Oblates of St. Francis de Sales

New DeSales World Newsletter - Summer Edition

Immaculate Conception (December 8, 2005)

Readings Gn 3: 9-15, 20 Ps 98: 1, 2-3, 3-4 Eph 1: 3-6, 11-12 Lk 1: 26-38

Suggested Emphasis

"Nothing is impossible with God."

Salesian Perspective

In order to fully appreciate the Church's teaching on the Immaculate Conception - that Mary was preserved from the effects of Original Sin from the moment of her conception - Francis de Sales placed it within the larger context, that is, God's plan of salvation.

In his Treatise on the Love of God, Francis wrote: "God displays in a marvelous manner the incomprehensible riches of his power in the vast array of things that we see in nature, but God also displays the infinite treasures of his goodness in an even more magnificent way in the unparalleled variety of goods that we recognize in grace. In a holy excess of mercy, God is not content solely with granting to his people, that is, to the human race, a general or universal redemption whereby everyone can be saved. God has diversified redemption in many ways so that while God's generosity shines forth in all this variety, the variety itself in turn adds beauty to his generosity."

"First and above all, God destined for his most holy Mother a favor worthy of the love of a Son who, since he is all-wise, all-powerful, and all-good, necessarily prepared a Mother in keeping with himself. Therefore, God willed that his redemption be applied to her in the form of a remedy that would keep her safe, so that the sin which spreads sown from generation to generation would not reach her. As a result, she was redeemed in a surprising way. At the appointed time the torrent of original sin began to roll its fatal waves over the conception of this holy woman (with the same impetuous strength it had exerted at the conception of all Adam's other daughters): then, when the torrent had reached that point, it did not pass beyond but stopped it…In this way, God turned all captivity away from his glorious Mother. To her God gave the blessing of the two states of human nature: she possessed that innocence which the first Adam had lost, and she surpassingly enjoyed that redemption which the second Adam gained for her. Hence, like a chosen garden that was to bear the fruit of life, she was made the flower of every kind of perfection." (Book II, Chapter 6)

How was this freedom from the effects of sin displayed in the life of this singularly redeemed woman? Everything that she experienced in life "was used holily and faithfully in the service of holy love for the exercise of the other virtues which, for the most part, cannot be practiced except amid difficulty, opposition, and contradiction…The glorious Virgin experienced all human miseries (except such that directly tend to sin) but she used them most profitably for the exercise and increase of the holy virtues of fortitude, temperance, justice, and prudence, and of poverty, humility, patience and compassion. Therefore, such things did not hinder heavenly love but on many occasions assisted and strengthened it by continual exercise and advance." (Treatise on the Love of God, Book VII, Chapter 14)

Whether sinner or sinless, we all have one thing in common: we are called to embrace each day as fully as possible with its countless opportunities to practice "fortitude, temperance, justice, and prudence, and of poverty, humility, patience and compassion." In this we not only experience the freedom of God's redemption, but we can more freely be instruments of God's redemption in the lives of others.

Rev. Michael S. Murray, OSFS is Executive Director of the De Sales Spirituality Center.