At noon on this December 8, the solemnity of the Inmaculada Concepción, Pope León XIV appeared at the window of the Apostolic Palace to pray the Ángelus with the faithful gathered in St. Peter’s Square. In his opening words, the Holy Father emphasized the greatness of the grace granted by God to the Virgin Mary from the first instant of her existence.
We now leave his words below:
Dear brothers and sisters, happy feast!
Today we celebrate the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Most Holy Virgin Mary. We express our joy because the Heavenly Father wanted her to be «entirely immune from the stain of original sin» (cf. Blessed Pius IX, Apostolic Constitution Ineffabilis Deus, December 8, 1854), filled with innocence and holiness so that he could entrust to her, for our salvation, «his only Son […] beloved as himself» (ibíd.).
The Lord granted Mary the extraordinary grace of a totally pure heart, in view of an even greater miracle: the coming into the world, as man, of Christ the Savior (cf. Lc 1:31-33). The Virgin knew this, with the wonder proper to the humble, through the angel’s greeting: «Rejoice!, full of grace, the Lord is with you» (v. 28) and with faith she responded her «yes»: «I am the servant of the Lord, let it be done to me according to your word» (v. 38).
Commenting on these words, St. Augustine says that «Mary believed, and what she believed became reality in her» (Sermon 215, 4). The gift of the fullness of grace, in the young woman of Nazareth, was able to bear fruit because she, in her freedom, welcomed it by embracing God’s plan. The Lord always acts in this way: he grants us great gifts, but leaves us free to accept them or not. That is why Augustine adds: «Let us also believe so that what became reality [in her] may be equally beneficial to us» (ibíd.). Thus, this feast, which makes us rejoice in the immaculate beauty of the Mother of God, invites us to believe as she believed, giving our generous consent to the mission to which the Lord calls us.
The miracle that happened to Mary in her conception is renewed for us in Baptism: washed from original sin, we have been made children of God, his dwelling place and temple of the Holy Spirit. And just as Mary was able to welcome Jesus into herself and give him to men through a special grace, so «Baptism enables Christ to live in us and us to live united to him, to collaborate in the Church, each according to his own condition, in the transformation of the world» (Francis, Catechesis, April 11, 2018).
Dear brothers, great is the gift of the Immaculate Conception, but so is the gift of Baptism that we have received. Wonderful is the «yes» of the Mother of the Lord, but so can be ours, renewed every day with fidelity, gratitude, humility and perseverance in prayer and in concrete works of love, from the most extraordinary gestures to daily tasks and the most ordinary services, so that Jesus may be known, received and loved everywhere, and his salvation may reach all.
We ask this today of the Father, through the intercession of the Immaculate One, as we pray together with the words in which she herself, first of all, believed.