A Holy Day

Wednesday, December 8 is an important day for us as Catholics. We call it a 'Solemnity'- that means it's a really big feast day, in fact, it is one of our "Holy Days of Obligation". Holy Days are those special times- in addition to every Sunday -when we as Catholics are called to come together in Mass and celebrate or commemorate something significant.

December 8 is the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. I invite you to look at the readings for this day. The Gospel talks about the Annunciation to Mary about Jesus, not about HER conception... no wonder some Catholics get confused about who this feast is about! (If it helps to remember, we celebrate the Annunciation by the Angel Gabriel to Mary of God's special plan for her on March 25- exactly 9 months before Christmas!)

I can think of three good reasons to use this Gospel:
1) Mary's role as the mother of Jesus, which she embraced at the Annunciation, was an acceptance that required all the strength and grace a human could muster ... a gift God gave Mary at her own conception to keep her from sin ('full of grace') throughout her life. Of course, since she had free will like every human being, she still could have said 'no' to God's invitation to bear Jesus, but because of this special gift from first instant of her life, she had enough love, courage and strength to say 'yes'!
2) From the 'it is fitting' school of thought - if God was to become human, God would deserve nothing but the best (e.g., would you really want to drink fine wine from paper cups?!), and to use old terminology, the 'stainless vessel' of Mary, sinless from the first instant of her life, was the most fitting means of the Incarnation.
3) Compare the Gospel with the first reading - a Genesis version of sin entering the world through Eve (AND Adam) succumbing to the temptation of the serpent. Through previously sinless Eve sin entered the world, and through the miraculously sinless Mary, the 'new Eve', the means of salvation from sin was born into our world.
oh, and
4) not so good a reason, but a practical one: there really is no Scriptural evidence for the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception beyond the angel's brief reference to Mary as "full of grace", and her cousin Elizabeth's later greeting her as "blessed among women".

But let's put this a bit more simply: every time we honor Mary, what we say about her is both a reflection of what we believe about Jesus, and what we hope for or anticipate for ourselves. So in this case, we celebrate the redemptive power of God through Jesus Christ to save us from the power of sin, enabling Mary physically and us spiritually to freely say 'yes' to God's invitation to carry Jesus in our lives.

So, please come and celebrate how much God loves us! Mass times at St. Andrew the Apostle are 6:30am, 9:00 am and 7:30pm.