Immaculate and our respect for the Immaculate

It is a feast. However, no one forced us to come to Holy Mass today. We came voluntarily. Even though we are experiencing deep advent, today we sing Gloria, and our churches can be decorated with flowers. We will say, “Today is the feast of the Virgin Mary.”
We are reminded of a serious moment in her life that addresses believing Christians until the end of time. We celebrate the feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary. We have come to pay homage to the Virgin Mary, not to worship her, and at the same time to enrich ourselves in our spiritual life. This is what we are doing right because we find encouragement in the Scriptures to do so.

The angel Gabriel addresses Mary: “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you.” And after a while, he adds: “Fear not Mary, you have found grace with God” (Lk 1: 28-30).

We know the words. We pronounce them often when we interrupt our work when we hear the sound of bells in the morning, for lunch, or in the evening. These words form the framework of the most widespread prayer among us Christians – the prayers of St. rosary.
It is so well known to us of the Gospel, in which Luke tells of the proclamation, that many Christians know it by heart. Today we are more aware in the text of the words “full of grace” and “you have found grace with God.” In these words, God’s great love is manifested in Mary herself and the human race in general. When he punishes the grandparents for their sin, Already in paradise gives them a promise, the first good news is heard; protoevanjelium that God will give the world hope to get what he wanted to give to humanity right from the start. The woman will play a serious role in this (cf. Gen 3:15). The angel Gabriel informs Mary that the woman is her. We learn that God gives Mary great grace without her merits. God the Father for the merits of his Son, who was born as the son of Mary, only protected her from inherited sin. The Church has always taught of the Virgin Mary that her soul has never been marked by sin. Not only did Mary not consent to sin, but God, who is purest, will also protect Mary from the sin with which all men come into the world as a sad inheritance from their grandparents. This mystery can be understood and accepted when we realize what lies behind its answer to the angel: “… let it happen to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38).

Today’s holiday is especially happy for us. We realize that even after the sin of our grandparents, God did not stop loving us. God could have arranged things in other ways. But God wanted man to be responsible for making amends.
Mary’s consent is an important step in the salvation of humanity. And what the Church taught and believed over the centuries, Pope Pius IX proclaimed on December 8, 1854. for an article of faith. Four years later, at one of the apparitions of Bernadette Soubirous on March 25, 1858, in southern France in Lourdes in the Cave of Massabiella, the Virgin Mary said: I am the Immaculate Conception! The pastor of Lourdes was surprised when his parishioner told him this. Until then, he didn’t believe her. Even today, many people do not believe in what we remember today. These include those who believe in the deity of Jesus Christ but do not want to believe the Church’s teaching on the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary. But no one is forcing them to do so. This fact, the article of faith, only enriches us. For us, Mary becomes a teacher of faith and a model of pure life.
Although we are marked by inherited sin, today, we can realize the value of pure life. As God prepared the womb of Mary to be pure for the conception of his Son, so God rewarded Mary with the ascension when she, as a free man, never gave her consent to sin. From the beginning, Christian writers, philosophers, and theologians have paid attention to Mary. From the beginning, we have seen reverence for the Mother of Jesus. Already in the Gospels, we find reverence for the mother of Jesus. First, the writers compare it to Eva. While Eve is credited with the unbelief and disobedience that brought unhappiness to the world, Mary is credited with the faith and obedience that brought happiness to the world and contributed to its salvation. This is how St. Justin wrote about the mother of Christ in the 2nd century, St. Irenaeus in the 3rd century, and also Tertullian and others. Other writers likened Mary to the Church. We know that the Holy Spirit conceived Mary. So St. Ambrose teaches in the 4th century that the Mother of God is a Church type. Sv. Ignatius of Antioch, already in the 1st century, points to the concept of the constant virginity of the Mother of Jesus. St. Chrysostomus, vol. Gregor of  Nazianz, vol. Ephraim and St. Augustine are explained seriously by the words “I do not know a man” and point to the greatness of Mary’s consent in the history of salvation.
As early as the 5th century, attacks against reverence for the Mother of God appeared. In 431, Nestorius was convicted of his delusion at the assembly in Ephesus. Respect for the Virgin Mary spreads along with the teachings of Jesus Christ. The core of the Church’s doctrine of the Virgin Mary are the articles of faith, the subject of which are here:
1. Divine motherhood.
2. Constant virginity.
3. Immaculate conception.
4. Assumption.