In the past, one of the most prized awards in the whole scientific, artistic and literary world was the Nobel prize, given by the King of Sweden to men and women who have excelled in science, art or literature. To receive the Nobel prize was a distinct mark of merit. It represented a reward to persons who worked for the interest of humanity, established by the will of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor of dynamite, who lived from 1836 to 1896, and who left his estate for this purpose.
In 1928 the prize for literature was awarded to Sigrid Undset, a convert to the Catholic Church. On her way to Stockholm where the distinction was to be conferred upon her, she passed through Oslo, Norway.
There a great celebration was arranged in her honor. She received a laurel wreath, token of the Nobel prize. But the very next day, the feast of the Immaculate Conception of our Blessed Mother, she went to the church of St. Dominic and reverently laid the laurel wreath before the statue of our Blessed Mother.
In the same way, on this glorious feast of the Immaculate Conception, we wish to lay at the feet of Mary all the tributes of her sons and daughters throughout the world.
We want to honor her today and every day because God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit honored her. God gave Mary every possible beauty and privilege. Today we honor one of those beauties - her Immaculate Conception.
1. The Immaculate Conception does not refer to the Virgin Birth of our Lord. Neither does it refer to the sinlessness of Jesus. Neither does the Immaculate Conception mean that the conception of Mary was like the conception of Christ in that Christ had no human father.
2. The Immaculate Conception does mean that the Blessed Virgin, from the very first instant that she began to exist in the womb of her own mother, St. Ann, was preserved from all stain of all sin. It especially means that she was preserved from original sin, by a singular privilege and favor of God.
3. Original sin is that moral guilt, that stain of soul, which we inherit from our first parents. In the very origin of the human race Adam and Eve disobeyed God. That sin has been passed on to all their sons and daughters, with one single exception - Mary, the Mother of the God-man, Jesus Christ.
As we know, of course, Christ was also born and conceived sinless, by reason of the fact that He was God as well as man.
4. From the very first instant of her existence Mary was free from all sin and filled with grace, filled with the love and pleasure of God, filled with the life of God Himself. That is why the angel announced: "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee."
5. The Old Testament foretold this privilege in many ways:
A. Right after the fall of Adam and Eve God promised a Redeemer, and He promised a wonderful woman and mother. God told the serpent: "I will put enmities between thee and the woman. . . she shall crush thy head." Genesis, 3 :15.6. This has been the constant teaching and belief of Mother Church. And when the Pope defined this fact as a dogma of faith in 1854, he was indeed exercising his power as supreme teacher, but he was also putting into positive, definite form a belief of the Church from apostolic times.
B. Again we read of her in Proverbs, 8:22: "The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His ways."
C. And the Canticle of Canticles exclaims of her: "Thou art all fair. . . and there is no spot in thee." Canticles, 4:7.
7. It is well to remember that the Immaculate Conception was a privilege and not a right, as far as Mary was concerned. God chose her as the mother of His Son. Then out of love for His Son's mother, the Almighty gave Mary every possible beauty and grace. Furthermore, Jesus did not want His Mother to be for one second in the power of Satan.
8. Immaculate means without stain, without the least stain of sin. Mary was spotlessly pure in body and soul. That purity gave her a charm and fascination beyond all description. It makes her appealing to all God's children, but especially to us Catholics who have learned to whisper her sweet name as soon as we learned to say Papa and Mama, who have prayed to her in quiet times and troubled times, who have really and often experienced her sweet help and motherly interest.
9. God gave Mary to us as a Model of every virtue. Keep her in mind through the coming year as we consider obedience to the laws of the Church, as we think about prayer, and especially as we meditate upon the various virtues. She is all of these good things - in person.
Like Sigrid Undset, we want to honor Mary every day, but especially this day when we recall her singular privilege of being kept free from all sin. We know that she is not God. No Catholic ever said she was. But she was the Mother of God. That gives her a special claim on our honor, praise and veneration.
Particularly we Americans, who are dedicated to her under the title of today's feast, Immaculate Conception, wish to show her our love and respect and devotion.
May Mary Immaculate keep America and all Americans! May Mary Immaculate draw all Americans to understand, to respect, and to love her! May Mary Immaculate take us by the hand and guide us gently and surely in the footsteps of her divine Son! Amen.
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Adapted from Prayers, Precepts and Virtues
by Fr. Arthur Tonne, OFM (©1949)
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