Ordinary becomes Extraordinary - Homily Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception

Being raised Baptist; the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary was something I had to work at to understand.

The best place to understand the Catholic faith is the Catechism. Paragraph 490 uses Ephesians 1:3-6 to explain the Immaculate Conception.  

God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens. He chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him.

The Church says that God, the Father, blessed Mary more than any other created person “in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens” and chose her in Christ “before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless before him.”

So that when the angel Gabriel salutes Mary "Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you." Mary, filled by God’s grace, was able to give free assent through her faith to her vocation.

Mary’s ordinary faith became the extraordinary.

The Catholic author, GK Chesterton said -The most extraordinary thing in the world is an ordinary man and an ordinary woman and their ordinary children.

Ephesians speaks to us - ordinary men, ordinary women and ordinary children – the Church. It is a church of ordinary people, full of grace working hard with love to build a foundation of faith for their families and community.

Full of grace, they go to mass. Full of grace, they are spiritual leaders of the family and the church.  Full of grace, they serve the church and partake in the sacraments. Full of grace, they teach their children to trust in God and pray the rosary

Full of grace, charity is at the heart of even the most meager of resources. Full of grace, seldom is heard a complaint about mass, the priest, his accent, or the chaos in the Church.

Yet today, the numbers who attend mass has dwindled; maybe like our first parents, so many feel separated from God, ashamed and hiding, afraid they are naked in grace.    

God asks “Who told you that you were naked?” 

In Christ love, we will never be without grace.

We may not be immaculately conceived: but He has chosen us in him, a Church full of grace. Ordinary people of faith in Christ that becomes the extraordinary.

Be good, be holy and preach the gospel by the way you live and love one another. Amen.