The depth of God's mercy
This past week, my 8-year- old son celebrated his First Reconciliation. In the weeks leading up to his reception of the Sacrament, we had many conversations regarding the nature of sin, the power of grace, and the depth of God’s mercy. Seeing his desire for God’s forgiveness begin to grow and then witnessing his overwhelming joy as he ultimately received that gift in the Sacrament stands as one of my greatest privileges as a parent thus far.
One of the more memorable discussions that we had during his preparation process centered around the passage from Romans 7:19 where St. Paul describes his struggle with the power of sin as “I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want.” As I considered how to explain the passage to my son, he immediately recognized that St. Paul was describing the effects of original sin: “Oh yeah, I get it. Everybody sins. Well, except for Jesus and Mary.”
I admit that in my younger years, I did not quite understand why we as Catholics honored Mary for remaining free from sin throughout her life. If she was conceived without original sin, then wasn’t it easy for her to not sin? And for that matter, if God was the one responsible for her Immaculate Conception, why give so much honor to Mary?
Thankfully, my understanding of and relationship with Mary has grown tremendously since then. While Mary was indeed gifted a right relationship with God, I suspect that for her to still live in a world broken by sin would have been anything but easy. I can only imagine how acutely she felt the pain of recognizing more clearly than any of us just how different our fallen world is from what God originally desired for us.
Our recognition of Mary on her Solemnity today therefore honors her as the model of what we were each always meant to be. God chose to preserve her from original sin so that she would retain the intimate communion with God that Adam and Eve and all the rest of us were meant to experience as well. In this way, she was able to clearly see and freely choose the good throughout her life, enabling her to be a fitting dwelling place for the Son of God.
The story does not end there, though. As today’s Second Reading from Ephesians reveals, God has chosen each of us to be holy and without blemish as well. In his great mercy, he has offered us through Christ the grace we need to refuse to settle for less than the life God desires for us. The marvelous deeds that God worked in the life of Mary offer us hope that God wants to also accomplish good work in every one of us.
As we prepare to welcome Christ into our lives anew at Christmas, let us look to Mary as our example of a life lived full of grace, and may we strive for nothing less than the overwhelming joy of being in right relationship with our Father.
One of the more memorable discussions that we had during his preparation process centered around the passage from Romans 7:19 where St. Paul describes his struggle with the power of sin as “I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want.” As I considered how to explain the passage to my son, he immediately recognized that St. Paul was describing the effects of original sin: “Oh yeah, I get it. Everybody sins. Well, except for Jesus and Mary.”
I admit that in my younger years, I did not quite understand why we as Catholics honored Mary for remaining free from sin throughout her life. If she was conceived without original sin, then wasn’t it easy for her to not sin? And for that matter, if God was the one responsible for her Immaculate Conception, why give so much honor to Mary?
Thankfully, my understanding of and relationship with Mary has grown tremendously since then. While Mary was indeed gifted a right relationship with God, I suspect that for her to still live in a world broken by sin would have been anything but easy. I can only imagine how acutely she felt the pain of recognizing more clearly than any of us just how different our fallen world is from what God originally desired for us.
Our recognition of Mary on her Solemnity today therefore honors her as the model of what we were each always meant to be. God chose to preserve her from original sin so that she would retain the intimate communion with God that Adam and Eve and all the rest of us were meant to experience as well. In this way, she was able to clearly see and freely choose the good throughout her life, enabling her to be a fitting dwelling place for the Son of God.
The story does not end there, though. As today’s Second Reading from Ephesians reveals, God has chosen each of us to be holy and without blemish as well. In his great mercy, he has offered us through Christ the grace we need to refuse to settle for less than the life God desires for us. The marvelous deeds that God worked in the life of Mary offer us hope that God wants to also accomplish good work in every one of us.
As we prepare to welcome Christ into our lives anew at Christmas, let us look to Mary as our example of a life lived full of grace, and may we strive for nothing less than the overwhelming joy of being in right relationship with our Father.
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| Students praying our weekly rosary Jesuit Dallas Prayer Garden |
Mary, our Mother, pray for us.
Author: Danielle Bianchi, Community Service Department
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