immaculate conception

I would like to reflect with you on the feast of the Immaculate Conception with the first reading from the book of Genesis in mind.
The feast of the Immaculate Conception is not just an acknowledgement of Mary’s privilege of having been conceived without original sin from the first moment of her conception. It is not just faith in the unique redemption of Mary by Christ her would be Son, when Jesus redeemed her by his blood like all of us but uniquely while she was conceived in the womb of her mother St. Anne. This feast is not just an acknowledgement that Mary is without sin. It is also an acknowledgement that we are and we remain sinners, redeemed sinners, but nevertheless sinners. This too is an important acknowledgement today when we have grown to be without consciousness anymore of sin and evil in our world, at a time when we seem to be without consciousness anymore that there is sin and evil lurking in our desires and in our hearts. Today we do not just ask for the grace to acknowledge Mary as conceived without sin, today we also ask for the more important grace to acknowledge that we are with sin, that we are yet struggling sinners.


Reflecting on our first reading, we find a very important strategy of the devil in order to keep us in sin for as long as it takes even when God comes looking and searching for us, calling us to repentance. To get the whole picture of that which authors call the pattern of sin we go back a little bit in our reading. Remember in the story of creation God forbade man and woman to eat from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil which was planted at the very center of the garden called Eden. I would like to imagine that the garden must be huge but one day Eve found her way to that tree which was prohibited. She came near the forbidden tree and took a look probably out of curiosity, probably to satisfy her curiosity why of all things this tree is prohibited. This is the first stage of sin – curiosity. The first strategy of the devil – make them curious. Ang aton mga katigulangan may hurubaton, bal-an mo na gid nga sala, mapalapit ka pa dira, nagahampang ka gid sa kalayo. You are playing with fire. How many of us succumbed to sin because of curiosity? How many of us have to deal with so many addictions in our life today because of what started as a mere curiosity? How many of us when we were young fell into this kind of trap and until now have to suffer its consequences in us? It started as mere curiosity – the first strategy of the devil.
Then, after having been caught by curiosity the second phase starts immediately. Helped by her desires and wants, symbolized by the snake, Eve reasoned that the fruit looked so good, why should God prohibit such good? It will make her know evil and good, now what is wrong with that? She begins justifying her action. She makes her action reasonable. And that was when she took symbolically the first bite. Thus the second phase – justify it, make it reasonable, say to yourself, tawo man lang ako, tell yourself kaisa man lang ini, or make yourself look good by saying napuersa ako sa pagbuhat sini kay sala ya man bi mo. Make your action reasonable and the devil will make you feel ok committing sin.
Then the third phawse begins, Eve called out to Adam and told him how wonderful the fruit tasted, how it would increase their knowledge and make them become like God. This third strategy worked well, because Adam without any protest took a bite – the third strategy, pang-hagad kay kon damo kamo guilt is lessened. Everybody is doing it, indi man lang ako isa, damo man kami. Sometimes it seems that this is the measure of our morality today. Since everybody is doing it, we also do it. But it is a strategy of the devil, remember.
Then, the fourth phase, the point of our reading today. When they realized that they committed a grave sin they hid themselves because of they were ashamed. Panago, pretend, indi magpadakop. There are many ways of hiding from God who looks for us in the garden. We could for example assume a holier than thou attitude – a very good technique wherein we pretend to be religious by going to masses, making pilgrimages, doing novenas, making generous donations to charity but all the while refusing to confront the sin in us, by refusing to confront God who would confront us in our sins. We could hide from God in our sinfulness by saying, “the catholic church is a stupid church, naga-intra sia sa politika, I don’t want to go there anymore; or we say I don’t want to confess my sins because the priests are worst sinners than myself. Remember the fourth phase, hide, panago, kuno abi.
Kon madakpan, kon ma-corner, the fifth phase commences – the last hold of the devil in us before God can do his part. And what is that – kon ma-corner ka basula ang iban, blame others. Adam, why did you eat of the fruit I have forbidden you?. And Adam said the woman – she gave me the fruit. Aha so it’s the woman’s fault. Eve, why did you do it? Then Eve replied, the serpent, he enticed me to eat it. Aha so it’s the serpent’s fault this time. The poor serpent, he cannot blame anyone else and so he received all the blame!
I said this is the final hold of the devil in us because we escape responsibility, we run away from accountability by blaming others, by pointing our finger at others. Blame others. And so we persist in the pretension that we are ok, that we have done nothing wrong.
Today as we acknowledge the sinlessness of Mary we learn to acknowledge, we ask for the grace to humbly acknowledge that we are sinners and we have sinned. This is important, to learn to say sa akon sala, sa akon sala, sa akon daku nga tuod nga sala and this is what this feast is remind us to do. Because by doing so then we will feel the need for a redeemer, we will feel the need for Jesus. O Mary conceived without sin, pray for us sinners!