DeSales on The Immaculate Conception

This week we honor Mary under the title of “The Immaculate Conception.”  As immaculately conceived, Mary was permitted to escape the sin of Adam from the very moment of her conception in her mother’s womb. Mary was blessed with this special honor because she was destined to be the Mother of the sinless Savior. It was altogether fitting that she, too, should be sinless, not only throughout life but at its very beginning as well. 

Jesus is the Savior of all of us, including his mother Mary.  The only difference is the timing of our salvation in Christ.  Jesus saves us after we have been conceived in Original Sin, but he saves Mary at the very moment of her conception and before she has been infected with Original Sin.  In that sense, Mary’s Immaculate Conception is the first of the countless saving deeds of Jesus.

The Offertory prayer for the Mass of the Immaculate Conception uses special words when speaking of Mary’s unique grace at the moment of her conception.  It speaks of “prevenient grace.”  “Prevenient grace” comes from Latin and it means “the grace that runs ahead.”  This means that the merits that Jesus would win for us during his later Passion and death now outruns and holds back the effects of Original Sin on her who is destined to be his Mother!

It is prevenient grace that St. Francis de Sales has in mind when he describes that special moment of Mary’s Immaculate Conception.  He writes of that moment in this way: “At the appointed time, the torrent of original sin began to roll its fatal waves over the conception of this holy woman.  But just when the torrent had reached that certain point, it did not pass beyond it but was stopped…In this way, God turned all captivity away from his glorious Mother.  Thus, God gave to Mary the blessing of the two states of human nature: she possessed the innocence that the first Adam had lost, and she enjoyed in a surpassing manner the redemption that Jesus, the second Adam, would gain for her.  Hence, like a chosen garden that was to bear the fruit of life, she was made the flower of every kind of perfection.” (Treatise on the Love of God, Bk. 2, ch.6)

Mary’s feast is our feast as well.  Each of us is blessed with God’s grace from the moment of our baptism.  Throughout life, God’s grace accompanies us in all the nooks and crannies of our daily lives with one another.  Just like Mary, our Mother, we are invited to cooperate with that grace in a full, free and life-long manner – not only in the bright days of life when everything is going beautifully as at the Annunciation for Mary, but also in the darker moments of life with its many challenges, disappointments and reversals, just as Mary experienced especially during the Passion of her Son and at the foot of his Cross.  In all things and at all times, let us learn to say in imitation of Mary: “May your will be done in me according to your Word!”  Thus, Mary’s feast today is a map for our own holiness throughout life.

May God be praised!

Father Lewis Fiorelli, OSFS

Provincial