“In the Advent season, the mystery of the Immaculate Conception prepares us in a special way for the coming of Jesus Christ”. The Holy Father, Pope John Paul II celebrated Mass in the Basilica of St. Mary Major, on December 8, 1994, and spoke of the mystery of Mary’s conception in salvation history. Here is a partial translation of his homily, which was given in Italian. The Pauline explanation of the biblical expression “grace” is indispensable if we are to understand in a correct and satisfactory way the words addressed to the Virgin of Nazareth at the Annunciation:
“Hail, full of grace!” (Lk 1:28). This “fullness of grace” points to the Immaculate Conception, a mystery which the Church professes and lives today in particular. “To be holy and without blemish before him” (Eph 1:4).
The Book of Genesis, especially in the first chapters, relates that God created man “immaculate”. In God’s sight he lived all the simplicity of his human nature; Adam and Eve related to one another in total, mutual trust and, although they were naked, felt no shame (cf. Gen 2:25). However, the “first sin” penetrated this “original innocence” of man created by God; and, as today’s liturgy dramatically describes in the first reading, it totally changed man’s relationship with God, having an unfortunate effect on the relationship between man and woman.
The Book of Genesis first shows God seeking man. “Where are you?” (cf. Gen 3:9), he asked him. And man replied: “I heard you in the garden, but I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid myself” (Gen 3:10). The divine Interlocutor knew that this fear was far more deeply rooted. Man felt the need to hide from God, because he had followed a call other than the Lord’s. Picking the forbidden fruit, our ancestors succumbed to the temptation of becoming like gods, capable of knowing good and evil (cf. Gen 3:5), capable, that is, of autonomously deciding on what is good and what is evil, according to their own criteria. Thus, sin appeared at the very moment when man, yielding to the evil spirit’s persuasion, believed that he himself could be like God. Yes, he believed that his task was to become a god in opposition to the one God. The “non serviam” became, at the human level, the reflection of the “non serviam” which was first spoken by the spirit of evil.
Here we are as it were touching the root of the mystery. The mystery of today’s solemnity, the Immaculate Conception, means that Mary, from the very first moment of her conception, was preserved from the inheritance of original sin. She was free from it because she had always been destined to be the Mother of Christ the Redeemer.
We hear the first announcement of this mystery in the Book of Genesis. Turning to the serpent, which symbolizes the spirit of evil, God said: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike at your head, while you strike at his heel” (Gen 3:15). These words are known as the Protoevangelium. They are the first announcement of the Good News about the salvation that Christ was to bring “in the fullness of time”. It will be fulfilled through the work of the “offspring”, that is, the son of the woman, who, to defeat the spirit of evil, will give himself up to death on a cross. This truth belongs completely to the New Testament, to the Gospel, but in the words recorded by the Book of Genesis, it has already, in a certain way, been foretold. This is why we speak of the Protoevangelium.
The first announcement reflects God’s eternal plan to which the Letter to the Ephesians refers. Sin, present from the beginning, does not in fact alter the plan of God who “chose us before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him”. Therefore, from the beginning grace appears more powerful than sin.
In a particular way, grace has shown itself to be more powerful than sin in her, eternally predestined to be the Mother of the world’s Redeemer. The Angel Gabriel makes this choice known and greets her as “full of grace”. He thus lets it be known that in her grace and holiness, deriving from her outstanding election, preceded the moment of conception. All men are redeemed after being contaminated by sin, at least by original sin. Christ redeemed the one chosen to be his Mother and preserved her from original sin. Thus, Mary came into the world immaculate and at no time in her earthly existence did sin stain her soul. This is why she is all holy: holy in a far more sublime way than the other saints, who also owe their holiness to the work of Redemption. And since Mary is holy in this way, she was able to conceive the Son of God through the action of the Holy Spirit, as we read in the Gospel: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God” (Lk 1:35).
“Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word” (Lk 1:38), Mary replied, and thus revealed how the Holy Spirit acts in her. There is no trace in her of the original “non serviam”. The original temptation to become “a god in opposition to God” is totally alien to her. Precisely for this reason she could become the Mother of the Son of God and, becoming such, she can help all men to be adopted sons and daughters through Jesus Christ (cf. Eph 1:5).