The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception – December 8, 2025
As humans we have become ill with shame. Many of us have spent much energy, time, and money healing from childhood trauma born of shame. There’s so much pressure, especially among younger generations, to deny any weakness or flaw and reveal only our most put-together selves to the world. And sadly, many succumb to the lie that shame and guilt have planted into human hearts: that we are irredeemable, unlovable, unworthy.
Today’s solemnity confronts that insidious lie festering in human hearts since Adam and Eve. Today we proclaim that in God, humans are destined for holiness. Long before the garden and the serpent, God knew us and chose us to be blessed and favored. And no human action will ever be shameful enough to undo God’s choice to destine us for blessing through Christ.
Imagine how many more yeses to God’s grace would be possible if we helped one another heal from the lie of shame and see ourselves as God’s favored ones!
This is what we commemorate today in Mary’s Immaculate Conception. From the moment of her conception in her mother’s womb, she is free of the sickness of shame and restored to wholeness so as to glorify God in the fullness of her human nature. She gives her complete yes to God’s divine invitation, not in spite of but because of her humanity.
Imagine how many more yeses to God’s grace would be possible if we helped one another heal from the lie of shame and see ourselves as God’s favored ones!
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