Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary
On this, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the readings begin with the story of Adam and Eve (Genesis 3: 9-15, 20) and how they disobeyed God and sinned. It is a story about human weakness and sinfulness. Once they disobeyed God they became aware of their nakedness and were ashamed. They tried to hide themselves from God in their shame.
In the gospel reading (Luke 1:26-38) we have the story of the Annunciation in which the angel Gabriel appears to Mary and tells her that God has found favor with her and she is to be the mother of God’s son. A very different relationship with God than that of Adam and Eve.
Mary’s heart was ready to receive the angel’s annunciation. It’s not that she wasn’t surprised by it or afraid or didn’t question it (“How can this be…?”), but she was open and faithful, and she said “yes”.
Alfred Delp, a Jesuit priest who was condemned as a traitor for his opposition to Hitler, wrote a reflection on Advent from his Nazi prison cell shortly before he was hanged in 1945. In his reflection he wrote, "The angels of annunciation, speaking their message of blessing into the midst of anguish, scattering their seed of blessing that will one day spring up amid the night, call us to hope. These are not the loud angels of rejoicing and fulfillment that come out into the open, the angels of Advent. Quiet, inconspicuous, they come into rooms and before our hearts as they did then. Quietly they bring God’s questions and proclaim to us the wonders of God, for whom nothing is impossible.”
He continues, “Advent’s holiest consolation is that the angel’s annunciation met with a ready heart.” God found favor with Mary and found her with a ready heart. Are our hearts ready? The Genesis reading tells us that Eve was “tricked “ by the serpent. In saying “yes” to temptation, she said “no” to God. Are we listening to God or being “tricked” by the many temptations around us (the desire for more material possessions, seeking to impress others rather than being a servant, seeking beauty or status, turning away from those in need, etc.…)? Are our hearts ready to receive God’s word, as Mary received the “word made flesh” or are we hiding from God in shame? This is the time of preparation and waiting.
Let us look to Mary as our example and our hope and use this Advent to prepare our hearts. As Alfred Delp also wrote, “We must remember today with courage that the blessed woman of Nazareth foreshadows the light in our midst today. Deeper down in our being, our days and our destinies, too, bear the blessing and mystery of God. The blessed woman waits, and we must wait too until her hour has come…. Let us then live in today’s Advent, for it is the time of promise…. This is today. And tomorrow the angels will tell what has happened with loud rejoicing voices, and we shall know it and be glad, if we have believed and trusted in Advent.”
- Eileen Miller