Happy Feast of the Immaculate Conception everyone! As I grow deeper in my faith, I begin to appreciate the Feast Days of Mary a lot more then I used to.
This feast day celebrates Mary being conceived without the stain of Original Sin on her soul. This can be a hard fact for some to grasp onto. After all, every human is born with sin on his or her soul because of the fall of Adam and Eve. Why should Mary be an exception?
Mary had a very special purpose in life. She was to bring Christ into the world. Christ could not come through anything that is not pure. So God made Mary without sin. After all, he is God, he can do anything. But just like us she needed a Savior as well. I once heard it phrased this way: "Each of us has fallen into a pit, and we need Christ to come and pull us out. In the case of Mary, she still needed Christ, but he stopped her earlier; before she fell into the pit."
Then it should be understood that as Catholics, we do not worship Mary. Our worship is reserved for God, and for God alone. Instead, we give honor to Mary for her 'yes' to God, and her obedience to follow His will for her life. Take a step back in time for a moment. In the time when Mary was living, it was a grave abomination to have a child out of wedlock, so grave that in fact it was punishable by death. Think of Mary, a young girl who was probably around sixteen years old. She was engaged to Joseph. Now think of the angel Gabriel that appeared to Mary and asked her to be the Mother of God, to have a baby without any relations with a man. Mary knew that she could face the penalty of death. She knew that she could lose Joseph's trust. But she trusted God and said yes.
We honor her for her courage. We honor her for her humility. We honor her for the example that she set for us. We seek to follow God as perfectly as she did. Mary is our perfect role model.
One last note for all you Catholics: Today is a Holy Day of Obligation. In other words, make sure you get to mass today!
God Bless You All,
Catherine
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