Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Given the enormity of the challenges we face today - ecological crisis, the breakdown of trust in religious and political institutions, and the frequent inability of people with very different views to speak charitably with one another  - it is easy to focus so much on our sin and woundedness that we forget to look instead at what God is doing to heal our wounds and deliver us from sin. Today, the Gospel reminds us to keep our eyes focused on what God is doing through the fiat of his mother, and the wonders he would work through our own fiat as members of Christ.

As we celebrate God's providential care for the mother of the Messiah since the moment of her conception, we are reminded of God's providential care for us from all eternity. She who bore his members in her body is a mirror in whom we see ourselves - His spiritual members, the Church - as we continually bear him through works of justice that reveal the Kingdom by mirroring God's mercy. May we join with Mary and say "yes" to the angel's invitation to imitate her, by bearing the One in whose Spirit we have been reborn.