Honoring the Immaculata

BAGUIA

Attitudes to the Philippine Lower House’s approval of a bill to designate the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary as another national holiday might not necessarily reflect the sacredness of the liturgical festivity.

The Immaculate Conception pertains to the redemption of the Blessed Virgin Mary by our Lord, Jesus Christ from the moment she was conceived in the womb of her mother Saint Anne.

The church’s esteem for this mystery is complemented by her celebration of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary on the eighth of September, exactly nine months after the eighth of December.

This is a mystery because the preservation of the Blessed Virgin from the stain of original sin from time’s uniquely linear perspective seems impossible, deriving as it does from the Incarnation, the life of the Savior that temporally comes long after the conception of the Virgin.

This is also a way of hallowing the first nine months of life that every human being spends in the womb of her or his mother.

The first problem is that the popular response to rumors of an Immaculate Conception holiday does not proceed from a historical understanding of the word “holiday.”

The word is an etymological variant of the word “holy day.” A holiday is not just another day to refrain from work or suspend classes. A holiday is a day to keep holy. To keep something holy is to set it apart for God.

A holiday should not come to be understood as simply a physical rest day. It should always mean a day for the refreshment of one’s spirit in the wings of his Creator.

In a unique way, observing the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception as a holy day of obligation in the Catholic Church in the Philippines, without a legislated civil observance helps preserve the dignity of the occasion.

As a holy day of obligation (one of only three in the Philippines, the other two being Christmas Day and the Solemnity of the Mother of God on the first day of the year), Immaculate Conception Day is one in which the Filipino Catholic is obliged to go to Mass, even if the date falls outside Sunday.

We understand that there is something special about the feast because it is given the dignity of Sunday, the Lord’s own day.

A second problem with this holiday is that it might not necessarily be the best way of honoring the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Adored in the Immaculate Conception is a God whose mercy is not only about forgiving sin, but also about preserving a creature from even the stain of sin. This is the same God we pray to in the exorcism at Holy Mass (“In your mercy, keep us free from sin”).

The Catholics in the Lower House will best honor the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary by testifying to a God who can preserve public officials and their constituents from the scourge of corruption.

The Blessed Virgin will be honored by congressional oversight that makes certain that every human life is protected from the moment of conception, from womb to tomb.

She will be honored by laws that protect and dignify marriage and motherhood rather than attack the family and disparage the sacred union of man and woman in marriage as well as the vocation to being a mother.

Why is marriage included in the special patronage of the Immaculate Conception?

It is so because the Incarnation of Jesus Christ has been divinely linked to the existence of his mother and the Incarnation is God’s embrace of his people, an embrace that is sacramentally present in the marriage of a man and woman.

Does the movement to legalize divorce that is gaining ground at the Lower House honor the Immaculate Conception?

Does the existing Reproductive Health law that enables the retardation of conception so that the marital act is divorced from the responsibility of starting and nurturing a new human life honor the Immaculate Conception?

A civil Immaculate Conception holiday will be a farce coming from authorities whose works dishonor the truths and the things of God for which this divine mystery stands.