Today’s feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary reminds us that Our Lady was conceived without Original Sin, defined by Universalis as “that twist in our nature that makes our will tend not to follow what it knows to be right.” This enabled Mary to live as the fully human person. Because this belief in the Immaculate Conception is so old it is one of the doctrines about Mary that Islam shares with Catholicism, albeit with a few different details.
I have heard and read many explanations of the Immaculate Conception but most of these are incomprehensible or (at best) struggling for relevance with my life as a man of the 21st century.
Let me have a go at communicating a single point which might be helpful.
Sometimes people say, ‘well of course I sin, I’m only human’. The fact is that when we sin we are being less than human. The person who lives their humanity fully will not sin. Take a moment to consider that again: When I sin I am being less than human since I am following a fleeting whim rather than my heart’s desire.
While this is sound doctrine, the place where I have learnt this is in my own experience. When I sin I know that I don’t feel fully happy, I don’t feel fully alive. Instead I feel regret, shame, pain and isolation even though the temptation that led me to sin promised happiness.
That’s the thing about temptation: it always promises much and fails to deliver.
While I know this in my own experience, I can also relate to this in the experience of Adam in the Genesis account. Adam felt shame and fear after his sin even though the eating of the apple (to use the language of the story) promised that he would be “god-like.”
Soon after when Adam heard God moving about the garden in the cool of the evening (what a beautiful image that is), whereas prior to his sin he would have felt delight at the presence of God, now in his shame he felt “afraid and hid”
Our problem is that we forget what God is like. We forget that when we live in harmony with God’s desire for us we feel at home. Everything falls into place and we feel deeply connected with other people.
Sin always results in feelings of isolation.
We fall into the trap of thinking that the Christian life is life reduced since it seems to exclude much that the world tells us is essential and much of what we think we really desire. We make the mistake of thinking that our deepest desire is for more prestige, greater material security, and many superficial encounters with people who prefer to live on the surface. Such desires are really very small and quite incapable of motivating and directing an abundant human life.
There is a great C.S. Lewis quotation:
“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” C.S. Lewis “The Weight of Glory & Other Addresses”
Pope Benedict says the same thing in a different way:
“The world promises you comfort, but you were not made for comfort. You were made for greatness.”
Mary knew that her deepest desire was to live fully with God on earth and then eternally. When she heard the voice of God she was not afraid. She did not hide. Instead she smiled and surrendered to the desire of God:
“Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.
May it be done to me according to your word.”
An Invitation
- Know that Jesus is present with you now, right now, in this moment. Do you feel some fear and feel like hiding? Do you smile and offer to surrender to Jesus’ desire for you?
- Become aware of your many desires in this moment. Now ask yourself, what is my heart’s deepest desire.
- Use as a mantra of prayer throughout the day ahead: “Jesus, let it be done to me according to your word”, or (if it’s easier to remember) simply repeat throughout the day the similar line from the “Our Father” – “Your will be done.”
Your will be done.
So easy to forget in these busy lives we are busy creating each day.
I have benifitted greatly over the past three months from a constant dialogue with God throughout the day.
He loves to listen and does hear those prayers and yesterday even answered a quite desperate request for help in my busy life.
God truely is good. ❤️
A great piece Fr John to start the weekend. Particularly like the CS Lewis quote, how true is that!
Thank you Father John for reminding us of these two “images” of our belief in what it is to be fully human. What a wonderful example we have of Mary who is always that unfailing link for us with God.
I am in Golden Bay, returning to the city later today. What a glorious display of ‘dawn’ this morning over the waters. Easier to sense the presence of the Lord in such circumstances. Then an hour later your reflection Fr John. Wow- a new level has opened for me. Thank you.
I have been praying to Jesus to reveal to me the grace I need to pray for each day of this Advent season. Today that grace was revealed to me. Jesus let it be done to me according to your word.
Thank you Fr.
No more mud pies.. let us go to the seaside…for greatness.
Thanks be to God!
I often pray ‘Thy will be done, not my will be done Lord!’ because it is so easy to confuse the two sometimes!
Awesome Fr John , lines up well with Ignatious teaching on consolation and desolation,a good reminder for me,thank you.
Thank you for your words
However, it seems to take a massive amount of Faith to trust that not only can a mere mortal carry out God’s plan for them as an individual, but that His plan will not interfere with what they have planned for themselves. How can people truthfully pray that, should God reveal His plan for them, they will follow through with it? It seems a lot safer not to know what God’s plan is, so they do not have to reject it. I always feel so extremely sorry for the young man who wanted to follow Jesus after he had buried his father but was, as a result, rejected as a follower by Christ Himself. These days God is depicted as a loving father… sometimes I feel we are overlooking the awe that God demands of us.
Veni Sancte Spiritus Veni per Mariam !
Not having taken Latin at school, I looked up the word ‘Veni’ and found it meant “I came”. Along with what I have gathered over the years, can I understand that Andrew was advising that we can reach the Holy Spirit through Mary? In other words that we can more easily accept God’s plan for us if we ask Our Lady for help. Oh dear! How could I have overlooked such a basic tenet of our Faith? Unfortunately, I have not sort out Mary’s ability to intercede on our behalf as much these past years as previously. Family Rosary was a must when I was child, along with praying to Mary at school and while attending Children of Mary etc. Thank you, Andrew, for bring Our Lady to the front of my mind once again.
These forums are so beneficial for keeping our Faith alive. They are a safe place to express our doubts and if one person does not understand what we are trying to express, then there are others who will not just shrug off our fears, but answer in a way we can understand. Catholics need such an outlet for their many doubts these days, especially as so many to whom they would have turned to in the past are either no longer with them, or have themselves turned away from the help that church members would have provided. It is even harder when the priests and the majority of the congregation do not speak your language as their mother tongue… doubts can so easily be taken as heresy or misunderstood…. with no help given. On-line forums can provide at least one other helper who comes from the same background as you… be it from your backyard, country or just at the same milestone of your Faith progress. Please keep this help coming. Thank you.