The Grace of the Immaculate Conception was Given For Me | Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception

Normally, when a child is conceived in the womb, the body - the body formed by the parents - cries out to God for a soul. And God creates a soul and sends it, instills it, in that newly formed body. Since the body was created in original sin by the parents who have original sin, then the soul is also tainted by original sin.

This is not what happened with the Blessed Mother. Even though Her body called out for a soul - with original sin - that's not what He gave Her.

He gave Her an immaculate soul.

That gift of grace - that "fullness of grace" - that she received when Her soul was bestowed upon Her body, sanctified Her body and She was totally pure from this moment forward.

The Church has always believed this. The only reason it was dogmatized was to set all confusion aside. We've believed this since our earliest time, and one of the best ways to defend this teaching is in our Gospel today.

When the angel Gabriel - an archangel, a perfect messenger - was sent by God, we know that the words he used to speak to Her were obviously the Lord's. God told him what to say, he came down, and he said it. . . .

And he uses this statement "full of Grace" in place of Her name. He is naming Her by the word of God. He is saying not just that She posses fullness of grace, but that it is Hers by right. She is unique and singular. There is no one else like Her.

She is the only one who can be called by this name.

Full of Grace. . . .

Jesus' body - the Body that saves us from sin, the Body that we receive in Holy Communion - came from the body, the cells, of the Blessed Mother.

 

Gn 3:9-15, 20; Ps 98:1-4; Eph 1:3-6, 11-12; Lk1:26-38

 

You may watch the Mass in its entirety on our YouTube channel. Homily begins at 24:07