The Immaculate Conception

“Every ‘yes’ is God’s coming into the world.”

My dad retired from the grocery store Kroger’s about 10 years ago after spending almost 45 years working there in the grocery and dairy departments.  After he retired he got bored so he decided to volunteer at our local parish in Toledo, OH. Not long after, the church secretary called him and said, “We have a parishioner in his 40s who has a wife and children.  And he just became a quadriplegic.  He can’t move his arms or legs.  Could you please go visit him once a week, take communion to him, and pray with him?”

My dad asked for some time to think about it.  He talked to my mom about it.  He prayed about it.

And he said, “I knew in my heart that I had to help others.”  And so he said, “yes” and he went to visit this man, and he still visits him to this very day.

As we celebrate the Immaculate Conception today and hear the Gospel of the Annunciation, I keep thinking about the “yes” that my dad said a few years ago and the “yes” that Mary said over 2000 years ago to the angel Gabriel in Nazareth.  Just like Mary, when my dad said “yes” to visiting this man, Christ came into the world.  Every “yes” to God’s call is an incarnation of Jesus Christ.

He takes on flesh (that’s what incarnation means) in our lives through love and service. Saint Francis de Sales called this “Living Jesus.”

Mother Marie de Sales Chappuis, VHM, who taught Salesian Spirituality to Blessed Louis Brisson, OSFS, called it “the Way.”  She said that, when we say “yes” to God’s call, then God re-incarnates Himself into the world in and through us.  Our feet become God’s feet.  Our hands become God’s hands.  We become what Mary is, a “God-bearer” for when we say “yes” to what God asks of us. Christ comes into the world again and again through us.

Today we celebrate the Immaculate Conception of Mary and that she was conceived without Original Sin.  Mary had a privileged role in bringing Jesus into the world. Through our baptism, we too are freed from Original Sin and have a privileged role in bringing Jesus into the world.

And what does Mary do throughout her life? She leads us to Jesus. She says “yes” to the call to welcome Christ into her life and bring him to those who need him in this world.

We, like Mary and my dad, are called to do the same.

May God be praised!

Father Michael Newman, OSFS

Pastor

Holy Family Parish

Adrian, MI