The Dawn Undimmed

Voice over by Carol San San Lwin

Gen 3:9-15.20; Psalm: 97; Eph 1:3-6.11-12; Lk 1:26-38

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ, on this glorious Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, the Church invites us to pause and gaze in wonder at the masterstroke of God’s merciful plan. Today, we celebrate not the conception of Christ, but the conception of His Mother. We honor the moment Mary herself was conceived in the womb of her mother, Saint Anne, free from the stain of original sin by the singular grace and foreseen merits of her Son, Jesus Christ. This feast reveals the breathtaking truth that God’s redemption is so powerful it can reach backward in time, preparing a pure dwelling place for His Son.

Our journey begins in the shadow of Eden. After Adam and Eve disobey God, we hear the first consequences of sin: shame, fear, and alienation. God calls out, “Where are you?”—a question echoing with divine sorrow, not just anger. In His just pronouncement to the serpent, however, we hear the first faint whisper of the Gospel, the Protoevangelium: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike at your head, while you strike at his heel.” A woman and her offspring will ultimately crush the evil one. This is God’s promise that the story will not end in a garden of defeat, but in a victory won by a New Adam and a New Eve.

This plan of salvation, hidden for ages, is unveiled by Saint Paul. He tells the Ephesians that God “chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him.” This divine election, this loving predestination, finds its perfect human realization in Mary. She is the first and foremost of the chosen, the one who was perfectly “holy and without blemish” from the very first moment of her existence, not for her own glory, but “for the praise of the glory of his grace.” She is the immaculate masterpiece of redemption, the living proof of what God desires to do for all of us in Christ.

This eternal plan comes to its moment of fruition in the Gospel. The Archangel Gabriel is sent to a specific, prepared vessel: a virgin named Mary, “full of grace.” This title is her identity. She is not merely receiving grace at that moment; she is so perfectly and permanently filled with God’s life that there is no room for the darkness of sin. The angel’s greeting, “The Lord is with you,” is a statement of a completed reality. When she asks, “How can this be?” she is not doubting, but seeking understanding. Her final, world-altering “yes”—“Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word”—is the free cooperation of a will that was never at odds with God’s. As the early Church Fathers declared, “The knot of Eve’s disobedience was untied by Mary’s obedience.”

This is the heart of the dogma we celebrate. As Pope Pius IX defined in 1854, the Blessed Virgin Mary, “in the first instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin.”

The comfort for us is immense. Mary’s Immaculate Conception is not a privilege that separates her from us, but a sign of hope for all humanity. She is what the Church is called to be: “holy and without blemish.” She is what each of us, through Baptism and God’s grace, is striving to become. She shows us that God’s grace is more powerful than sin, and that a human heart can indeed say a perfect “yes” to God.

As Venerable Fulton Sheen beautifully said, “God, who made the sun, also made the moon. The moon does not take away from the brilliance of the sun. All its light is reflected from the sun. The Blessed Mother reflects her Divine Son; without Him, she is nothing. With Him, she is the Mother of Men.”

On this holy day, let us not only admire Mary but imitate her. Let us strive to receive God’s Word with her open-hearted faith, and to respond with her generous obedience. May her prayer, her fiat, become the model for our own lives, so that we too may become fitting dwelling places for the Lord. Amen.