Luke 1:26-38

Genesis 3:9-15, 20

Psalm 98:1, 2-3ab, 3cd-4

Ephesians 1:3-6, 11-12

Luke 1:26-38

The angel Gabriel was sent from God

to a town of Galilee called Nazareth,

to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph,

of the house of David,

and the virgin's name was Mary.

And coming to her, he said,

“Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.”

But she was greatly troubled at what was said

and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.

Then the angel said to her,

“Do not be afraid, Mary,

for you have found favor with God.

Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son,

and you shall name him Jesus.

He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High,

and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father,

and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever,

and of his Kingdom there will be no end.”

But Mary said to the angel,

“How can this be,

since I have no relations with a man?”

And the angel said to her in reply,

“The Holy Spirit will come upon you,

and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.

Therefore the child to be born

will be called holy, the Son of God.

And behold, Elizabeth, your relative,

has also conceived a son in her old age,

and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren;

for nothing will be impossible for God.”

Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.

May it be done to me according to your word.”

Then the angel departed from her.

Opening Prayer: Lord God, you have freed me from slavery to sin and introduced me into your divine life as your child. Help me to imitate Mary, your immaculate daughter, and attain the holiness to which you have called me.

Encountering the Word of God

1. The Old Eve: One of the main biblical foundations for the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary is her identity as the New Eve. The First Reading, from Genesis, invites us to contemplate how the old Eve fell from grace and into sin along with her husband, the old Adam.  We should recall that Adam and Eve were created “very good” (Genesis 1:31) and without the stain of sin. When Adam and Eve listened to the temptations of the serpent and fell into sin by eating from the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil, they disobeyed God, broke their relationship with God, lost divine grace, and could no longer eat of the tree that gave eternal life. The old Adam and Eve welcomed the lie of the ancient serpent and thought that they could be divine by defining good and evil for themselves. This was a false path, one that did not lead to a continued share in the divine life. By sinning and choosing evil instead of the good, they lost the gift of immortality and brought upon themselves the sufferings of toil, pain in childbirth, and death itself.

2. The New Eve: The New Testament subtly alludes to Mary as the New Eve in various ways. We see this especially in the Gospel of John, where Jesus, on the seventh day and at the Wedding of Cana, calls Mary “woman” (John 2:4). Unlike Eve, who invited Adam to sin and lose grace, Mary, the New Eve, invites her Son, the New Adam, to perform the first of his signs of salvation by turning water into wine. Jesus also calls Mary “woman” at the foot of the cross (John 19:26), precisely when the New Adam, the offspring of the New Eve, is crushing the head of the ancient serpent. By using the title “woman,” Jesus is pointing to Mary as the New Eve, since she is the one who fulfills the prophecy of Genesis 3:15. Mary is the holy mother of the one who conquered Satan and undid the fall of Adam and Eve through dying on the tree of the Cross. Death came through Eve, the mother of all the living, who rebelliously disobeyed God; new life came through Mary, the Mother of the Messiah and the Church, who lovingly obeyed God.

3. Free from Sin and Full of Grace: The first Eve was created without sin. Mary, the New Eve, was conceived and created without sin. She is the Immaculate Conception, who maintained her soul without stain of sin throughout her entire earthly life. When the angel Gabriel greets Mary, he does so with a title. He calls her “Full of Grace.” It is difficult to render the Greek word, kecharitomene, into English. It means something like, “having been graced to the full and continuing to be graced.” Mary is a vessel that has been and is now filled with divine life. God endowed Mary with an abundance of grace to prepare her to become the Mother of his Son, Jesus Christ, and be a model of holiness and blessedness for her children in the Church. Mary, the Church teaches, was saved by her Son and sanctified from the first moment of her existence and persevered from the stain of original sin and the inclination to sin that we experience (see Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: New Testament, 105).

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, you saved your mother and preserved her from the stain of original sin. She responded to your grace perfectly. I desire to imitate her as best as I can and work with your grace to grow in holiness and perfection.

Living the Word of God: How can I better imitate my mother, Mary, who lived a holy life? What are the main temptations that I give in to? What lies of the devil do I accept? What evil do I think of as good for me? How can I better cooperate with God’s grace to do good works of charity and mercy?