Feast of the Immaculate Conception 2025

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Last night I had dinner with a couple of friends, and somehow we found ourselves talking about Scripture. One of them asked a sincere question: “Father, I can’t find the Immaculate Conception anywhere in the Bible. Is it even in there?” And that question is the perfect doorway into this feast. Because today invites us to ask: What exactly are we celebrating? Who are we honoring? Is this in Scripture? Why do we celebrate it? And how?

First, is the Immaculate Conception in the Bible? Not in one neat, self-contained verse—but it is woven deeply into the story Scripture tells from beginning to end. In Genesis we hear about the moment humanity fell, the moment fear entered the human heart, the moment Adam and Eve hid from God. And yet, right there—at the lowest moment—God gives the first promise of salvation. He speaks to the serpent and says, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike at your head.” From the earliest days of the Church, Christians recognized this woman as Mary—the one whose child would defeat evil, and who herself would be set apart from the serpent’s grasp.

Then in Luke’s Gospel, when Gabriel comes to Mary, he doesn’t greet her by name. He greets her with a title: “Hail, full of grace.” The word there, in its original form, means someone who has been fully and completely filled with God’s grace—and remains so. It’s not describing a moment. It’s describing her very being. If sin is the absence of grace, and Mary is full of grace, then today’s feast makes perfect sense. The Immaculate Conception is not an invention or a footnote; it springs naturally from the way Scripture speaks about the woman chosen to bear the Savior.

So who are we honoring today? Not Jesus’ conception—that’s the Annunciation. Today is about Mary’s conception in the womb of her mother, St. Anne. We honor Mary because God did something extraordinary for her, something no one could ever earn or achieve. And we honor her because what God did for her shines a light on what God desires for all of us: not condemnation, not hiding in fear like Adam and Eve, but restoration, grace, and new beginnings.

What, then, are we celebrating? We are celebrating God’s first move. Before Mary ever said yes, before she could trust or ponder or follow, God poured His grace into her. God prepared a dwelling place for His Son—and at the same time revealed His hope for humanity. Mary shows us what it looks like to be fully open to God, fully receptive, fully alive. She is humanity as we were meant to be.

Why do we celebrate it? Because Mary’s story is not just about her. It’s also about us. St. Paul tells us today that we were chosen in Christ “before the foundation of the world,” destined for adoption, created to be holy and without blemish in His sight. What God did uniquely for Mary, He longs to do in His own way for every one of us—to free us from sin, to fill us with grace, to prepare our hearts so that Christ may dwell within us. The Immaculate Conception is a sign of hope not only for Mary but for all humanity.

And finally, how do we celebrate this feast? By doing what Mary does in today’s Gospel. She hears God’s invitation, she asks her honest questions, and then she simply says yes. “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” We don’t imitate her sinlessness—that was a gift given once. But we can imitate her openness. We can let grace be the first word, not fear. We can let God take the initiative. We can let Christ be born again in us.

So today, as we honor Mary’s beginning, we also ask God to begin something new in us. And with Mary, we pray: Lord, let your grace go first. Fill us as you filled her. And help us say yes to whatever you ask.


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