SHE IS FULL OF GRACE

HOMILY FOR THE SOLEMNITY OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION

Rev. Fr. Ezekoka Peter Onyekachi

The dogma of the Immaculate Conception holds that Mary, the Mother of Jesus, was free from original sin from the very moment of conception. There have been traces of this belief as a pious one until the 15^th Century in 1476 when Pope Sixtus IV (d. 1484) approved it. The Council of Trent of the 16^th Century also excluded Mary from its decree on the universality of original sin. The interest in the doctrine waned as it did not gain much adherence until early in the 19^th Century when on December 17, 1830, St. Catherine Laboure claimed to have had vision of the Immaculate Conception, standing on a globe and ray of light emanating from the hands and spreading to the earth.

The vision was surrounded by an oval frame on which appeared the words: O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee. A voice then commanded Catherine to have a medal struck depicting the vision. Miracles were attributed to this medal and it ignited renewed interest in the doctrine; it was called miraculous. In 1854, Pope Pius IX defined the decree: the most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception, by the singular grace and privilege of almighty God, and in view of the merits of Christ Jesus the Saviour of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin, that this is revealed by God, and therefore, firmly and constantly to be believed by all the faithful  (cf. Ineffabilis Deus, 1984).

The feast we celebrate is a feast that singles out the Virgin Mary from all of human race. We see this outstanding character in the protoevangelium of Gen. 3 which is the First Reading (Gen 3:9-15, 20) of today. The protoevangelium is the first good message of salvation immediately after the original fall of the first parents. The word of God to the serpent concerning the future relation between it and the woman presents a total defeat and subjugation of the serpent by the all-powerful fruit of the salvific woman. In this passage, Mary is intended implicitly to bring about the victory over the serpent. In Eve, one sees a figure of Mary. Eve is the mother of all the living according to nature, as Mary is the mother of all by Grace; the mother of all those who will be healed by her son. St. Paul tells the Romans that for as all die in Adam, so all be made alive in Jesus Christ (Rom. 5:15). Thus, from the protoevangelium to the final victory, Mary rose up to her identification as the new Eve, and totally associated to the new Adam, Jesus Christ, in the definitive victorious war against the serpent of perdition. Mary as the second Eve was conceived without the original sin caused by the First Eve so as to have the spotlessness to combat the dirtiness of the former Eve.

We confirm Mary as the mother of all by Grace in the Gospel Reading (Luke 1:26-38). The divine grace on Mary to accomplish the salvific mission is encapsulated in the salvific word that transmits the mission: full of grace. She is full of Grace because of her mission in the mystery of salvation. She was preserved right from conception. The Lord God impresses someone to his service in order to act and do what he designs to do with the person. Being full of grace implies that Mary was protected whole and entire from original and actual sin....let us briefly look out the import of grace. The first is that Grace saves; Grace saved her from original sin. The second is that grace is the antithesis of sin and gives us the power to be holy and sinless; Grace inhibited every bit of sin from encroaching into Mary. So, to be full of grace means to be fully without sin. And so, Mary was full. And so, Mary was full sinless.

The son to be borne by Mary ought to be sinless. So, the blood he should possess should be sinless. The blood that can wipe away our sins ought not to be the same tainted blood. It must be untainted. This is why Mary must be untainted. In fact, the words ‘full of grace’ in Greek lead us to a better understanding. Kecharitomene means “having already been graced.” It is permissible in Greek grammatical and linguistic grounds to paraphrase Kecharitomene as completely, perfectly, enduringly endowed with grace. This usage here suggests a perfect state; a perfection which was not got by the person who is perfect. This perfection is passive in the sense that it was given. Kecharitomene shows completeness with a permanent result. The grace is complete in Mary and must yield a permanent result which is the total defeat of the serpent. Hence, the usage of this term for the Greeks shows that Mary was immaculately conceived. May the Feast of Immaculate Conception create in us completeness, perfection and total restoration, Amen. God bless you.