Commentary on the Gospel of
IMMACULATE CONCEPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY S
We are all born with our strengths and weaknesses, positives and negatives, assets and liabilities, lights and shadows, goodness and sinfulness. We are all saints and sinners. There is no one who is fully good or fully evil. We are all mixture of goodness and sinfulness. Some have more goodness and less sinfulness and vice versa. But, it is our dogma and belief that Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of Jesus was preserved from all forms of sinfulness, evil and from original sin by God right from her conception. Thus, in 1854, Pope Benedict IX declared the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary as a dogma implying Mary was conceived and was born without any stains of sin. Though she was a human, she was given this special privilege not because of her merit but because of God’s grace. The Jewish society considered women as unimportant and second class citizens. Women were seen as sinful creatures because of the sin of Eve. Even Tertullian saw women as “threshold of hell”. But Mary, the Jewish woman gave birth to sinless Jesus. She was immaculate so too her son Jesus. The same woman whom the world condemned as symbol of sin and threshold of hell became the instrument of salvation and liberation from all forms of sins. Here is the irony and here is the beauty! As sons and daughters of Immaculate Mary, we are all called to raise our voice against all forms of violence and oppressions meted out to women.
