The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Genesis 3:9-15,20 | Psalm 97(98):1-4 | Ephesians 1:3-6,11-12 | Luke 1:26-38
The man named his wife ‘Eve’ because she was the mother of all those who live. (Genesis 3:20)
Today, we celebrate the mortal beginning of she who was to be the “new Eve”, the mother of all those who live in the love of the Lord. As the original Eve brought forth the suffering of separation from God through original sin, so Mother Mary would bring forth the redemption of reconciliation with God through the “new Adam”, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
The similarities don’t end there. Just as Eve would know the pangs of childbirth, and all womankind through here, so Mary would, as St. John Paul II wrote in his encyclical Redemptoris Mater:
will have to live her obedience of faith in suffering, at the side of the suffering Savior, and that her motherhood will be mysterious and sorrowful. (§16)
So today’s title isn’t just a lousy pun on a rather lousy movie.
Lord Jesus Christ, your earthly mother never ceases in her urgings to turn our faces to You. Help us to heed her call to love You as she always had, without hesitation or reservation. Amen.