Immaculate Conception BVM

Sermon for the Community Chapter by Dom Raymond 

Snow lying for long
December sundown

                                                                                                                                      

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Raymond 
Sent: Mon, 6 December, 2010 10:43:52
Subject: Immaculate Conception

IMMACULATE CONCEPTION 2010

In war, no matter how long the war lasts, no matter how many reverses one side or the other may suffer, it is always the winner of the last battle who triumphs.  This is especially true in the hidden realm of the primordial war of the spirit; the struggle between good and evil; the war between God and Satan in their contest for the soul of man. The very first battle was fought in the Garden of Eden and Satan won that hands down, but then the very last battle was fought in the Garden of the Tomb and Calvary and Christ won that by his resurrection and triumph over death.  The whole history of mankind is enclosed between these two great battles.

Let us compare these two battles one with the other; The Battle of the Fall and the Battle of the Resurrection;  the Battle of Eden and the Battle of Calvary.  On one side we have all the power of Satan, who fell like lightening from heaven, and on the other, we have puny mankind in the persons of Adam and Eve.  This so very unequal war is still being waged across the centuries right down to our very own day.  You and I have to live a life that has to be described as a warfare and a very unequal combat it is.  Jesus himself assures us that Satan has claimed power to sift us as wheat.  What hope is there for us then?  Obviously we need a champion, a David who can tackle this Goliath for us.  At once the name of Christ, the new Adam springs to our mind.  But there is something particularly beautiful about the way in which the new Adam overcomes our enemy.

When God created mankind He created them man and woman, ”male and   female he created them”.  When he gave them the promise of immortality it was as to a couple,  male and female, that he promised this great gift to them.  When they failed the test it was as a couple, as male and female, that they failed.  When he promised them the Redeemer to come it was as through a couple, male and female, the Woman of primordial promise and the child her son, that the promise was to be fulfilled.  And thus we have Mary conceived immaculate, free from all stain of original sin and joining her Son in the ultimate triumph over Satan.