Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary
9 Dec 2024
Gn 3: 9-15.20
Ep 1: 3-6.11-12
Lc 1: 26-38
The Archangel Gabriel is on top of his job. He has received clear instructions. He knows exactly where to go and when. He has prepared his little speech, carefully including a number of quotations from the Bible, which always makes a good impression. Nazareth is not especially daunting. When you have met with a priest in the Temple of Jerusalem, a message to a young girl in a little village of Galilee seems an easy task.
However, even angels, even well-prepared angels, can be surprised. When Gabriel greets Mary with the usual salutation which we translate ‘Hail’, he immediately adds something I think he had not anticipated saying: ‘Hail Mary, full of grace’. The Angel has met with many people during his long career, but he has never seen such beauty, such grace, such fullness of grace and beauty. ‘Hail Mary, full of grace’. It is as though the words have gone out his angelic lips before he had the time to stop them. The impression made by this young girl is irresistible. For the first time, Gabriel meets with a daughter of Eve who is not a sinner. The angel is fascinated by the beauty of this human soul over which sin has no power.
Of course, the angel is used to the unhindered action of grace in his angelic companions. He knows the beauty of God’s light and love when they inhabit a spiritual being who embraces them wholly. But among men, it is quite different. He has seen beautiful souls, hearts given to God, souls dedicated to their Lord. But their light, which could be very bright, was always counterpoised by the shadow of some sinfulness.
In Mary, there is nothing of the sort. God’s grace – His light, His truth, His love – fill her wholly: heart, mind and body. Not only that: Gabriel has never met with such a degree of grace. The light he contemplates in Mary surpasses all the light he has seen in the highest angelic circles. Mary is blessed by God beyond measure. She abundantly receives from the fullness of Christ grace after grace (cf. Jn 1:16).
There is a unique communication of grace, light and beauty from God to Mary: from the Father to Mary, chosen to be the Mother of his Son; but, equally, from the Son to the uniquely beloved woman who is to become His Mother. Mary is blessed with a unique outpouring of divine beauty for Jesus, in view of Jesus, so that she can fittingly be the mother of the Incarnate Son of God. The beauty of the Immaculate Virgin is the beauty of the Mother of God. And, in turn, the beauty of the Mother of God comes totally from her Son, of whom the Psalm of old declared: “You are the fairest of the children of men; grace is poured upon your lips; therefore God has blessed you for ever.” (Ps 44)
Can we, too, glimpse the beauty which so fascinated Gabriel? – Of course. How could our Mother – for Mary is the Mother of the Church, of each and of all the members of the Church, your Mother and my Mother –hide from us her unique beauty?
This beauty, in a sense, has always been revealed to the Church. From the start, Mary had a unique place in the community of the faithful. The first centuries liked to contemplate Mary’s beauty under the sign of her triple virginity – before, during, and after she gave birth to Jesus. Slowly, Mary came to be contemplated also in her own birth and conception. Her Immaculate Conception began to be revered around the beginning of the second millenium But it was not until St Pius IX’s definition in 1854 that it became an officially recognised part of our faith.
One could say that the beauty of Mary as a perpetual Virgin is the specific beauty of the Theotokos, the Mother of God. It is the natural beauty of the human creature, more precisely of woman, at its summit. It is the beauty which the Creator intended when he made Adam and Eve. Mary, Virgin and Mother, is the perfect woman according to the Heart of God. She is the Ideal Woman.
Let me suggest that Mary’s beauty in her Immaculate Conception is the beauty of the Mother of the Saviour. It is the beauty of grace, in other words, the beauty of salvation. Mary’s beauty comes totally from Jesus because Mary is saved by Jesus. She is preserved from sin because she is Jesus’ associate in the work of salvation. The woman whose soul is pierced by a sword, according to the prophecy of Simeon (Lk 2.35), the woman standing at the foot of the Cross (Jn 19), is the new Eve who works together with the New Adam for the salvation of the world and the birth of the Church. Just as Eve was formed from Adam, Mary is formed from Jesus, her Saviour and our Saviour, being thus the type and the Mother of the Church.
Mary and the Church gaze at each other as they share in the same mystery of salvation and grace, which is also a mystery of Beauty. Do you want to see the beauty of the Church? – Look at Mary, from her Immaculate Conception. Do you want to see the beauty of Mary? – Look at the Church which is “in Christ like a sacrament or as a sign and instrument both of a very closely knit union with God and of the unity of the whole human race” (Lumen Gentium 1).
Mary’s and the Church’s beauty are one and the same. It is the beauty of God saving His people and telling Jerusalem: “put off, O Jerusalem, the garment of your mourning, and affliction: and put on the beauty and honour of that everlasting glory which you have from God. God will clothe you with the double garment of justice, and will set a crown on your head of everlasting honour. For God will shew his brightness in you, to everyone under heaven.” (Bar 5.1-3)
When God saves us, he clothes us with His beauty. He did it in Mary from the first moment of her Conception. He does it in us, and with us, from our Baptism until our full union with Him after our death. And just as the Church accompanies us from our baptism to our death, Mary, the Immaculate Mother of God, is with us at each moment of our pilgrimage in faith. With the Church, with Mary, we are surrounded with God’s beauty. With them, we magnify the Lord who does great things in us, His humble servants, the great things of His gift of salvation, grace and beauty. Tota pulchra es Maria: You are wholly beautiful, O Mary: this beauty is true in Mary and also, in hope, in us.