Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This is a “term” or a “day” that is often misunderstood in the Christian world. In a nutshell, today we Catholics celebrate that Mary was born without original sin. In fact, she never did sin! The only other person to have these two traits (no original sin and no lifetime sins) was her son, Jesus. That is fine company!
Holy Family-Extended
Jesus came to the Earth, with Mary’s approval, into her womb, as we learn in Luke’s Gospel. A baby so pure, as pure as God (because he is God), that He needed a very pure place to gestate for nine months. Mary’s pure womb had to be that place, which would flow back to her parents, Anne and Joaquim, who raised her to be pure her entire life.
We speak of the Holy Family during Advent, which we normally call JMJ (Jesus, Mary, and Joseph) …but I would add Anne and Joaquim to that list. Anne and Joaquim are her parents and set the bedrock for her to live her life the way she did. Her bedrock was stone, not sand, as we read in the Bible. Mary could have been raised to not live cleanly and without sin, but fortunately, she lived a pure life, from birth to death.
Our Family
Our families do not live up to the standards of the Holy Family, but we now have Baptism and Reconciliation to help us clean our souls. We will still sin, but we have a way to get cleansed, as often as we muster the courage to go! This Advent let us make it a point to get to Confession at least once, if possible.
Remain Blessed!
