“Held Back from the Pit” – Homily for December 8th

Immaculate Conception

We celebrate today one of our four dogmas concerning Mary, that she was immaculately conceived. (The assumption of Mary, Mary as the mother of God, and Mary’s perpetual virginity are the other three.) So, this celebration is not about Jesus’ conception, nor does it say Mary was conceived by the Holy Spirit like Jesus; she was not. We celebrate that Mary was conceived in a state of sanctifying grace and free from the corrupt nature Original Sin brings to everyone else. Or, as Pope Pius XII put it, “Mary was free from all sin, original or personal.” Understand what this means…

Does this mean Mary did not need a savior? No, she herself said, “My spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” (Lk 1:47) Mary’s immaculate conception means she experienced Jesus’ saving in a unique way from how the rest of us experience it. Mary was saved by way of ANTICIPATION of Jesus’ Paschal Mystery. An ancient analogy illustrates this:

Humanity, created in God’s likeness, always had the ability to say “no” to God’s Will. A “no” was not inevitable (Mary in her freedom never said “no” to God’s Will), but a lack of ability to say “no” would have meant we were incapable of giving God a real “yes.” Yet, eventually a “no” was chosen as our Adam and Eve scripture story captures. The result of this “no” was an infinite rift between humanity and God, an objective separation we call Original Sin.

Original Sin is therefore like a great pit that our first “no” to God dug, into which we fell. Humanity got itself into a hole from which we couldn’t climb out. To this day we are each born into this hole. It took Jesus’ perfect “yes” to God the Father’s Will (Jesus’ Passion, Death, and Resurrection) to save us from this pit. (Picture in your imagination Jesus reaching down to pull you from the pit.) Mary, however, was grabbed by Jesus at the moment of her conception and was held back from the pit. Mary, like all of us, needed saving from the pit, but her saving was anticipatory. Get it?

Here is the next logical question to ask, “If Jesus could pull Mary back from the pit, then why not just pull everyone back?” In other words, why not simply immaculately conceive everybody? I think the answer is that without Jesus’ Paschal Mystery (his passion, death, and resurrection), without Jesus’ perfect “yes” to God the Father that counters humanity’s original “no,” the resulting pit from the original “no” would never be filled and all things restored. Love’s sacrifice reversed the consequence of our sin. Jesus’ sacrifice sets in motion the inevitable elimination of sin’s “pit” and the restoration of all creation to its original perfection and the Second Coming’s consummation of everything to God.

You and I now live in-between this saving Paschal Mystery action of Love and the Second Coming’s consummation of everything to God and the resulting elimination of sin’s “pit.” As disciples of Jesus we are each summoned to take up our cross in the here and now and follow in Jesus’ footsteps of service and sacrifice. This is how we embody our “yes” to God’s Will. This is our “Amen” to Jesus’ sacrifice.

You see, we each still have the ability to say “no” to God’s Will which gives value to our “yes.” Only unlike our ancestors we now have access, through the Church, to the effects and resulting grace of Jesus’ Paschal Mystery. BAPTISM pulls us out of the pit and immerses us into the life of the Holy Trinity through the Holy Spirit abiding within us. CONFIRMATION strengthens the Holy Spirit’s gifts embedded within us at baptism. EUCHARIST nourishes God’s life within us along the journey. RECONCILIATION pulls us back out from the pit when we jump back into it. ANOINTING OF THE SICK heals the spiritual woundedness of the pit we still suffer physically at times. And ORDINATION and MARRIAGE empower our most fundamental relationships to mirror God’s love for us all as we make our way through this life we are given.

Today we celebrate that Mary, as the sinless servant of God, lends her aid to our efforts to take up our crosses and follow her son. May our understanding of her special place in our salvation story inspire us to lean into her intercession and help as we strive to live our “yes” to God more readily.