Today is the Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God, the Blessed Virgin Mary. This is a cause of great jubilation and rejoicing, not because it is a holiday, but because we are given a celestial reminder of what beauty is.

When our first parents were banished from paradise, all things went westward. Death came into the world, man has to toil for harvest, suffering became inevitable. When Eve gave birth, she has to suffer great pains—an effect of the first sin. Consequently, after she gave birth, what was born into the world was an enemy of God, a child who bears what we call “Original Sin.”

But God is a perfect healer. He could not have been a perfect healer if he can just heal the wound but not prevent the wound from happening.

Therefore, there has to be at least one child of Adam which has to be exempted from the inherited sin. This is the Immaculate Conception.

Mary did nothing. Mary did not do anything to deserve this singular grace from God. Why? Because before her conception, she was already in the mind of God. He, the Almighty pondering what perfection should look like, how perfection should be incorporated to the frail human frame.

This is of course in view of the redemption caused by Christ. Had God not preserved Mary from the stain of original sin, which could have made her an enemy of God in the first place, the devil could have taunted Christ: you have a Mother who was born ours, who was an enemy of your Father!

But God, in his infinite wisdom, made her Immaculate. And this is a great insult to the devil. Satan and his legions are spiritual beings, endowed with paramount intelligence, but was defeated by a human, a woman!

Immaculate Mary is the greatest masterpiece of the Holy Trinity. She is the epitome of beauty. Where does her beauty lie? In purity and grace.

Though we cannot have the fullness of grace just like her, to strive to be pure and holy is a challenge that is ours.

Corruption reigns supreme in this world, the Immaculate Conception stands as a perpetual contradiction to the standards of earthly beauty.
She is too beautiful to comprehend. But as human as we are, we fear to comprehend things too deep. And so, we can only behold.

With our forefathers, who saw in Mary’s life a model of what the word “beautiful” means, let us salute one another today, the Feast of our Principal Patroness, with these words, which echoed through centuries:

¡Ave María Purísima!
¡Sin pecado concebida!

Malipajon nga Fiesta, Filipinas!

#TheJosephinian
#TheJMAG
#SolemnityoftheImmaculateConceptionoftheBlessedVirginMary

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Words: John Russel Manlangit | The Josephinian
Layout: Leslie Mae Bacala | The Josephinian 

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