Feast of the Immaculate Conception; December 8, 2025

Today's feast can always be a bit confusing.  Because this feast of the Immaculate Conception is about MARY's conception and teaches that from the instant she began to exist inside her mother, Anne, she was holy, filled with God's grace, and therefore without sin.

The confusion comes because the Gospel reading is always about JESUS' conception -- read for one reason because there are no Scripture stories about Mary's conception -- but more importantly read because it confirms what we believe and often pray:  "Hail Mary, full of grace." Mary was always full of grace, from the moment of her conception and throughout her whole life, which allowed her to say yes to becoming the mother of God, and the ability to remain faithful to her son throughout her life.

The Gospel today can give us the opportunity, in the midst of all our normal activities and pressures that are a bit heightened during this time of year, to stop and reflect on what this time of Advent tells us is most important and which should give us a reason to celebrate.

The Gospel, known as the Annunciation to Mary, is also an Annunciation to us. It announces to Mary and to us that the Son to be born to her is the Son of God, the Son of the Most High.  He will be an everlasting king.  And this is what is most important, and what we should be excited about, and this is what should move us to celebration:  God's son has come to us.  Jesus is Emmanual:  God with us.  The one who turns the world upside down and inside out by the values he preaches and lives.

This mystery, great as it is, is part of another mystery.  The Son of God came to us so that we, too, can become holy.  This is what St. Paul tells us in his letter to Ephesians :  "God chose us in him to be holy and blameless in his sight. The idea of holiness does not seem to be too appealing to a great many people. . .  and that's, I think, because most people don't understand holiness. . . People think holiness means spending all day praying or exhausting ourselves doing good things for others, and leaves little time for our needs and certainly no time for fun. But I think holy people have an immense amount of fun.  To be holy is to be close to God.  And the closer we are to God, the greater the love and joy and peace we experience in our lives, both in this world, and in the world to come.

This mysterious call to holiness rings true in the two stories we heard today.

The first story was about our first parents who at first were very close to God. They lived in paradise, and so were very, very happy. That was the symbolism of the garden of Eden.  But, they rebelled.  And all their rebellion gained for them was misery and unhappiness.

The 2nd story, the Annunciation, tells of Mary's constant attitude of being willing to say "YES" to God. Through her openness, the Son of God, the Son of the Most High, the one born in a stable in Bethlehem, came among us.

In his Gospel, St. Luke tells us that shortly after the Angel Gabriel visited her, Mary went to visit her cousin, Elizabeth, to share her joy.  In desiring us to be holy, God wants nothing else than for us to be happy and joyful, as we live our best life, and to share our joy with others.

And even though we aren’t like Mary, because we were conceived with original sin, we have all become like Mary through our Baptism, so freed from original sin, we can be like her, and find in her a model of how we can be open to God.  And in this openness, the Son of God will live more fully in each of us, filling us both we grace and joy.