Immaculate Conception, Immaculate Conception Chapel, The Mount, December 8, 2011

1. Introduction: Two Problems. As glorious as it sounds, there are two problems with Immaculate Conception from the start. The first problem is immaculate; the second problem is conception. Immaculate, likeimmortal, immeasurable, and immaterial, is an im word. These negative words negate thing stain, moralit!, measure, material b! defining them b! their opposites. "e#re defining !es b! no, presence b! absence, sunlight b! shadow. It should be the other wa! around. $o immaculate. According to the original divine intentions, we should all have been gracefull! conceived. In some sense it#s not %ar!, the Immaculate Conception, who#s the e&ception. It#s we who are, even if we unfortunatel! have numbers on our side. "e#re the odd man and woman out. "e#re the weirdos. $in is sure surd. $o the Immaculate Conception needs to mean a lot more than that %ar! is not stained b! original sin. It needs to sa! that in her, grace has found a new dawn. The second problem is with conception, which refers to the dawn of life, to %ar!#s dawn. 'ut it refers to much more. (or Adam and )ve were also immaculate conceived at the outset, but the! got their hands dirt! and then their souls when the! began messing with *uic! fruit and slithering serpents. %ar! didn#t make this mistake, ever. +er Immaculate Conception wasn#t *ust a moment; it was her wa! of life. $he was not onl! immaculate conceived; she is Immaculate Conception, as she confirmed at ,ourdes- .e suis l#Immacule/ Conception. And because the wa! she began is the wa! she continued, she is also Immaculate (ulfillment. .ust as each human person is the evidence of his or her parents# love that willed that individual into e&istence, so %ar! the person is the evidence of not onl! her parents# love, but also of the special divine love. 0ou can see her in this light at all times. $he is the pure new beginning. And what this means is that even though she is one of us, she also looks 1uite different, *ust as the greatest saints do. 'ut she stands out even more than the!, for $t. %ar!, as she used to be called, is the greatest of them all. 2. Immaculate Conception as round o! Mar"#s $reedom

Immaculate Conception as freedom from sin. To state it positivel!, there is perhaps no better wa! to see the Immaculate Conception pla!ed out

in an immaculatel! fulfilled life than 2to trace the career of 2ur ,ad! of (reedom. (or it is freedom to which we are called, as $t. 3aul clearl! la!s out in 4al. 5-67. (or !ou were called to freedom, brothers and sisters. 'ut of course he has to add- onl! do not use !our freedom as an opportunit! for self8indulgence. "e have not mastered the art of using fire instead of pla!ing with it, and so even the best of us are inclined to sta! awa! from the source of our warmth and light because we#re afraid of getting burnt. The result for freedom9 This greatest of treasures lies mostl! dormant in the deposit of faith and love, like the buried treasure in the field that ever!one walks over without so much as guessing it#s there for the taking. And it is. It#s there in the Israelites# crossing of the :ed $ea, in their liberation from their enemies, in their return from e&ile in 'ab!lon. It#s present in the 'enedictus- +e has come to his people and set them free, and it#s present in the 4ospel- 0ou shall know the truth and the truth shall make !ou free. And it is certainl! present in the life of 2ur ,ad!; A brief surve! of some %arian statuar! and portraitures !ields a ver! different impression. In much of it 2ur ,ad! is a ver! straight8laced, serious, almost prudish, and perhaps even somewhat grim, woman. +oliness in this sense connotes no8nonsense, distance, aloofness, lack of humor. $uch a portra!al hardl! fits the "oman who breaks out into the %agni8 ficat with an unmistakable joie de vivre <remember, she speaks (rench=, who breaks out of herself and into the freedom promised b! a 4od who has come to do great things for her. And in the Te Deum, we sing- 0ou Christ, are the >ing of glor!, the )ternal $on of the (ather. "hen !ou became man to set us free, !ou did not spurn the ?irgin@ womb. +e came to set us free, and +e came to set the ?irgin free as well. The Benedictus and the Te Deum, then, like the %agnificat, are not onl! for us. These h!mns are also for her. %. Mar"#s $reedom &e!lected in the 'ew Testament "hen we search the $criptures, we find confirmation for how remark8 abl! free the ?irgin %ar! was. 'eginning with the Immaculate Conception, we continue with the Annunciation. In toda!#s 4ospel, we hear that she understands the necessit! of absolute obedience to 4od@s will, but she doesn@t hesitate to 1uestion the angel an!wa!. 2ur ,ad! is not faAed b! his compliment and gets down to brass tacks. Although with tact, she needs to remind this non8corporeal

creature about the human facts of around them.

3life, asking how 4od is going to get

And then a little later, as we *ust mentioned, we find %ar! freel! breaking out into the $ong of the %agnificat. 3erhaps like %iriam of old she even sang it. And in this song she is free enough to recogniAe her own greatness- All generations shall call me blessed; "hen her son has the audacit! to go his own wa! and tr! to get his own wa! at the tender age of twelve, %ar! doesn@t hesitate to confront him and to e&press her disappointment88or dare we sa! it, freel! e&press her anger. At the wedding of Cana, 2ur ,ad! freel! overrides .esus@s strong ob*ec8 tions with an even stronger response, placing him in a situation where either he must embarrass her or obe! her. +e obe!s her. And as a result, she sets his public ministr! in motion. ,et#s look here more carefull!. We read the account of the wedding at Cana over and over, and perhaps miss what is most obvious: Mary is underwriting the life of the party. She is supporting sensuality in the form of winewhich she see needs to flow freely at a wedding. Here she shows herself eminently motherly in devoting herself to the setting, the environment, within which life can be, let s say, a little freer than usual. Here she is not primarily concerned with the manifestation of !esus glory, or the in" brea#ing of the $ingdom, or the pastoral ramifications of !esus re%uested insertion into the social life of &alilee, or the proper timing of his inauguration. She is thin#ing only about some newly"weds who need happy memories of this day. 'nd she, the mother of (ne who will be accused of coming )eating and drin#ing,* shows to us that the penchant for feasts and ban%uets runs in the family. 't Cana, then, Mary is literally the life of the party, for without her intervention the matter +the wine, will dissipate and with that the formthe dancing, the singing, the hugging, the #issing. -nstinctively but un#nowingly, the Mother of the $ingdom is preparing for her Martha"life role at the eternal ban%uet that her Son described in terms ofwhat else.a marriage feast. Buring .esus@s public ministr! %ar! doesn@t hesitate to sta! close to him, even though she is conscious of the difficult! this causes. (or it is the constraint of famil! ties which her $on means to overcome in order to promote the 4ospel of universalit! and inclusiveness. .ust as .esus earlier was her disciple, so %ar! is now free to reverse roles and become his. 2ur ,ad! sta!s close to the center until the end- at Calvar!, in the Cpper :oom on 3entecost, and probabl! thereafter. In contrast to the station8 ar! statues, she is constantl! in motion, freel! at work, free in speech, free to e&press her emotions, free to be present, free to serve, free to be herself.

(. Mar"#s $reedom re!lected in

4the Church Tradition

If we look at the tradition@s testimon! of her subse1uent deportment in Church histor!, we onl! find further confirmation of the %ar!#s freedom. "e find the ?irgin %ar! often and decisivel! intervening in the earl! histor! of the orders. Take the Bominicans, for instance. Along with two other representatives of the stronger se&, $aints Cecilia and Catherine of Ale&andria, she breaks cloister or better, she takes ro!al privilege in entering cloister to bless the sleeping brethren with hol! water. $ome centuries later she was free enough to don the visage of an Indian maiden at 4uadalupe, taking on the viewpoint of the new anawim, and b! sheer feminine insistence, overcame that most formidable of all opponents- Church bureaucrac!. And if the Bominican 3ope $t. 3ius ? is to be believed, some 65D !ears after that, in the tradition of her daughter, $t. .oan of Arc, %ar! freel! dons the warrior@s garb and comes to the rescue of her people. The (east of the :osar!, as we know, was instituted to commemorate the great naval victor! of the 4rand Coalition over the invading Turks at ,epanto. 'ut then, some centuries later, so that no one would confuse 2ur ,ad! with partisan or religious politics, she takes on the name of another daughter, (atima, who is also daughter of the founder of Islam, teaching us in this centur! that she is %other of us all. %ar!, revered b! her %uslim devotees, is free enough to be the Cniversal ,ad!. Time does not allow me continue, to follow her fora!s into modernit!. I like to think she re1uested that the +ol! $pirit inspire "illiam "ordsworth, that freethinking Anglican romantic, to pen the greatest sonnet to our ,ad!#s honor in the )nglish tongue. It is from this poem that we have that celebrated line- our tainted nature#s solitar! boast. "e must likewise pass over .ohann "olfgang von 4oethe#s une1ualed praise of the ?irgin in the concluding stanAa of his Faust a passage that contains the immortal phrase, the )ternal (eminine. And it is this same soaring prose that is set to celestial sound in the conclusion of %ahler#s )ighth, perhaps the greatest choral s!mphon! in the musical repertoire after the Ode to Joy. ). *ur +ad" o! $reedom Alread! we have more than enough evidence to build the case to call the Immaculate Conception 2ur ,ad! of (reedom. And what is her freedom9

It is the space where virtue flourishes, 5the garden where desire lives, the womb of hope, and the field of vision. (reedom is the 1uestion that admits a divine answer, the possibilit! that awaits divine resolution. It is the Annunciation. %ar! was free from the start, of course, because she was immaculatel! conceived. 'ut she was also free because without wrinkle or hesitation, without stain or cowardice, she immaculatel! conceived ever new wa!s of responding to the ,ord@s grace. $he e&ecuted what she conceived. 2ur ,ad! of (reedom teaches us in this wa! that the one most passive to receiving 4od@s will is the one who is most active in implementing it. $he is a ,ad! of ,ife, of power, of d!namism, of life, of charism, in possession of each situation because she is full! in possession of her own self, her womanhood, her vocation, her lovableness, her greatness. $he continues to def! e&pectations and sometimes propriet!, using her feminine charm for the sake of the reign of 4od. Totall! in possession of herself, she is free to take on others@ burdens, lowliness, difficulties, unlovableness, brokenness, slaver!. $he is present to those who are waiting for 4od to magnif! +is greatness in their lives b! turning things upside down. 'ecause she has so much, she is freel! and *o!ousl! engaged in the task of giving herself awa!. And so we have the parado& that the immaculate ?irgin who knows no man belongs to all of us. The "oman whose bod! is the sacred, inviolable Tabernacle of 4od that carried the +ol! of +olies possesses the most public bod! in histor!- 'lessed is the womb that bore !ou and the breasts that nursed !ou. 'lessed is the fruit of th! womb, .esus. %ar!88whole and entire, spirit, soul and bod!88 belongs to all of us because the ?irgin is constantl! giving herself in loving service. ,. Mar" helps to set us !ree. %ar!@s freedom, then, is not simpl! her own privilege to be en*o!ed; it is her ministr! for setting her children free. This ,ad! of (reedom belongs to us in order to help set us free. All of us are shackled one wa! or another88b! fears and an&ieties, b! a bitter past or a troubling future, b! controlling persons or situations in our life. )ven our ver! 4ospel, which is designed to make us free and lawless in the best sense of the word, can become for us an instrument of suppression. To be sure, freedom is no eas! state to attain. There is no magic recipe for ac1uiring it. It is not won without discipline and hard work. It is the fruit of

genuine asceticism. 'ut even if we 6cannot prepare a read!8made list of actions that will secure it or even concretel! grasp it, it is important to know that this freedom has been lived and en*o!ed b! someone. 2ur ,ad! of the %agnificat wants to help to turn these enslaving things in our lives on their head. 2ur straight8standing, inert hearts she will help to set in motion. (or those who wish to go even further in imitation of her $on and let her have her wa! in all things in their lives, even greater things will be done because an even greater freedom will be won. $he provides correctives to our tendencies to bind b! disapproval, tie b! condemnation, fetter b! unforgivingness. $he teaches us to loosen up on others and tighten up on ourselves so that freedom ma! more freel! rain down from heaven and reign on earth. $he teaches us to give others and ourselves the chance to make mistakes and to make changes88to become the Eew "oman or %an without cries of protest or disapproval or c!nicism. $he will also teach us to imitate her work in setting others free 88her twelve8!ear8old bo! from grandiose deeds in .erusalem, her grown $on from a prolonged private life in EaAareth, the apostles from Cpper :oom $!ndrome, the !oung Church in %e&ico from inertia. To trul! know %ar! will enable us to break these motionless facsimiles of her that would tie her down in our hearts. $he wants to roam free there. To 1uicken us to know her $on, who said that +e is the Truth88the Truth who will come and set us free. "e ma! allow the 4entle %aiden of EaAareth whose 1ueenship is in the service of liberation to help set us free88for 4od, for one another, for ourselves. The words of the Immaculate Conception#s $on confirm this task- 0ou shall know the truth, and the truth shall make !ou free. And what is the Truth9 The Truth is a 3erson who announced that we are all $ons and Baughters of the %ost +igh88and of the %ost ,owl! 2ne who sang a divine h!mn of reversal in which the least come out greatest and the lowl! are raised on high88where ever!one who wills to respond to divine freedom is free, like her, to come out on top and sta! there.
- +awrence .. Donohoo, December 8, 2011