For thousands of years, mankind laid in his sin.
After the fall of our first parents, there was no hope
save for the hope that God had held out to the world.
And so, through many generations and many epochs,
man was caught in his sin, waiting, waiting for that time
told to our first parents in the Garden of Eden
when the Virgin would come forth,
that Virgin who would be at enmity with Satan in his kingdom
from the first moment of her existence.
That is, Satan would have no sway over her.
And so,
we see from the fall of our first parents,
every human soul who had come into the world
up until the time of the Virgin Mary
was conceived in original sin.
For our first parents,
and then we celebrate today that mystery
of she who is the Immaculate Conception being born,
that is, the manifestation of God's love
and the possibility of redemption that would come from it.
For when our Lady is born,
that which was told to our first parents
and told by many of the prophets of old
is present now in the world to see.
And so, hope is restored because
life will be given to each and every one
who is willing to accept the mystery
of the Immaculate Conception
because it is from her that we will receive the Christ child.
And so, through those many epochs,
it was never heard that anyone
was conceived without original sin.
And today, we see her who was conceived without original sin,
born, born amongst men,
and hence visible to each and every one of us.
Our first parents not being born
are not included even though in their original creation
they were holy and pure in God's sight,
but they were not conceptions.
And so, she truly is,
the singular exception.
And this day, we celebrate the dawn of hope on human society.
For when we reflect upon the nature of the dawn light,
we recognize that, strictly speaking,
we do not refer it to the sunlight
because the sun has not yet appeared in the sky
when the dawn light comes about.
But we know that the dawn and the sunlight
are intimately linked.
And so, it is that the Immaculate Virgin Mary,
is always and everywhere,
intimately linked to the mission of her Son.
And so, even before her birth,
she is praying in the womb of her mother, Saint Anna,
praying for the salvation of the world
and the coming of the Savior into that world.
And so, she would continue her life of prayer
in intercession on behalf of the Holy Family
until that faithful night
in which Saint Matthew relates to us in the Gospel.
And indeed,
we see many mysteries revealed to us in today's Gospel.
For Saint Matthew begins by giving us the lineage of Joseph.
And then, when it comes time for the birth of Christ,
he changes and points out
that the Lord was born of the Virgin Mary.
And so, in a certain sense,
that is, by natural generation,
Saint Joseph is intended to be excluded.
And so, there are more than one place in Scripture
when we see this mystery of Mary revealed.
For she is unique,
and hence her Son is unique.
He is truly the firstborn Son of the Father,
as Our Lady is the firstborn daughter of the Father.
That is, the one who is at never enmity
with her God and Savior.
And indeed,
the mystery will continue to be pointed out to us
that Saint Joseph recognized the uniqueness
of the Virgin Mary.
And indeed,
we see often how failure to be detailed in one's exegesis of scripture can in some way give us a
false sense. For in the original text, there is no take Mary as your wife. There is do not be afraid
to take Mary your wife. For contrary to popular belief, Our Lady was not the first unwed mother.
She was already at this point married to Saint Joseph. And so, Saint Joseph being a just man,
if he did not understand this mystery, would have been required to deliver her up for stoning. And
yet, he seeks to put her away quietly because he does not believe in his humility that he is
called to be a part of the mystery. He knows that is transpiring in this Virgin Mary, his wife,
and so on.
And so, he seeks to put her away quietly until he is assured by the angel that he has been invited
in, in a unique way, into this mystery of our redemption. And this mystery we begin to celebrate
not even with the birth of Our Lady, but with her immaculate conception. It is in her birth
that we first can see, that is, the crack of dawn truly is present and the light that will illumine
all minds and all hearts is now
possible.
Because the Virgin Mary is present in the earth. And so, when Saint Paul tells us, whence came the
fullness of time, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, we must reflect upon this mystery. For
Saint Paul is not telling us, strictly speaking, that our salvation, that is, the fullness of time,
comes with the birth of Christ, but rather, he is pointing out, once she is present, who was
foretold from of old, the fullness of time is about to be accomplished, and indeed, is initiated
by the presence of the Virgin Mary. And Saint Bonaventure will tell us, in regards to some of
the mysteries of Our Lady, we truly must approach them with fingers over our mouth and hushed lips,
for we will not begin to penetrate the fullness of their death until we have safely journeyed
under her maternal protection from this life.
Until the life of eternity. And so, today, we celebrate the dawn of all that is good, because
the light that will come into the world, and in a certain sense, is truly present in his mother,
for in his mother shines all the virtues and all the graces that are seen now by man. And so, she
truly becomes a beacon from her birth, and always and everywhere, she is a beacon that draws souls
to one thing, and to another. And so, we must continue to worship her, and we must continue to
devote ourselves to that book, and one thing only, that is, love of the Christ. It is said by many
of the doctors and fathers, it was not possible to be in the presence and to behold the Blessed
Virgin Mary and have a bad thought, and so she would influence, she will influence minds and
hearts from the moment of her birth until the time when our Lord will come to judge the living
and the dead. For Our Lady, by the very fact that she is called into that mystery of redemption,
in a unique role as the co-redemptrix of the world,
is what is known as a public person.
And so, she will have influence on society and try to form it,
not according to the mind and the cold heart of Satan,
but according always to the mind and heart of her son.
And so, she seeks to bring always and everywhere the mercy of God,
and her very presence in the world was the first inkling,
the first foreshadowing of that mercy that ultimately would be culminated
when that heart, united with God from the moment of her conception,
is united in a unique way with the sacred heart of her son on Mount Calvary.
But before we celebrate that union of two hearts,
we see from the teachings of the Church that Our Lady, in her son's heart,
always beat as one.
For we are told that when she was conceived,
immaculately,
in her mother's womb,
she began immediately to pray for the Savior.
That is, she began immediately to pray for that heart
that would beat with the love of humanity.
And so, she sought always and everywhere one thing,
that is, the incarnation until that faithful night
in which it was revealed to her that she was chosen
from all eternity to be the mother of the firstborn son.
And so, we see,
very carefully,
from this mystery,
that Christ truly is the pinnacle of all creation.
And indeed, all creation in some way reflects the beauty of our Lord and Savior.
And so, as St. Paul tells us,
the whole of creation moaned as it awaited the day of its redemption.
That day has dawned today with the birth of the Virgin Mary.
And from henceforth, there will be no stopping the mission of the Immaculate in the Sacred Church.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
the law of God, and hence the temple itself was an image of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
That is why it was so royally decorated, and that is why in it was incorporated a foreshadowing
of every mystery of the faith.
Indeed, we could say that the model for the temple was the Apostles' Creed, for in the
temple was incorporated in signs and figures every doctrine that Christ would come to teach
and so those doctrines find a living vessel in the Blessed Virgin Mary, and so she is
most worthy of imitating, she is most worthy of striving for, and so let us seek always
to strive to find union with her who cannot give us anything but that which she was called
to give, that is, the Christ child, and she gives him to each and every soul, individually,
and to the whole of us.
And so we have great reason to truly rejoice in the birth of the Virgin Mary, for in her
birth we see now that God was truly faithful to his promise, and all the thousands of years
and all the epochs of sin will now disappear under the influence of the Sacred Heart of
Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and so she truly is our life, our sweetness, and
our hope.
And if we enter into that mystery, then we will find her to be our mother for all eternity
in heaven, where we will be united with her in praising our good God together for all
eternity.
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