As Catholics, the Church gives us dogmas. The word dogma means “a decree,” and it refers to a truth revealed by God, to which we are to submit and accept. Dogmas are important because they are not based on opinions, but rather on divine realities centered on Christ. We cannot understand Christianity without them.

Our journey from Advent to Christmas makes us aware of two of those dogmas: the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, which we celebrate today, and the dogma of the virginal conception of Jesus, which we will celebrate at Christmas. Both are crucial for us.

The virginal conception of Jesus is about who Jesus is. Jesus is God, the second person of the Trinity. This dogma states that Jesus entered human life, not by sexual union, but conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of Mary while she is still a virgin. Why go through this trouble? Why not just appear as a fully grown adult? I mean, as God, he can do anything.

Well, the Church discerned that if Jesus has come to completely transform our human condition, then he would need to live a full human life, from birth to death. And since Jesus is God, then he cannot be conceived and born through normal means. As the Gospel of John says, Jesus was born “not by natural generation, nor by human choice, nor by a man’s decision, but of God.”

If the virginal conception of Jesus is about who Jesus is, then the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary is about who we are.

We are created in the image of God, which means God has made us free, and God always respects the freedom that he has given us. That means we have to freely choose to receive God’s grace.

The problem is another dogma, that of original sin. Rather than using our free will to accept our place in the created world, we used it to try and become like God and escape our limitations. This rejection gave birth to pride and envy, and when these sins took root in the human heart, God became an obstacle, our neighbors became rivals, and relationships were destroyed.

Since then, God promised to free us from this slavery to sin and restore our full human freedom. But no one had the capacity to use the fullness of their human freedom to say “yes” to God without the limitations that come with pride and envy in the heart.

And so, someone had to be conceived without these root sins affecting their capacity to choose good. God makes it possible through the Immaculate Conception of Mary. This dogma states that Mary, as representative of humanity, is saved by preservation from pride and envy, the condition of sin. Why? So that she can give the free response, on our behalf, to receive the grace of the Incarnation.

We are saved through the process of transformation that begins with baptism. The more you live a life of prayer and actively participate in the sacraments, the more you grow in holiness, the more you live in charity for others, and the less sin has mastery over you. Mary was saved through preservation and yet maintained the fullness of her human freedom.

This is important because it emphasizes that God will never impose anything on anyone. Mary was not conceived a robot without free will. God always respects our freedom and invites us to live a life full of grace. Grace is God’s invitation to collaborate with him in the mission of transformation. To say that Mary is “full of grace” means she was conceived freed from pride and envy, and therefore, through her earthly life, cooperated fully with the will of God and continues to do so. Unlike us, she does not see God or other humans as rivals, and that is why she can pray for us more perfectly than any of the saints.

That is God’s will for all of us: that we all live a life full of grace, that we all collaborate with him in the transformation of the world into the Kingdom of Heaven.

The Scriptures today give us a vision of what it means to collaborate with God in the mission of transformation. The first step is to recognize our need to be transformed. The book of Genesis gives us a picture of how the condition of sin works in human life. It shows us how we all need to be healed in our emotional life. We see in Genesis the emotions of shame, fear, and anger that need to be healed in all of us. And we see God asking questions: “Where are you? Who told you that you were naked? Did you do such a thing?”

These are questions that we all need to answer with God’s help if we want to become collaborators with God. Where are we in our life journey? What has made us feel inadequate? What do we fear? What makes us angry? How did we get into this situation? God heals us by helping us be honest with ourselves about our need to be transformed. And the good news is: you do not have to be perfect to collaborate with God; you just have to be honest about what you need.

The second step in cooperating with grace is to grow in knowledge. When Mary is invited to cooperate with God’s grace, she responds, “Let it be done to me according to your word.” This did not mean, “Whatever you say.” It meant, “Let your Word be fulfilled in me,” which implies she had to learn more deeply the revealed truth of God.

We cannot collaborate with God without growing in knowledge of our faith, which includes Sacred Scripture, that enables us to discern God’s will in the choices we make in life, and Sacred Tradition, which gives us dogmas to keep us united in our proper worship of God.

The third step in collaboration with God is to grow in our mission. The Letter to the Ephesians tells us that, in Christ, “we were chosen, destined in accord with the purpose of the One who accomplishes all things according to the intention of his will, so that we might exist for the praise of God’s glory.”

In Jesus Christ, we receive the great opportunity to collaborate with God in transforming the world. It begins with Mary, who says, “Do as he tells you.” It then continues with Jesus, who says, “Do this in memory of me,” as he gathers us around the Eucharist, which nourishes our process of transformation, a life full of grace.

This is our destiny. God’s will for us is that by living a life full of grace we will place ourselves directly in the mission of the Church. We will live in God’s divine will here and now, which will reveal to all nations the light of God’s glory.

The dogma of the Immaculate Conception is a dogma about us, an invitation to grow in true freedom. We recognize our need of God’s grace to heal our struggle with sin. We decide to grow in knowledge of our faith. We place ourselves in the mission of service to God and our human family.

We are not being asked to do anything impossible but rather invited to do what is absolutely necessary. And we have been given a Virgin Mother who continues to labor alongside us in the transformation of the world.

And so, we call out to her as we pray: Hail Mary…