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Second Sunday of Advent
6 December 2008
Praised be Jesus Christ! Now and forever!
Dear Friends in Christ,
The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that “What the Catholic faith believes about Mary is based on what it believes about Christ, and what it teaches about Mary illumines in turn its faith in Christ” (CCC487). “To become the mother of the Savior, Mary ‘was enriched by God with gifts appropriate to such a role’. The angel Gabriel at the moment of the annunciation salutes her as ‘full of grace.’ In fact, in order for Mary to be able to give the free assent of her faith to the announcement of her vocation, it was necessary that she be wholly borne by God’s grace” (CCC 490).
“Through the centuries the Church has become ever more aware that Mary, ‘full of grace’ through God, was redeemed from the moment of her conception. That is what the dogma of the Immaculate Conception confesses, as Pope Pius IX proclaimed in 1854. ‘The most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin’” (CCC 491).
On December 8th the Church celebrates the conception of Mary in the womb of her mother Anne – the Immaculate Conception, and on September 8th the Church celebrates the birth of Mary. On March 25th, the Church celebrates the virginal conception of Jesus in the womb of His mother Mary – the Annunciation, and on December 25th the Church celebrates the birth of Jesus. The nine month intervals between these liturgical feasts remind us that God’s grace perfects our nature and that the Divine Redeemer of the world required a pure vessel of both nature and grace through which to receive His human nature and enter the world as our Savior.
The moon gives no light of its own; it merely reflects and magnifies the glory of the sun’s radiance. In like manner, the Blessed Virgin Mary is merely a creature who reflects and magnifies the glory of the Creator fully revealed in the life of her divine Son. But to be “merely a creature” of the one, only, living and true God is to share in His everlasting glory through Jesus Christ – a sharing made possible only by the human nature Christ received from His Immaculate Mother.
Join us this Monday as we celebrate the Immaculate Conception of our patroness, St. Mary.
Father Newman