There was an extraordinary delicacy in the sweet Providence of God in His love for womankind in the Immaculate Conception. Christ could have been incarnate in any woman, I presume, but He was not. He was made man in a perfectly beautiful woman, a new Eve, glorious in her loveliness of grace and nature. Had He been the Son of a daughter of Eve, there would have been in womankind a tinge of regret, of shame and sadness. They would have sensed her lack of perfection and would have wistfully recalled the original woman of God's first making.

Like a matron of some fine, noble family of stature, whose fortune had fallen, who still lived in the ancient mansion, but who would know it no longer for what it had once been. Handsome enough still, but showing signs of poverty and an inability to be what it used to be. Any eye could detect a touch of wear, of the worn and shabby. Not really too obvious, but apparent. "This place is not what it used to be." And so when some highly-placed guest came, it hurt the hostess to be so shamed by a poverty that could not be hidden. A noble house fallen on hard times. Her joy at His coming would be touched with whimsical regret.

Not so. He came to a superbly beautiful house, for this Woman had never fallen heir to bad times. She was immaculate in every sense, endowed with grace that nothing could hide.

No woman could look on her with anything less than delight that one so highly favored was to be the Mother of God. Every woman would rejoice in God's choice and would feel that in Her she was honored, that all womankind could share the joy.

Indeed, all. All womankind, all mankind. What a delicate design of God, to be so tender and so subtle.

This Woman was to be the fruit of a human union without parallel in human history. In Her case, human love reached heights unknown since the original Garden. She was conceived without sin. There was no shadow of sadness, no memory of a past in which a fortune was lost forever. Here was human love as it was meant to be. Here was a union whose fruit was worthy to be the Mother of God.

And only the angels knew. It was a secret that would come to light only under the guidance of the Spirit, would slowly be revealed in its glory.

Here was the first fruit of God's saving love, for in Her by anticipation were sin and death overcome. The first of the redeemed, the glory of the new era, the new Eve.

Of  Her would be born the Christ Who redeemed Her. The beauty of Her mansion was a house of perfect grace.

How delicate a design of God. What poetry God writes. How touching the love He has for us all that He would enact so fine a work.

We celebrate today this Immaculate Conception. And we stand speechless before loveliness. Now we know what we had been. Now we see what might have been our story, had not human freedom turned against God and chose an evil that has been with us since.

Praise God for such grace. Mary was conceived without sin because She was to be the Mother of God. And She was so conceived because She was the first manifestation of God's redeeming love. Tragedy turned to glory by the Mercy of God.

For we were all meant to be conceived without sin. Human freedom chose not to make it so. For the human family is one and we all share not only fortune, but misfortune. We were not born to die, but like Her to pass to Heaven when life was done. It was not to be so.

But God undid by love and mercy what the lack of them did. We are truly free and our will is free. And choice had eternal consequences.

And still does. We are free again in God's grace by the life and death and rising of Her Son, our Lord. And that freedom is real. We know it is real because of Adam and Eve. They freely chose. And to what effect.

Our freedom is just as real. In God's grace we are a renewed people and the renewal has made our freedom, and a real freedom. And to what effect.

Thus humankind, womankind and mankind, can freely love God. And that is the most sublime act we can perform. The significance of human love of God, freely given, totally given, has significance beyond conceiving. God knows its significance more than we do. It means everything to Him.

Surely it is worth the doing, to spend a lifetime learning the art of love, that at least once before we die we make a perfect act of love for God. There can be no greater deed. Nothing can equal such a doing.

So on this feast of love, let us carry on in our efforts to learn the finest of arts, the act of love, never daunted by failure or inadequacy. Such an art takes infinite patience, unending effort. Made possible to us in the grace of God in Christ the Lord, Son of Mary.

We know well enough how much effort goes into any art, any skill, any superb achievement. It is hard come by even on the human level, no matter what it be. How can we be taken aback, then, at the hard achieving of some skill in the act of love? But we carry on, confident that one day with the help of God, we will come to pure love. Then one has truly lived and fulfilled the purpose we are here for.

The loveliness of the Woman we honor today in praise and thanks and petition and atonement to God Almighty, encourages us the more when we know She lives for love in God, and with Her prayers helps us daily to become great artists in that finest art.

The Church is almost pure poetry. It is pure poetry. Today's feast is a superb expression of it. Be it a day of joy for you, for all. For all womankind, for all mankind.
Amen.