Because today’s gospel reading is the same as the gospel for the Solemnity of the Annunciation, I suspect that is part of the reason that people somehow think we are celebrating the conception of Jesus in Mary’s womb. But that is not it at all. We are celebrating the conception of Mary, the daughter of Joachim and Anna, the one who will become the mother of Jesus. What is it that is “immaculate” about this conception? That because of the pure gift of God, and not on the merits of any human being, Mary was conceived without original sin. It is in the teaching of our Church that God provided such a gift so that the mother of His only begotten Son would be the holy and pure Ark of the New Covenant. It is a particular gift to Mary but also a gift to us. Let’s place that in a larger context.

Our first reading is about the Fall in the Garden, the first sin, or as I prefer, the first rebellion. Our first parents were blessed to be in the presence of God who strolled in the Garden in the cool of the afternoon. Our first parents had everything, full access to the Tree of Life; they had it all. And we know the rest of the story. Add a serpent, the fruit of the one forbidden tree, and a really poor decision, and the Rebellion was afoot. Short lived as it was, it was a rebellion nonetheless. As a consequence Paradise was lost, but more importantly Adam and Eve separated themselves from God. At that moment it seemed as though Hope was lost. Or so it seemed. In the very last line of the first reading is what is called the proto-evangelium, the first gospel. In the very last verse is the promise of a Son, a savior, one who would lead us away from rebellion into the everlasting presence of God. A whisper of Hope.

Writ large, that is the story of the Old Testament: God desiring to be close to us, rescuing us again and again from our really bad decisions. Every time there are consequences to those decisions: loss of the Promised Land, exile into Babylon, destruction of the Holy City Jerusalem and the Temple – but every time the whisper of Hope grew louder. There are lots of examples, but my favorite is from the prophet Ezekiel where in Chapter 34 the Lord tells the people in exile that God Himself will come to be the good shepherd.  The whisper of Hope is now a shout. What was promised in the beginning draws closer.

What we celebrate in the Immaculate Conception is that the Lord’s promised rescue mission had begun – begun in the same way it started, a whisper in the conception of the One whose “Yes” gave birth to Hope in the world.  A whisper that grows into a shout that to us a Savior has been born. A shout carried to the ends of the earth: in Jesus alone in our Hope. As Mary wills say at the wedding in Cana: “This is my son, do what he tells you.”

This solemnity celebration is all about Jesus, our Hope, the Promise of God fulfilled. As St. Paul quietly says in the second reading: “In him we were also chosen …  we who first hoped in Christ.” (Ephesians 1:11-12)

In the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception we celebrate the eternal Hope whose mission is to lead us back into the presence of God and everlasting peace. Our rebellion forgotten and forgiven.