are saved.” No. It is the very fact that He took on a human form and for this to happen, He had to be carried in the womb for nine months, just like any other human being that walks this earth. He came to show us that it was possible to align our human wills, the free will that is God’s gift to us, to God’s will. Everything that Jesus did was His Father’s will.

The Archangel Gabriel’s greeting, “Hail, full of grace!” to Our Lady should tell us something about Mary. Grace essentially is God’s life within us. Now, for her to be full of grace, this can only mean one thing. Where God is, there can be no sin. God and Sin are mutually exclusive. Further more, if we accept Jesus’ humanity, it wouldn’t make sense for God who is the creator of all, not to be able to create a spotless womb in which God Himself would lay.

As I mentioned at the start, all this for Mary is not for her sake, but rather for the sake of Jesus and this is possible because Mary said “Yes” to God. Her whole life was for the sake of God, the sake of Jesus. Let us then seek to be like her, the perfect disciple.

Prayer for the day: Mary, you are the mother of Christ and you are our mother also. Pray for us.