Today as we are surrounded by secularisation, which also finds its way into believers’ minds and hearts, we do need this feast day of the Immaculate Conception to remind ourselves that an evangeliser doesn’t work eight hours a day but their life is totally orientated towards the mission of Jesus Christ. The Gospel which we read on this Solemnity tells us how Mary concluded the conversation with Gabriel saying: “I am the handmaid of the Lord. Let what you have said be done to me.” These concluding words of Mary are important for us who are not pure spirits, like the Archangel Gabriel, and cannot look into Our Lady’s Soul. In those words she spoke we detect her submission to the will of God. They expose what she didn’t want to make a spectacle of. Her submission to the will of God gives away her sinless state. She is in the habitual state of grace which becomes apparent in how she wants to do the will of God. Any sin is choosing against the will of God, it is choosing not to serve God. Mary’s acceptance of the will of God connected her to the salvation mission of Jesus. By committing her life to Christ she became his Mother and the messenger of his Divine Message.
“All fair are you O Mary! The original stain is not in you.”