Homily: December 8 - Immaculate Conception - Potuit, Decuit, Ergo Fecit

About seven hundred years ago, there was a little Franciscan Friar by the name of John Duns Scotus, teaching Theology at the University of Paris, probably the most important school in the world in the 1300s.  One day, one of his students asked him to explain the Doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, and he said simply, in Latin of course,” potuit, decuit, ergo fecit”.  God could do it, it was fitting that he do it; therefore, he did it.

Could God preserve Mary from all stain of original sin from the moment of her conception? Absolutely.  The Archangel Gabriel in the Gospel today said it perfectly: “nothing is impossible for God”.

Did he do it?  Yes!  When Gabriel met Mary, he greeted her as one already having been made full of grace.  Mary received many special graces from God throughout her life, one in particular which kept her soul clean of sin at the first moment of her life.

Why did God do it?  Friar John Duns Scotus said, it was fitting.

Suppose you had the power to design the soul of your own mother.  Would you not make her the most beautiful woman in the world both on the outside and on the inside?  Would you not make her to radiate every sort of virtue? Every manner of kindness and charity and loveliness? A mother who by the purity of her life and her mind and her heart would be an inspiration not only to you but to everyone?

Knowing that he would come into the world as our Savior, God made Mary’s soul the most beautiful in human history; that when he did come, born as a babe in Bethlehem, he could be in the arms of a mother who loved him completely.

Jesus chose Mary to be his own Mother, and he chose her to be our Spiritual Mother.  All throughout his own difficult ministry, as he was whipped and scourged, and crowned with thorns, and nailed to the cross, Jesus knew that Mary loved him.  So too through all of our difficult journeys, Mary loves us.  She watches over us, prays for us, dispenses graces from God to us.

When you are sick?  We call out to our mothers to bring us medicine.  When we are scared.  We call out to our mothers to bring us courage.  When we are doubtful, we call out to our mothers to give us direction.

So we are meant to do with our perfect spiritual mother Mary, whom God made immaculate for himself and for us.

As we continue this Holy Mass, let’s thank God for blessing us with so beautiful a mother, and let us ask for the grace to be her faithful children, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.