Like Mary, humanity is made to receive God's life

Mary's Immaculate Conception, the luminous origin of her being, is revealed in the virginal conception of Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit. Mary is fully expressed in this mystery: she does not exist for herself, but to give herself to God's work. 

Humanity recreated in forgiveness can no longer aim for earthly and temporal fulfillment; it is made for the happiness of the other world, for the happiness of God. Humanity is made to welcome and share God's life, to listen to the Word and put it into practice, to make it bear divine fruit. By accepting to be recreated immaculate, the believer lives only of God and for God. 

Mary's privilege does not make her an exception in our humanity, but she becomes the one in whom humanity is restored to grace and fruitfulness. Mary stands in the heart of God, in the hollow of the rock from which the water springs forth. There she stands, the first tabernacle in history, the bearer of God. 

She teaches us to get down on our knees, to encounter in the reality of our sinful lives the fidelity of a God who can only give himself, and who does give himself. We should fall on our knees in the mud, to allow ourselves to be reconciled with ourselves, with our existence marked by refusal, but always open to the permanent gift of life. We should kneel to ready ourselves to encounter a God who has stooped so low as to join us in the mud, to the point of imploring us to simply accept his forgiveness, which recreates us. 

Peter must allow himself to be washed, so that the tears of repentance and the confession of a poor love simply grafted onto the faithfulness of his Master can flow from him. Then he can truly live, no longer from his own self-confidence and plans, but by letting himself be led where he wouldn't want to go on his own, to the very limits of Love.

Father André Cabes 

“The Immaculate Conception, Good News for our time” 

Basilica of Verdelais, France, December 5, 2009 

http://sanctuaireverdelais.fr/?p=612