Given on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, 8 December 2015, at the London Oratory, Brompton.
‘Hail, Mary, full of grace.’ These words which open the much-loved prayer express the belief in the abundant way by which God graced Our Lady from the very beginning of time, so that she would be worthy to be the Mother of God. The Blessed Virgin Mary was gifted by God that he chose her from the beginning of time for his own purposes and plan; that she would conceive through the power of the Holy Spirit and give birth to the Son of God. Full of grace from the very beginning of time means that she is conceived without original sin. St Bernadette, gifted by God, has the eyes of faith nurtured by her ill-health and poverty to see Our Lady, who tells her that she is the Immaculate Conception. She expresses this belief to others without understanding and with the gift of sincere and deep faith. Full of grace, Mary has total freedom to accept God’s invitation and do the will of the Father with deep humility and simplicity. ‘Be it done unto me, according to thy word’. Full of grace, Mary is the new Eve who is able to untangle the knots of sin woven by the first Eve when she asserted her will in the Garden of Eden. St Irenaeus expresses this belief, ‘And thus also it was that the knot of Eve's disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary. For what the virgin Eve had bound fast through unbelief, this did the virgin Mary set free through faith.’ (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, III.22.4). This image led to the prayer to which Pope Francis is devoted.
Mary’s assent to the invitation of the angel Gabriel, in the fullness of grace and with the fullness of freedom, enables the Christ, the Prince of Peace to be born into the world. By his cross and resurrection, the new Adam will redeem the old Adam; the innocent Lamb of God will wipe away his offences. When the old Adam was expelled from the Garden of Eden, God clothed him in garments of skins (Gen 3: 21). Some commentators describe these garments as ‘garments of light’ or ‘garments of mercy’. God desired the future redemption of Adam and so clothed him in garments of mercy whilst he awaited the coming of the Saviour. He is held in the hand of God. After Christ’s death on the cross, he descends to hell and from there leads Adam by the hand to new life, so wonderfully portrayed in the icon of the anastasis. God reconciles the world with himself and promises the new life of adopted children of the Father, as we hear in the second reading, ‘And it is in him that we were claimed as God’s own, chosen from the beginning, under the predetermined plan of the one who guides all things as he decides by his own will, chosen to be, for his greater glory, the people who would put their hopes in Christ before he came.’ In the cathedral at Chartres, one sculpture shows the old Adam leaning his head on the knee of the victorious Christ.
This hope is expressed when we call Our Lady the Mother of Mercy and pray in the Salve Regina; ‘To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve; to thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this vale of tears.’ The felix culpa of which we sing in the Easter Exultet ‘earned so great, so glorious a Redeemer.’ We are no longer the banished children of Eve since we have been shown the blessed fruit born from the womb of Mary, the new Eve.
Today the Holy Father, Pope Francis opened the Holy Door of Mercy in St Peter’s Basilica. This action points us to Christ who is the door through whom we come to know the mercy of the Father who reconciles our fragile and broken humanity. We pray in the Alma Redemptoris Mater, ‘Oh, by that joy which Gabriel brought to thee, thou Virgin first and last, let us thy mercy see.’
On this Feast of the Immaculate Conception we recognise our need of God’s mercy and the way God brings us from brokenness to fullness, from sin to perfection so that one day we may see God face-to-face. As Mary has gone before us so we hope to follow. We ask the intercession of Our Blessed Lady, the advocate of grace, who is for us a model of holiness. Her free assent to the will of the Father invites our surrender and openness to receive his grace, so that we might more worthily be his disciples. The mercy of the Father which stretches out to men and women, who are utterly unequal and unworthy and carry the treasure in earthenware vessels, compels us to extend this mercy to those who are our equals and are in need.