BAGUIA
May she intercede with God for our land, that those who are addicted may find healing, that those who spread lies may become truthful, that those who enjoy sin may apprehend sin’s bitterness, that those who kill may become protectors of life.
When the archangel Gabriel spoke to the Blessed Virgin Mary, he called her “full of grace.”
We are in the final days of the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
This great feast honors divine revelation of the truth that Mother Mary was conceived preserved from the stain of original sin.
This grace was given her by the infinite merits of Jesus Christ.
She predated him in terms of conception, but His merits especially via the Cross and Resurrection are timeless and reach into all eternity.
They certainly reached the first moment of her conception.
The words of Saint Gabriel are packed with meaning.
“Full of grace,” uttered by the faithful around the world when they pray the “Ave Maria” (Hail Mary) teach us that there was room for nothing else in the Blessed Virgin.
One cannot be full of anything yet have space for something else.
She could not have been touched by any impurity, beause she was and is full of grace.
“Full of grace” is an affirmation of God’s own propecy in the garden of Eden in light of the fall of man.
God put enmity between the serpent and the woman, between the serpent’s offspring and hers.
True adversaries are diametrically opposed.
The serpent was the father of deception, evil incarnate.
The enmity between the serpent and the woman, the Virgin Mary is absolute.
There is no compromise between them.
The feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary heralds the imminence of salvation.
The woman who would give birth to the One who would crush the head of the serpent comes into existence.
The Immaculate Conception is the patroness of the Philippines.
May she intercede with God for our land, that those who are addicted may find healing, that those who spread lies may become truthful, that those who enjoy sin may apprehend sin’s bitterness, that those who kill may become protectors of life, that those entrusted with children may not abuse them, that those enmeshed in misogyny may discover awe for women, that by the same power by which the Virgin was made and kept sinless, our people may be drawn to and drink from the fountain of God’s mercy.