December 8, 2021

Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Genesis 3:9-15, 20; Ephesians 1:3-6, 11-12; Luke 1:26-38

Although I grew up in Nebraska, I have worked in the South since getting out of the Navy. I assume everyone here knows, but maybe some don’t, that I and most deacons actually work secular day jobs in businesses outside of the Church. Most of the people with which I work were born and raised in the South, where historically there have not been a lot of Catholics. So most of the people at my work are not Catholic, and the majority are probably Baptist. Several years ago, I was traveling in Canada with a man in my company from Arkansas, and we were eating dinner. Now this man was well educated, and I was obviously one of the few Catholics that he'd encountered, at least on a social level, and he was interested in discussing religion matters. While not a debate, it was a “you believe this, we believe that” sort of conversation. When the conversation came to the Virgin Mary, he quickly chimed in that she “was just a vessel.” These words obviously didn't just occur to him as we spoke, and this was a phrase that he'd heard and maybe used many times, since many Protestants compare themselves to Catholics in justifying what they believe or, in many cases, don't believe.

Let's look at this phrase, “just a vessel.” I think it is the word “just” that gets my back up a bit. If he had said that my mother was just a vessel that brought me into this world, I would take more than a little bit of offense to that, since although she was the one who brought me into this world, she was so much more than “just” that. Mothers are always much more than that, or at least most mothers who are not prevented from doing so by some physical or mental infirmity. Jesus was fully God and simultaneously fully human, and therefore, like the rest of us humans, he had a mother. A real flesh-and-bone mother. A real mother who fed and nurtured him when he was small. A real mother who bandaged his skinned knees and worried about him when he was lost in the temple. A real mother to teach him his first lessons in this world. In other words, Jesus didn't just have a mother, he had a mom, or mama, in the parlance of the South.

The desire of some to minimize the importance of Mary in the life of Jesus is not a new phenomenon, let alone a Protestant innovation. The Ecumenical Council at Ephesus in the year 431 dealt with this issue, when Mary's long-held title of Theotokos, a Greek word which means the one who bore God, was challenged by some bishops, most notably one named Nestorius of Constantinople. Without getting into too much detail, mostly because I don't know enough about it to do so, I'll just relate the bottom line, the pronouncement from this council: the Blessed Virgin Mary was the woman who bore God, since Jesus Christ is fully God and fully human at the same time. To deny that she bore God is to deny the divinity of Jesus from the time of his conception, which the Council at Ephesus declared a heresy to do, and condemned Nestorius.

So if Mary bore God, then it only stands to reason that she was a vessel of unique and supreme quality. The fact that she was born sinless so as to be prepared for this role, as any Protestant can point out, is not spelled out explicitly in any passage of scripture that I know of, but is the long-held tradition of the Church back to its very earliest times. But there are many passages in scripture that spell out the special relationship that Mary has to both God and to the rest of humanity. This year we are in Cycle C of the Gospel, so we are reading from Luke. Luke is the evangelist who relates the annunciation, which we read today, as well as the visitation to Elizabeth, which we will hear in the Gospel on the fourth Sunday of Lent in less than two weeks. In both the visitation and today, we hear from both Mary and Elizabeth about their awe at what God has asked of her and given to her, and her special status among all people. To Protestants, who pride themselves on being entirely scriptural in their approach, there is no “just a vessel” found in the New Testament, in fact, quite the opposite.

The great news is that the mother, the mom, of Jesus is also given as a mother to us. When Jesus hung on the cross, the evangelist John relates this: “When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his home” [John 19:26-27 NABRE]. Jesus is giving his mother to the disciple he loved, but this is John's way of telling us that he has given her to everyone he loves, which is to say, all of us. Jesus gave us his mom. Just a vessel? I don't think so. Moreover, I feel sorry for a religious denomination that doesn't appreciate what it means to be fully human in addition to being fully divine, which are Savior must be, and therefore the importance of having a real mom. And for that matter a real dad, who we celebrated this year in the year dedicated by the Church to Saint Joseph, which official ends tomorrow [December 8, 2021].

As we continue our Mass, let us pray that our Mother Mary may continue to intercede for us with her beloved Son, who we will receive at the Altar. Let her sinless perfection be a light to us as we go through our lives, a model that we can never attain but which we should always strive to be more like. May both Mary and her husband Joseph inspire new generations of married couples to live holy lives, especially as we make our way through the wonderful season of Advent.