Do you remember your first major disappointment in life? For me it came at the age of around four. I wanted to fly like Superman, but no matter how well I tied a towel around my neck and jumped off the couch, gravity would always win. One day after watching an old Superman movie where Supergirl makes an appearance, I thought maybe if I cannot fly, a girl could. So, after watching that movie, I pushed my sister off a second-floor balcony. To my disappointment she just went down, ungracefully, to the ground. Very disappointing! She was ok.

Disappointment, that feeling that comes when we realize something was not how we hoped, that there are limitations in life and that we don’t have the freedom to do more…. the freedom to be more. I think we can all think about the disappointment in our lives, especially those that have to do with ourselves… those that led to the conclusion that we are not good enough.

Yet scripture in Wisdom 2:23 tell us that “God formed us to be imperishable; the image of his own nature he made us.” In other words, we should be ok with who we are, limitations and all, because if God has created us as we are, then we are more than good enough.

Why can this be so difficult to accept? Wisdom continues: “by the envy of the devil, death entered the world.” Death, another way to describe sin. What is sin? what is the original sin? It is the deception, the lie, that we are not good enough, that being made in God’s image is either false, or disappointing. That is the point of the story of Adam and Eve in Genesis, it shows the human tendency to reject our status as created beings when coming face to face with our limitations and are left wanting more, desiring to be like God, limitless.

If we reject our position as created beings, then we are rejecting God’s grace in which we are made, and the less grace we live in, the weaker our human freedom will be to choose what is right. Grace allows us to choose what is right over what we want. Sin, on the other hand, this rejection of grace, induces us to choose what we want over what is right, and that is the beginning of pride and envy.

When envy enters and is allowed to rule the human heart, God becomes an obstacle, our neighbor becomes our rivals, relationships are destroyed, and darkness covers the world.

For so long, humanity lived in this darkness yet God promised light, a light that would shine in the darkness with the power to reveal to all nations that God is not an obstacle, not a rival, and that every person is in inherently good.

But, for so many years, no one had the human freedom and will necessary to reveal that light to the world, not Abraham, nor David, nor Elijah, nor Isaiah or any of the prophets.

Light came through a young woman in Nazareth, a young woman who would become the greatest human being who has ever walked the face of this earth.  What made her special, what made her favored by God, was her ability to say yes to God’s with the fullness of human freedom and will, something she could only do because she was conceived full of grace, that is, without sin, without envy.

Mary, full of grace, beautiful woman without envy.

That is what we declare under the title Immaculate Conception. Today we declare that Mary was conceived in the Image and Likeness of God just like you and I, but unlike you and I, by God’s grace she embrace her beautiful humanity and in full obedience and confidence declared: I am the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to your word. She was able to do, on our behalf, what no human is capable of doing. Her yes brought Christ, light and new life, into the world, and so we call her mother.

You and I… we might not be graced with being born immaculate, with possessing perfect human freedom, it takes a lot more effort in our part to accept our limitations, but thanks to her we have Jesus the Christ, our light, our source of grace. In that sense, every Christian is Marian by the virtue of her yes, and every Christian should foster an authentic Marian spirituality.

Weather that comes from devotions like the rosary or simple prayers for her intercession, she is constantly advocating for us, reminding us that we need not be disappointed about who we are… that our limitations as created beings is not something to reject… that there is no need to envy, no need to want to fly in an attempt to be more than what we are. She assures us that doing God’s will in our lives, doing what we ought rather than what we want, will not make us unhappy. In her Immaculate Conception, Mary our mother without envy reminds us that we truly are made beautiful, more than enough for God.

Hail mary…

+ Fr. Carlos