Reflection on the Immaculate Conception

 written for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception on December 8, 2025

I have not made it a secret that, as a born and raised Catholic, I have struggled with my image of and relationship with Mary, the Mother of God. Growing up and attending Catholic school, she was everywhere: a perfect, porcelain white statue (despite her Middle Eastern, Jewish ethnicity) with her eyes turned down and a seemingly expressionless, neutral smile. Ironically, I played her twice in our school Christmas pageants, once in pre-school and again as a third grader. As an enneagram 1- aka The Perfectionist- I wanted to connect with Mary. What we celebrate today is that she was conceived without Original Sin and maybe I am envious of this teaching as someone who wants to always strive for perfection, yet continuously fails. 

Since those days of playing the part of Mary and walking those Catholic school hallways, I have been asked several times to explain our teachings on Mary to students and adults seeking to understand her better. While my Catholic schooling taught me well, I am able to articulate the basics: she was greeted by an angel with a special greeting, this greeting set her apart for the special role she would play in Salvation History. Her ‘fiat” or yes was her own choice, yet God definitely made it difficult for her to say no with the whole lack of Original Sin piece. She was told that her heart would be pierced by a sword (Luke 2: 35) and this would come true as she stood at the foot of the cross at her Son’s crucifixion. 

Our American Church and culture has an obsession with women and our ability to conceive it seems, yet still this is not always one of our celebrated attributes. It is a fact we love to talk about, build laws around, yet we don’t uphold women for much else in my mind,  nor do we often protect them when they have found themselves with child. This is not an essay on our culture’s misogyny, though I do think it is a reality and goes along with how I as a Catholic was taught to see Mary in a certain way- as perfect because she was without sin and said yes to giving birth to the Son of God. It seems, in my opinion, that this is what we subliminally want every woman to be- perfect, humble, meek, and upheld for our ability to give birth. 

As I have become the woman that I am- a teacher, writer, artistic, creative…but also single and childless- I have had to come to terms with how society and the Church view me. If I am viewed only with these last two characteristics- which I believe much of society and the Church do want to see me as- I seem to not have much value in the eyes of these institutions. I know, however, through prayer and reflection (and therapy!), that I am not relegated to just these attributes. Therefore, I shouldn’t also only put these descriptors on Mary. 

Mary was given a seemingly impossible and daunting task- be the Mother of the Son of God. She was not yet wed and very young. The fact that she said ‘yes’ to this plan (and also asked Gabriel questions about it, Luke 1:34) shows that she did have some self-advocacy and great courage. As a Catholic, we also are taught about the many apparitions throughout the world and history where Mary has shown herself to children, women, indigenous people- aka all of the most vulnerable or “othered” in society. When Mary goes to visit Elizabeth in Luke’s Gospel and proclaims her Magnificat, she proclaims that God “has cast the mighty from their thrones and lifted up the lowly” (Luke 1:52). These are not the words of a passive, meek woman. This is a cry for advocacy on behalf of the poor and Mary has backed up these words by showing herself to the lowly, giving them each agency and words of action. 

When I think about how God has revealed himself to women throughout Scripture, I see a different reality than how we treat women in society. As we know, in biblical times, women were property. And really, until the 1970s when women could apply for their own credit cards giving them autonomy over their own finances and future, we as Americans perpetuated this ideal. God, however, throughout Scripture, goes against the misogynistic rhetoric of society- he protects Hagar, a concubine without a husband, he meets women at wells when no one else would give them respect or the time of day, and he chooses a woman to be the catalyst for our salvation. 

I am choosing to see Mary in this new light- a woman chosen and set apart for God to accept the harrowing task of going against societal norms and bravely putting her life on the line for the good of humanity. She is a woman who continues to appear to those who are considered lesser by society because she herself knows what it is to be treated as such. I am choosing to see Mary not only for her ‘yes’ but also for her inquisitiveness and courage. Today is not just a day to celebrate Mary’s perfection, but to celebrate God’s love of women and Mary’s courageous example for those of who are often considered only for what our bodies can do and teaching us that we are so much more.