“EVERY PERSON CARRIES within his heart a blueprint of the one he loves. What seems to be ‘love at first sight’ is actually the fulfillment of desire, the realization of a dream.”
These profound words begin Venerable Fulton J. Sheen’s book, The World’s First Love, and elaborate that God, too, has great plans and desires for His creation. However, Sheen notes that God, who is outside of time, sees two realities at once: who we are now and who we are ultimately meant to be. In our own unique and unrepeatable way, we are each called to holiness and communion with God and others. The divine blueprint becomes distorted when we choose our own way, leading to sin and alienation from God and one another.
Sheen reflects further that there is one member of humanity whose life perfectly matched God’s design, and that person is the Virgin Mary, His Mother. Her whole life is lived in harmony with God’s will. This is what we celebrate on Dec. 8, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. In 1846, the United States bishops declared Mary under this title as Patroness of the United States, inspired by the devotion of early European settlers
who cultivated a special devotion to her Immaculate Conception and sought to entrust their mission to her maternal care.
The dogma of the Immaculate Conception, proclaimed by Pope Pius IX in 1854, teaches that by God’s power Mary was preserved from original sin at the first instant of her conception. Just as God set apart Israel to prepare for the coming of the Messiah, He prepared Mary for her unique mission as Mother of God. God, who is not bound by time, applied the merits of Christ’s saving Passion to Mary “in advance,” making her the first
fruit of redemption and the first member of humanity to be fully redeemed. The Immaculate Conception does not set an unattainable standard. Rather, it is the clearest sign of what God desires for all of humanity.
Mary’s holiness does not remove her from us; instead, she draws near to us as our mother and model of redeemed humanity. She shows us what God’s grace looks like when fully received with trust and freedom, revealing who we are meant to be as God’s perfected and beloved children.
Mary’s Immaculate Conception teaches us how God honors our human dignity. Made in God’s image and likeness, we are fully capable of reflecting God’s holiness in our own unique and unrepeatable way. As we receive our own greatness in God’s sight, we are called to recognize His abiding presence in our neighbors as well and, in turn, treat them with great reverence, from the first moment of life at conception until our last breath. Mary’s unique privilege of being free from sin also teaches us that God’s grace is stronger than sin. Her receptivity gives us hope, especially where we feel poor, broken and afraid. Her living witness strengthens us to overcome sin with God’s grace and embrace His plan of love.
As Patroness of the United States, Mary serves as a faithful intercessor for our nation. Her feast day is a holy day of obligation and an opportunity to give thanks to God for His work in Our Lady. In celebrating her, we make ourselves available to God’s grace. In Mary, we see the blueprint fulfilled and the promise of what we can become when we allow grace to work in us.