If you knew before clicking on this that the Immaculate Conception refers to Mary’s conception and not to Jesus’, then you can count yourself among the few. The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception can easily confuse people. At first hearing, it may even raise questions: why would Mary need such a grace? What makes her worthy of this title? Here are three ways to make sense of this beautiful solemnity.
One way to see the Immaculate Conception is as an expression of a son’s protecting love. It is natural for a son to want to spare his mother from harm. Jesus, fully God and fully man, shares this impulse in the most complete and exalted way. Mary is not just any woman; she is His mother. As a mother, she embodies comfort, nourishment, and belonging, that peculiar dearness and tenderness which she alone could elicit.
