by Bradley Jenniges
Several years ago one of my relatives won a brand new Jeep Grand Cherokee, a white one. With four-wheel drive, it is a great vehicle for getting through snow-covered roads. She won this during the depth of the great recession, while her husband was laid-off. It was more than they would have been able to afford at the time, the most expensive vehicle they ever had.
She wanted to hang onto this vehicle for a long time, so she would not drive it in the winter, hoping to slow down the deleterious effects of time, wear and rust that would eventually break down this prize.
Perhaps we think of Mary as being like that immaculate white Grand Cherokee, but even better.
Because she is conceived without original sin, Mary does not share in the fall that Adam and Eve undergo through their disobedience. We see Mary as living in our sinful world but impervious to its corrosive effects. She can negotiate the treacherous hills of Judea without sin wearing away her grace.
If we can believe in this picture of Mary, we might be filled with awe and wonder.
More likely, however, is that we see ourselves in contrast to Mary, as the ones like Adam and Eve who have fallen from a state of innocence. We have fallen into the mud of sin, and our efforts to extract ourselves only seem to dig us deeper into the mire. We develop a backward looking way of thinking, seeing perfection as something past that is now lost.
The collect of this solemnity tell us that God foresaw the death of his Son. This forward-looking way is our key to appropriating the mystery of the Immaculate Conception.
At some point in time, our lives came in contact with the grace that flows from the saving event of Christ’s death and resurrection. For some it happens very early in life, and the effects of this grace are evident well before they can articulate an understanding of the meaning of Christ for themselves. For others of us we may understand with our minds the working of grace, but not fully appropriate it until we lie on our deathbed.
Mary represents a kind of limit point among human beings, one who encounters the grace of Christ’s passion and resurrection in a full way from the moment of her conception. God is not limited by the arrow of time.
Grace has one way or another brought us to this place of worship today. Grace is moving us forward into the future. We are called not to wallow in sorrow over a past that is lost because of sin, but to look ahead in hope to the life that grace is opening to us.
We look to Mary as a model of courage and trust in God as we respond to grace and we ask for her intercession to assist us.
Fr. Bradley Jenniges OSB is the prior of Saint John’s Abbey. This homily was preached today in the abbey church. The readings are Genesis 3:9-15, 20; Ephesians 1:3-6, 11-12; and Luke 1:26-38.
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