THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
"Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee." St. Luke 1:28.
Nagasaki is a town in Japan famous in Christian history. For several hundred years it was without a church and without a priest. Finally, in February of 1865 a new church was erected, blessed, and opened. But not one Japanese Christian was in sight. The priest wondered: Had all the converts of the zealous St. Francis Xavier died out? Had the descendants of those fervent early Christians all lost their faith through those priestless centuries?
The answer to his question came in the persons of twelve Japanese who approached the church a month later, March 17. They were eager to know just what church it was. Yet they hung back. The Priest in charge, Father Petit-Jean, opened the door and invited them in. After looking about in silence for some time one of the women spoke up: "Where is the image of holy Mary?"
The priest pointed to a side altar and showed them the statue. Joyfully they cried out; "Yes, it is really holy Mary. See in her arms the beautiful Son of God."
They had another test? "Did the priest obey the Pope of Rome?"
Convinced of these two points, they made known that there were about 20,000 Catholics in that district, Catholics who had said their prayers, baptized their children, and kept the faith alive for more than 300 years.
They had also kept alive a love for the Blessed Virgin Mother of God. It was a sort of test of the true faith. We Catholics honor the Blessed Virgin because God honored her, and because God wants her honored. Our veneration of Mary, our honoring of her, takes away nothing from the honor we are commanded to show to God by the First Commandment. We do not worship her. We do not honor her as a god or goddess. But we do honor her as the Mother of Jesus, who was both God and man. There are other reasons for honoring Mary:
1. She was the worthiest woman of the whole human race. She was selected by God Himself to be the Mother of His Son. Do you think God would choose anyone but the best?
2. Her office and position as Mother of God is another reason for honoring Mary. God never imposes a task without giving the helps needed for that task. No one needed more grace than Mary. God filled her with grace. At the Annunciation God waited for her consent. At Nazareth the Son of God obeyed her. She was responsible for feeding and clothing and training the Redeemer of the world. All the while she had abundant blessings. She was close to the Holy Trinity always.
3. We honor Mary because of the privileges she received. Today we honor one of her principal privileges - her Immaculate Conception, which means that she was not touched at all by original sin, that at her own conception she was as innocent and sinless as Eve before the fall. Baptism cleanses us from sin; Mary was preserved from all sin from the first moment of her existence. She did not need to be cleansed from sin; she was kept from it; rather, it was kept from her.
Scripture refers repeatedly to this honor. It has been the belief of the Church from the time of the Apostles. It agrees with reason. Jesus did not want His mother to be for one second in the power of Satan.
4. We honor Mary because she committed no actual sin, not even the smallest venial sin. Nothing was to stand between Christ and His Mother. Sin separates us from Christ. She was prepared and kept perfect for the high office she had. Sin would have spoiled her work. Eve brought sin into the world; Mary drove sin out by sinlessly mothering the Redeemer.
5. We honor Mary because she was a Virgin before, during and after the birth of Jesus, always and ever a Virgin. Her perpetual virginity makes the whole world stand in awe.
6. We venerate Mary because of her Assumption into heaven. Soon after her death, before decay of the body set in, she was taken up to heaven bodily by Almighty God. Body and soul she was assumed, taken up, into the heavenly home where she reigns as Queen of heaven and earth.
7. We honor Mary because of her physical beauty. Art and literature have always pictured her as the most beautiful woman who ever lived. Tradition and reason bear out that beauty. The breath-taking beauty of the woman of all women is something that draws the admiration of the entire world.
8. We honor Mary as our mother, too. Christ gave her to us from the cross. She watches over those who are faithful to her Son. Yes, she watches over those who wander away from Christ. She is in every best sense the mother of mankind.
For these and many other reasons we honor and venerate the Mother of God. She in turn draws us and inspires us to honor Almighty God. She points from herself to her Son and to His heavenly Father and to the Holy Spirit. Devotion to Mary is a stepping stone to the true worship and adoration of God, imposed on us by the First Commandment.
Christ wants us to honor his Mother. That we do today. May Mary in turn take you to herself. May she smile upon everyone of you. May she watch over you and your loved ones. May she be to you in every loving sense - a Mother, your Immaculate Mother. Amen.
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Adapted from Talks on the Commandments
by Fr. Arthur Tonne, OFM (© 1948)
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