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On this feast, it is good for us to visualize the real humanity of the only woman conceived without sin. If we look, for example, at the Joyful Mysteries of the rosary, we will find five portraits of a woman in whose image any action hero pales.
In the Annunciation, we encounter a young teen that is told by an Angel that she would conceive and bear a child — not just any child but the Son of God. Imagine her courage as she responds: “Be it done unto me as you say.”
In the Visitation, Mary leaves Nazareth to help her kinswoman, Elizabeth — not because she wanted to get out of town. Unwed and pregnant, Mary knew that people would ostracize her had she stayed in Nazareth or, worse, the neighbors might haggle her parents. Imagine her integrity and humility as she chooses to leave the hometown rather than bring shame or confrontation to her parents’ home.
The Nativity looks nice when we construct the “crèche” year after year — a cozy nook surrounded by angels, kings, gifts and darling shepherds. The truth is Mary had to give birth like an animal — in the damp straw of a dark stable. What pain she must have endured as she lay on the cold ground, receiving no coaching from a midwife, no solace from her own mother.
Here we catch a glimpse of a woman of great valor as she welcomes into the world the Prince of Peace. Despite the pangs of labor, we believe that Mary remains a virgin after the birth of Jesus as she had before. “How would she explain this? Who would believe?”
In the Presentation, Mary thought that Simeon would simply circumcise Jesus, the rite of passage through which every male must pass in order to enter the covenant community of the Jewish people. Instead, at the circumcision, she receives a prophecy from a woman named Anna, which brings pain to her heart. As a woman of intelligence, Mary knows that the future of Jesus is not without its trials and, more frightening, his future would not always include her. How this young maiden of Nazareth aged as she embraced her child. Indeed, we find here a portrait of a woman who is first and foremost, prayerful and maternal.
Finally, in the Founding in the Temple, we again sense Mary’s anxiety as she spends three days in pursuit of her missing child, in an age when it was not uncommon for children to be kidnaped and sold into slavery. There was no picture of Jesus on a milk carton. There were no police officers to comb the streets of Jerusalem — just a woman and her husband frantically pacing the labyrinth of streets that surrounded the Temple. Once reunited with Jesus, she finds comfort. In this moment, we see the portrait of a woman of gratitude, patience and perseverance.
Five glimpses of Mary — there are many more in the other mysteries of the rosary and in the Scriptures. These vignettes help us to remember that the Immaculate Conception is more than a doctrine, more than a fact of faith. It is the mystery of a woman free of all sin from conception, whom we have come to call “Mother.”
Father Comandini is managing editor of “The Catholic Spirit”