Mary Teaches Us to Kneel

	The Immaculate Conception of Mary, the luminous origin of her being, is revealed in the virginal conception of Jesus by the power of the Spirit. Mary is totally expressed in this mystery: she doesn't exist for herself, but to give herself to God's work. Similarly, humankind recreated through forgiveness cannot just aim towards earthly and temporal development, since it was made for otherworldly happiness, for God's happiness. Humanity was made to welcome and share God's life, listen to the Word and put it into practice, and make it bear divine fruit. By agreeing to be recreated as an immaculate being, the believer lives only through God and for God. Mary's privilege doesn't make her an exception within humanity, but she becomes the one in whom humanity’s grace and fecundity is restored. Mary remains in the heart of God, in the hollow of the rock from which the spring flows. She remains there, as the first tabernacle in history, as God-bearer. She teaches us to kneel and reach, within the reality of our sinful lives, the fidelity of a God who can only give and gives Himself. Going down on our knees in the mud to become reconciled with ourselves and with our life marked by refusal but that can still open up to the permanent gift of life. Kneeling to meet a God who humbled Himself to the point of bending over with us in the mud and simply begging us to accept his recreating forgiveness. Peter had to let himself be cleansed, before his tears can gush forth: tears of repentance and the confession of poor love simply grafted on the fidelity of his Master. Then he could truly exist, not relying on his self-confidence and his own projects anymore, but by letting himself be led where he would not go alone, to the limits of Love. Father Andre Cabes The Immaculate Conception, Good News for Our Times Basilica of Verdelais, December 5, 2009