Texts taken from “Messalino – On Your Word,” November-December 2020 bimonthly edition.

Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary (feast)
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FIRST READING

From the Book of Genesis (Gn 3:9-15, 20)
[After the man had eaten the fruit of the tree,] the Lord God called to him and said: “Where are you?” He answered: “I heard you in the garden; but I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid myself.” Then he asked: “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat?” The man replied: “The woman whom you put here with me - she gave me fruit from the tree, so I ate it.” The Lord God then asked the woman, “What have you done?” The woman answered, “The serpent tricked me, so I ate it.” Then the Lord God said to the serpent: “Because you have done this, cursed are you among all the animals, tame or wild! On your belly shall you crawl, and dirt shall you eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; He will strike at your head, while you strike at his heel.” The man called his wife Eve, because she became the mother of all the living. - The word of God.

Commentary on the first reading

To understand today’s reading, we need to take a few steps back: the first chapters of the Book of Genesis tell how God placed man and woman as the pinnacle of all creation; he conceived woman as a life companion for a man who, even surrounded by plants and animals, was unable to overcome his solitude, because he needed “a helper suited to him” (cf. Gn 2:18). The serpent enters this scene with words that lead man to doubt God’s genuine goodness. After all, this is precisely what true sin is. If, instead, we look with more attentive and receptive eyes at Infinite Love, we find a God who does not grow weary - not even today - of asking us affectionately: “Where are you?” He continues to care for and worry about us, despite our betrayals, our flights, and our hiding. It is also worth noting that the “chain of shifting responsibility” begins with Adam, passes through Eve, but ends by becoming a curse directed only at the serpent. Careful reading allows us to discover that it is above all the woman who emerges victorious: “He will strike at your head.” All of this is fulfilled completely only in Mary Most Holy.

SECOND READING

From the Letter of Saint Paul the Apostle to the Ephesians (Eph 1:3-6, 11-12)
Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens. In him he chose us, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him in love, destined for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, in accord with the favor of his will, for the praise of the glory of his grace that he granted us in the beloved. In him we were also chosen, destined in accord with the purpose of the One who accomplishes all things according to the intention of his will, so that we might exist for the praise of his glory, we who first hoped in Christ. - The word of God.

Commentary on the second reading

In the first reading, we find this passage: “The Lord God said to the serpent: ‘Because you have done this, cursed are you among all the animals, tame or wild! On your belly shall you crawl, and dirt shall you eat all the days of your life.’” The tone, solemn and exquisitely delicate at the same time, of the divine orchestra that opens the second reading brings us instead - without a shadow of doubt or ambiguity - a message of “blessing.” The serpent, the perpetual rebel, the one who constantly and deliberately places himself outside God’s love, is the only one who curses himself: he speaks ill of everyone, of the tree, of God, of humanity, and pays the consequences. In the second reading, in which Saint Paul speaks from the perspective of Christ, everything is different. By God’s will, we are already (even if not yet fully) “holy and without blemish.” Therefore, celebrating with such joy the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary means celebrating the Mother of Jesus, but, first and foremost, glorifying the good God who precedes us all in good works: his love arrives in advance.

GOSPEL OF THE DAY

From the Gospel according to Luke (Lk 1:26-38)
In that time, 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. The virgin’s name was Mary. And coming to her, he said, “Hail, favored one! 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 do not know 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 holy; he will be called 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. - The word of the Lord.

Commentary on the Gospel of the day

Although sin, illnesses, and wars seem increasingly numerous after the deception caused by the serpent, God does not stop being the good and just God, filled with a love-inspired imagination that overcomes every human boundary. Thus he “invents” Mary, a woman who could be the Mother of that Savior who would come to sweep away the fragile house of cards built by the enemy. December 8, 1854, was a fundamental day for the Catholic faith, because, with the support of the great majority of the bishops, Pope Pius IX proclaimed precisely the truth that is presented to us again today to believe and live: “The most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instant of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin.” Precisely in order to be truly the Mother of Jesus, the Mother of God, Mary never experienced in any way either original sin (that seduction of the serpent into which Adam and Eve fell) or the small or great sins that accompany the existence of us men and women. Let us therefore allow ourselves to be transfigured by God’s love in Mary.