Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 2023
Preached at the Church of the Assumption in Bellingham, WA
Previous Years: 2022 || 2021 || 2020 || 2019 || 2018 || 2017
Recording
https://moorejesus.podbean.com/e/because-he-loves-her/
Transcript
Thanks to J.Y. for editing this transcript.
Mary serves as a very helpful bridge and example for us. Jesus obviously is the bridge between God and man because He is both God and man in Himself. He unites divinity and humanity. Mary, however, is only human; she does not have a divine nature. And so, the bridge that she offers us isn’t a bridge between divinity and humanity. It is a bridge between our fallen selves and our perfect selves. Mary reflects in herself every desire that God has for humanity. Mary reflects in herself the perfect humanity of her Son. Everything that can be said about any saint can be said about Mary, and everything that can be said about Jesus in His human nature is reflected in the humanity of Mary. So, when we’re looking at her as the Immaculate Conception today, we should see in her God’s destiny and desire for us.
Mary was conceived without sin for two reasons. The first was because God wanted her to be a worthy vessel for His Son, and having her conceived without any sin at all, made her the worthiest vessel humanity had to offer. The collect of our Mass talks about God making Mary a worthy vessel for her Son. Mary is the only human, other than Jesus Himself, never to be touched by sin—not cleansed from sin like we are. But again, in Mary we see reflected the perfection of our own humanity—what God desires for us. He desires that we should be a worthy vessel for His Son, and what He did for Mary at her conception, He does for us in the womb of the Church, which is the baptismal font. At our baptism, we are reconceived without sin. At our baptism, we are made pure as Mary was pure. And we are made pure for a purpose; pure, so that we can be worthy vessels of the Son of God. When we are baptized, we receive inside ourselves the indwelling of the Lord. We receive the presence of Jesus. Mary goes before us; she shows us what that indwelling is like in its perfection. She is the one who, without sin, carried God in her own body for nine months. We also carry God in our own bodies in different ways—His indwelling in our souls, His indwelling after we receive the Eucharist in a very true, substantial way. We do what Mary did, maybe imperfectly, but always following her example, always doing what she did, and she is always reflecting back to us our destiny.
The other reason that God ordained that Mary be conceived without sin is simply because He loved her. Anybody can talk to you about the love that they have for their mother. But historically, generally, sons feel particularly close to their mothers, just as daughters feel particularly close to their fathers. Jesus loved his Mother. God loved the Mother of God. And so, God conceived Mary without sin, not just for a purpose, but out of sheer love. And again, we see in Mary our reality and our destiny. God gives us the baptismal font. God gives us the confessional. Because He loves us so much and He desires that we should live without sin, He gives us these two great places where our sins are wiped away. He loves us, and it hurts Him to see us marred by sin, to see us under the weight of sin, to see us always living in relation to sin. He wants us to be free of that burden, and so He gives us the sacraments. Just as He gave Mary her Immaculate Conception, He gives us the sacraments. Again, we see in Mary the perfection of our destiny. Our destiny is to be worthy of the essence of the Son of God. Our destiny is also simply to be loved by God, to be loved by God so much that He wipes us free of all sin. We are loved by God so much that He gives us the same destiny He gave His own Mother, which is to live as holy, wonderful followers of His Son Jesus Christ.
Fr. Moore 