I AM THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION!

            There could be no more appropriate feast to celebrate during this Advent Season than that of the Immaculate Conception of Our Blessed Mother.  The feast, in fact, is an indispensable aspect of the Mystery of the Incarnation of Our Divine Lord.  That is why we can safely say that it is Our Lady's favorite title among the many titles that she has.  When Our lady appeared at Lourdes to St. Bernadette Suberou in the last century, she identified herself as the Immaculate Conception.  What does the title mean?

            As decedents of Adam, every person is conceived with Original Sin.  Because of the sin of our first parents, all of us were born under the dominion of sin, Satan and death.  When we were baptized into Christ Jesus, into His Mystical Body which is the Church, we were cleansed of this original sin and were taken out of the dominion of Satan.  Once again we were made heirs of heaven.  

            The Immaculate Conception of Our Lady means that Mary, from the very first moment of her conception in the womb of her own mother, was conceived free from Original Sin.  This was always the faith of the Church.  During the early centuries of the Church some doubt arose about this with some theologians.  Some say said that she was conceived in sin but cleaned immediately after.  The debate went on for centuries but in 1850, Pope Pius IX issued defined infallibly that Mary, from the first moment of her conception, was preserved free from Original Sin in anticipation of the merits of the Christ Crucified.  Never for an instant did she come under the dominion of Satan.  That is why Satan hates Our Lady so!  She was conceived without sin!  Catholic piety tells us that she lived her whole life without the slightest stain of any sin---certainly never a mortal sin, not even the slightest venial sin.  Think of it!  She never offended God.  She was indeed the apple of His eye. 

            Everyone has sinned.  Adam sinned,  Abraham worshiped idols in lower Mesopotamia before his conversion.  Moses committed the sin of murder.  Sampson had his Dehlila.  David sinned with Bathsheba.  Solomon turned away from God and walked with him no more.  In the New Testament, St. Peter, when he first saw Our Lord, he said: "Depart from me Lord for I am a sinful man!"  St. Paul, in first Letter to Timothy, called himself the chief of sinners.  The great St. Augustine lived a riotous life before his conversion.  St. Francis of Assisi wasted his youth on the pursuit of pleasure.  St. Theresa of the Child Jesus says that had she not been given great graces she would have been a great sinner.  Then there is you and I.  We come down to me and you each and every one of us here.  We are all sinners.  The only one that ever lived life in complete accord with the will of God, who never offended him in the slightest by sin, who lived the ideal that God had planned for her was Our Blessed Mother.  No wonder she is the apple of His eye.  She is indeed, as the great Protestant poet Wordsworth calls her:  "OUR TAINTED NATURES SOLITARY BOAST.  PURER THAN SPRAY ON OCEAN FOAM'S TOAST."

            God looked down from all eternity to see who would be worthy to be the Mother of His Divine Son.  His Eyes fell on Mary, the young Jewish Maiden of fifteen years old.  God found her worthy, as the liturgy tells us, to be the Mother of His Divine Son.  What a tremendous honor for all of us!  One of our own was chosen to be the Mother of God!  The Lord loved Her with an infinite love.  But then He gave her to us to be our Mother.

Given at the Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Vigil & Feastday 7:00 P. M., December 8, 1992.