“O God, who by the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin prepared a worthy dwelling for your Son ...â€....”

These words from the opening prayer prepare our hearts for the readings and the Mass of the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception next Tuesday.

Since our beloved United States and our own diocese are dedicated to Mary’s protection under that particular title and privilege, that day is our patronal feast day. It is also a holy day of obligation. In a time of mask fatigue and widespread moral confusion, we do well to reflect on the meaning of this celebration for Mary, for the Church and for each of us.

Pope Pius IX in his infallible declaration about the Immaculate Conception issued in 1854 wrote this: “The most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception ... preserved immune from all stain of original sin.” We should recall just how astounding and important that great gift to Mary is.

It recalls that when God created the world, He found everything to be very good (see Gen 1: 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31). The world was in harmony with Him and with itself. It was a world very different from the one we know and live in.

By the sin of our first parents Adam and Eve, the original sin, that friendship with God was ruptured and our harmony with each other and with nature was shattered. And so even now we recognize as a result our own weakness, our tendency to fight each other and to resist God, and above all the looming presence of death. We had lost God’s grace by our rebellion.

But in the Immaculate Conception, after preparing the world through the Jewish people, God granted to Mary the extraordinary privilege of the advance application of the merits of Jesus. She became the new beginning for all of us by her exemption from original sin from the moment of her conception. She was once again like Eve before her sin.

Unlike Eve, Mary relied on and embraced the gift of God’s grace. She was fully turned to God and seeking His will in all things. That means that Mary lived a full life including playing and laughing as a child, praying as she grew up, and obeying her parents, all while constantly seeking God’s will without sin.

That is the meaning of the greeting given to her by the Angel Gabriel at the Annunciation, “Hail, full of grace.” To be truly full of grace Mary was not just free from sin at that moment. She was full of grace from the first moment of her own entry into creation.

It was that fullness of grace that allowed Mary to freely respond to God’s invitation to be the mother of His Son. It meant also that Mary was a unique and worthy means for Jesus to enter this world because of His own infinite holiness.

Mary was more blessed than anyone else who has been created. But that blessing did not simply stay with her. She was made our mother by Jesus as He hung on the cross. In her purity and fullness of grace she loves all of us as her children and she seeks to bring us together where we belong — with Jesus.

In the midst of the coronavirus and all of the problems of our country and our lives, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception reminds us there is great hope. Mary watches us and prays for us.

Happy Patronal Feast Day. And don’t forget to go to Mass if possible or to follow it virtually on Tuesday. Our mother is waiting for us.