A short meditation on the Immaculate Conception

It was the Holy Spirit who made the Immaculate Conception possible, and Mary in a sense took His name, a little like a woman takes the name of her husband upon marrying him. The great mystery that made the Incarnation possible is associated with the Holy Spirit, who in the bosom of the Trinity is the Love between the Father and the Son, the Love of the Father for the Son, and the Love of the Son for the Father. God is infinite and we cannot understand Him here on earth. But Love, on the other hand, speaks to our hearts by inclination. It is mystical life and it is prayer.

Saint Irenaeus told us that through a Virgin who was obedient to the word of God, man was reanimated and came back to life (1). This reanimation is not limited to Mary's response to the Angel; it extends to the whole of humankind throughout history and to each and every one of us, provided that we freely want it, since we are made in God’s image. By analogy, communities and homelands bear this resemblance to a certain degree.

We know that the whole world is under the control of the Evil One (1 John 19), but our Faith can triumph over evil and ask that God's Will be done not only in Heaven but also on Earth. The Christian is neither pessimistic nor optimistic; he is a believer and believes that God can do anything that He works according to a plan, although we may not understand it. But God takes our requests into account, He even asks for them, and some of them will not be granted because we have not asked for them properly.

(1) The capacity for eternal life lost because of original sin.

Adapted from an article by Father Patrick de Laubier* in “La neuvaine”

*Patrick de Laubier (1935-2016) was a French academic and sociologist who became a priest in 2001.