Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and this is Ascension Presents
So, the feast of the Immaculate Conception happens every December 8th
Which always causes people to say: "Wait a second December 8th, the conception
of Jesus, he was born on the 25th? Like that's only 17 days
you guys do not understand human biology."
But you don't understand Catholic theology.
'Cause it's not about the Immaculate Conception of Jesus.
It's about the conception of Mary....What?
Yeah, it's totally true.
The Immaculate Conception declares that Mary, from the very first moment of her conception
was preserved from all stain of original sin
by the merits of her son's future life, death, and resurrection.
What?
One of the things that means is that Jesus is Mary's savior.
People will say well how can ... what do you mean Mary was without sin?
She even calls God "my Savior."
Well, yeah. Because Jesus saved her before before she got sick
from original sin.
I remember hearing this explanation years and years ago.
They said: "Imagine this. Imagine there's this worldwide
epidemic, this virus that was rampant, and you were gonna get it
And if you got it, you were gonna die.
And then along came Dr. Joe Johnson, and he comes up with this cure.
Everyone who gets injected with this cure will get healed of the disease
and will live.
But then Dr. Joe also comes up with a vaccine.
And if you get this vaccine, before you get the disease,
You'll also ... you won't get the disease and you'll live.
So, imagine: you get the disease and you get the cure. Dr. Joe is your savior.
He saved you from this virus. From this death
You don't get the disease, but Dr. Joe vaccinates you.
Therefore, you are preserved from getting the disease.
Dr. Joe is still your savior.
In a similar way, how you and I have been saved by Jesus if we've been baptized,
and hopefully continue to be saved by saying yes to his grace
is after the fact. We got sick.
Original sin.
But the way that God saved Mary is he preserved her.
He gave her basically the vaccine before she even got sick.
Again, it's by what? By the merits of her Son's future life, death, and resurrection.
People say "What? The future life, death, and resurrection?
Like, how is that possible? 'Cause that would have happened like 47 years
before Jesus died and rose from the dead, right?
So if Mary was roughly 14 when she conceived Jesus, and then Jesus died when he was roughly 33
Forty-seven years earlier, um that seems likely that it would be retroactive. How would it go through time like that?
God's merits go through time like that?"
Well, I would say that's a great question. How do God's merits go through time two thousand years into the future and affect us?
'Cause that's what we believe. By the power of the Holy Spirit
That's what we think. That's what we say. Because God's outside of time.
He can go to any moment in time if he wants.
OK, so that's one thing. But here's the question: it's like: "Well, why would that happen?"
Well let's look at these two stories. Let's look at the story of the fall, right?
In Genesis chapter three. You have one man and one woman.
And they are both without original sin.
So, Jesus isn't the first person without original sin, and Mary isn't the first person without original sin.
Adam and Eve were made without original sin.
Now, Jesus is called the New Adam, right,
by St. Paul? So there's old Adam, Genesis chapter three.
Jesus is called the New Adam. Question: If there's an old Adam and and old Eve
And there's a New Adam, doesn't it also make sense that there would be a New Eve?
Let's look at the story.
Genesis chapter three: Here's the woman without a sin,
and an angel of light appears to her.
you know, one of the shiny ones,
the "hosh" is the Hebrew word,
the glistening ones,
or the bright ones—
Lucifer
the light bearer—
an angel of light appeared
to this woman
without original sin, Eve
and he speaks words to her
that cause her to
disbelieve and
disobey.
she says, "no"
to God and yes to
the words that
called her to disbelieve and disobey.
She takes that disobedience,
hands it on to the husband—
the man—
who then
hands that disobedience and death to the whole world.
We are all descendants of Adam and Eve;
we all inherit that
original sin;
we all inherit
the disobedience and death.
Now that's the
fall team,
those two.
There was also a redeem team.
In Luke's gospel, what do you have?
You have this woman without
original sin, Mary
and the angel of light
Gabriel, appears to her
and he speaks words to her that
cause her to obey
and believe,
to believe and obey.
When she says, "yes"
to God's message
in that
and trusts him
she then hands on that
obedience
to the one conceived in her womb,
the man,
who then when he says, "yes"
to the Father,
he hands on
life
to the whole world
so just like the woman
to the man,
man to the world
of the fall,
in the New Testament, the new creation,
the redeem team,
from the woman to the man,
from the man to the world.
That's why
Eve is called the mother of
all the living;
Mary is called the mother of
all the redeemed.
Well, why would God have to do that?
Why couldn't he just do it on his own?
He could totally do it on his own.
God could save the entire world
on his own.
That's why St. Augustine
had said
the God who willed to
create you
without you
is not willing to
redeem you
without you.
The God who created you
without your permission
does not want to redeem you
without your consent.
This is like the mystery.
This is like the way God does things, right?
He could do it on his own,
but he wants us to work
with him.
You think, what was the work that God asked Mary to do?
This is remarkable
'cause we believe Mary is like the greatest saint who ever lived.
What was the work God asked her to do?
Did he ask her to like start
a movement,
to start an orphanage,
to start hospitals,
to start schools
to start whatever?
No ... he just ...
this is the crazy thing.
Some people think that we
think Mary is amazing
because on her own strength, her own
goodness, her own
beauty, her own
whatever.
False, not at all.
We believe
that all of Mary's goodness
comes from what God
did in her life.
It didn't come from her power
or her strength.
That all of Mary's goodness,
just like the goodness of any of the saints
did not come from her;
it came from God had done
in her life,
and she simply said, "Yes."
Consider this:
You will never
be asked to
do anything more
than Mary,
and all she was asked to do
was say, "Yes."
So here we are
on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.
My invitation is this:
Say "yes" to God,
Regardless of whether
you've been living like a rockstar,
in a good way
like a rockstar saint,
or like a rockstar not
in the best way,
say "yes" to God today.
You cannot go wrong
when we say "yes"
to God.
From all of us here at Ascension Presents,
my name is Father Mike.
God bless.
Dude, I'm just gonna try this.
OK so
I'll be able to hold it up like this
Mary, did you know
that your baby boy
would one day walk on water.
Mary, did you know?
that your baby boy
would save our sons and daughters.
DId you know
that your baby boy
had come to make you new?
This child that you delivered
would soon deliver you.
False.
Heresy.
Not heresy, technically heresy
is the obstinate in public
opposition to be corrected.
It's just an error
and the error is only in one line
of the song.
It's a great song,
it's a beautiful song.
But, it's wrong in that sense. Why?
Because it says
this child that you will deliver
will soon deliver you.
The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception states
that from the very first moment of her
conception
Mary was preserved
from all stain of original sin
by the merits of her son's future life
death, and resurrection.
So, when the song says,
"he will deliver you,"
it's like actually, dude, um
that happened like
I don't know
fourteen years ago.
Go ahead, and like the song.
It's just the one
thing that's not
good.
My sister, she's always like
"Why can't I like that song?"
"I love that song."
It's great.
It's fine.
It's just the one line,
that's all I'm saying.
That's all I'm saying.