Re-created by Grace: The Immaculate Conception

On this feast of the Immaculate Conception we give thanks to God for having re-created humanity.

Through Adam and Eve sin entered the world, and so we are all born in sin, we all fall short of the glory of God.

Yet God chose to recreate us. He chose to recreate humanity in Jesus Christ. Saint Paul tells us God has chosen us in Christ to be holy and without blemish before Him. We each become new creations in Christ through the forgiveness of our sins.

God in His mercy has given us the remedy for the sin of Eve, and this remedy has come to us through Mary, the New Eve, who gives her Son to the world so God may reconcile the world to Himself.

A contemplative sister from Mississippi wrote a beautiful poem where Mary speaks to Eve. She also drew the evocative picture above to go with it. The poem reads:

O Eve!
My mother, my daughter, life-giving Eve,
Do not be ashamed, do not grieve.
The former things have passed away,
Our God has brought us to a New Day.
See, I am with Child,
Through whom all will be reconciled.
O Eve! My sister, my friend,
We will rejoice together
Forever
Life without end.

The re-creation of humanity, the restoration and reconciliation of mankind to God began in the womb of the Virgin Mary. God chose to restore the womb which received Him first, He chose the Virgin Mary to be the first one to experience the healing and saving work of Jesus Christ. Therefore Mary was conceived immaculately, born already reconciled to God, born full of grace, in order to be a worthy vessel to receive Christ.

Her Immaculate Conception prepares a worthy dwelling for Jesus Christ. How could He who makes all things new be born from an unworthy mother?

In the same way God prepared Mary to receive Her Lord, preserving her from every stain of sin, let us ask the Lord today at this Mass to cleanse us and to prepare us to receive Him when He comes this Christmas. God prepared Mary to receive Her Savior in her womb, may He also prepare us to receive our Savior in our hearts.

Let us pray.

O God, who by the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin
prepared a worthy dwelling for your son,
grant, we pray,
that, as you preserved her from every stain
by virtue of the Death of your Son, which you foresaw,
so, through her intercession,
we, too, may be cleansed and admitted to your presence.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.

Amen.