The Most Powerful Woman

It’s been over 40 years now.

But a football play from December 23, 1972 

Is still often ranked as the greatest ever.

It was the NFL playoff game, in Pittsburgh.

The Steelers were trailing the Raiders by one point with only 30 seconds left.

In what could be the last play of the game,

Steeler quarterback Terry Bradshaw was under heavy pressure 
And scrambled around.

He finally fired a desperate pass to a receiver in the middle of the field.

But it struck an oncoming Raider defender and rocketed 

Back toward the line of scrimmage.

A quick handed rookie named Franco Harris grabbed it before it hit the ground.

And he ran it all the way in for a touchdown.

And a Steeler victory.

The crowd went wild, and the TV announcer called it the Christmas Miracle.

Later that evening a Pittsburgh sports reporter 

Coined the now-famous name for that play.

The Immaculate Reception.

His clever pun on the name of Feast we celebrate today

Introduced an indirect Marian reference into our popular culture.

And a few years later Roger Staubach added the Hail Mary pass.

Who knows, maybe there’s a little evangelistic benefit there.

Maybe now and then a fan stops to think about the source of those phrases.

This month Mary picked up a little more attention in our secular culture.

National Geographic Magazine put her on the cover.

With the title, Mary, the Most Powerful Woman in the World.

(And National Geographic will air a show about her on December 13^th.)

The Catholic Church has always held Mary in the highest esteem.

So do Muslims.

Although they don’t recognize her as the Mother of God, as we do.

This Feast we celebrate today, The Immaculate Conception, 

Dates back only to 1854.

When Pope Pius IX officially declared 

What the Church had held from the earliest days.

That, from her very conception, Mary has always been without sin.

That she never sinned in her life, and that she was born free of original sin.

At the instant of her conception in the womb of her mother, St Anne,

God intervened and prevented her from inheriting the stain of Original Sin.

The Bible doesn’t state this explicitly, but it does support it.

And the belief and the teaching go all the way back 

To the early Fathers of the Church.

Over the centuries, different feasts have been celebrated 

In different parts of the world.

All recognizing Mary’s sinless perfection.
Pius IX merely confirmed the belief as dogma, and gave the feast a new name.

God planned to send His perfect Son into the world.

A Son never to be touched by sin.

And God knew that He would send him through Mary.

Mary had a choice, as we heard in our Annunciation Gospel today.

But back when Mary was conceived by Anne, 
God already knew  that she would say Yes.

And so, He exempted her from sin as well.

So that his Son, who would be human in every way except for sin,

Would have that perfect, sinless host to receive him.

The Immaculate Conception prepared Mary for her later reception of Jesus.

And her Yes at the Annunciation completed that reception.

So the football punsters were not far off target in coining their term.

If we were to give a new formal name to that Annunciation Yes,

We might call it the true Immaculate Reception.

Feast of the Immaculate Conception

Lk 1:26-38     Read this Scripture @usccb.org