The Most Perfect Gift | #1602

Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary • Which Catholic teaching is the most difficult to accept? It's not the Immaculate Conception, the Incarnation, or Transubstantiation. Most people seem to have a really hard time with the idea that every child is a gift from God.

Thanks to original sin, every child is perfect and precious and also rather annoying. And we make things worse when we make our own sinful choices.

So when God wanted to send the most perfect gift, he made Mary not only precious and beautiful and loved, but also without original sin. Mary could spend her whole life being the good and beautiful person she was created to be.

Mary gave God the gift of herself, and God gave her an even more perfect gift: Baby Jesus. By giving his life on the cross, Jesus made it so that each of us can become immaculate, like Mary. Mary reminds us that we are each a gift. She reminds us to treat ourselves as a gift and to treat others as a gift. She also shows us that, by giving ourselves back to God, we can become a more perfect gift.

Going Deeper: Do you agree with Fr. Joel that this teaching is hard to accept? Why or why not?

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