So said the Blessed Virgin Mary, to St. Bernadette at Lourdes, in response to St. Bernadette's question, "Would you be so kind as to tell me who you are?" "I am the Immaculate Conception!"

It may have been St. Maximillian Marie Kolbe who first recognized the significance of how she said this. Her declaration more than ratified the declaration of (Blessed) Pope Pius IX in his Apostolic Constitution, Ineffabilis Deus,

God ineffable -- whose ways are mercy and truth, whose will is omnipotence itself, and whose wisdom "reaches from end to end mightily, and orders all things sweetly" -- having foreseen from all eternity the lamentable wretchedness of the entire human race which would result from the sin of Adam, decreed, by a plan hidden from the centuries, to complete the first work of his goodness by a mystery yet more wondrously sublime through the Incarnation of the Word. This he decreed in order that man who, contrary to the plan of Divine Mercy had been led into sin by the cunning malice of Satan, should not perish; and in order that what had been lost in the first Adam would be gloriously restored in the Second Adam. From the very beginning, and before time began, the eternal Father chose and prepared for his only-begotten Son a Mother in whom the Son of God would become incarnate and from whom, in the blessed fullness of time, he would be born into this world. Above all creatures did God so love her that truly in her was the Father well pleased with singular delight. Therefore, far above all the angels and all the saints so wondrously did God endow her with the abundance of all heavenly gifts poured from the treasury of his divinity that this mother, ever absolutely free of all stain of sin, all fair and perfect, would possess that fullness of holy innocence and sanctity than which, under God, one cannot even imagine anything greater, and which, outside of God, no mind can succeed in comprehending fully.

Pope Pius said she was conceived without sin, i.e., immaculately. This is an adverb. The Blessed Virgin said "I am the Immaculate Conception!" A noun. A title. Her identity. The essence of her being. She put it in a way that echoed God's words to Moses on Mt. Sinai, "I AM WHO AM!" In her title we see at once that, though she began her existence in time, God planned her from all eternity. Indeed, she occupies a unique place in the plan of God, a unique place in the mind of God.

She is more important than Eve to us. Being conceived without sin and being given the grace to cooperate fully with God's plan of salvation, she is the perfect receiver of God's grace. God showers upon us all the graces we need to share his infinite life for all eternity, and she has been given the capacity to absorb it all in her own being. Being the perfect receiver, she is also the perfect giver, and she spares nothing for our sakes. Our salvation can be obtained entirely through the grace given to her. It was evidently the Father's plan from eternity to give us Jesus through Mary. This is what makes her the Mediatrix of all graces.

Yet it is also of her essence to bring us to Jesus, to present Jesus to us, and it is this connection to Jesus, which she mediates in a preeminent way, that makes salvation possible. Jesus' decision to be conceived in the womb of Mary, for her to carry him to term, and to be born of her in a humble cave, all of this speaks of Jesus' own humility, compassion and love for his creation. Mary, our mother in grace, represents all humanity in receiving salvation, and she represents womahood in sharing fully in the mission of Christ. It has been said, "That which is not assumed, is not saved!" This dictum has informed much of Christology over the centuries. The Church is recognizing now that it also must inform our Mariology. Though Jesus took on male form, he did not leave female form unattached. Jesus pictured himself to Nathanael as Jacob's ladder, the conduit through which humanity was connected to God. Yet, while Mary fed Jesus through a physical umbilical cord, Jesus fed Mary, and thus, us, through a spiritual one. His blood type and antibodies were compatible with hers, so that he could receive full nourishment. Her soul was ideally suited to be filled with grace from him.

To say that Mary was full of grace is therefore to put things in static terms. She continues to receive all of the graces God sends to humanity. She is full and is filled. And it is her abundance that we receive.

Yet we are not perfect receivers like she is. She could give more, much more, if we were only disposed to receive what she has to give. On November 29th this year, Pope Benedict XVI declared a plenary indulgence for Catholics who honor the Virgin Mary on the feast of the Immaculate Conception, December 8. For details, check "Pope declares plenary indulgence for December 8." The declaration included the usual conditions for being receptive to the graces of a plenary indulgence,

The decree issued on November 29 by the Apostolic Penitentiary, announcing the indulgence, also lists the usual conditions: sacramental Confession, Eucharistic Communion, prayer for the intentions of the Pope, and the removal of attachment to sin. The decree is signed by Cardinal James Francis Stafford and Father Gianfranco Girotti, the penitentiary major and regent, respectively, of the Apostolic Penitentiary. The issue of indulgences, and some abuses of the Church's authority in that realm, became a topic of heated controversy during the Protestant Reformation. The Church's teaching was clarified by the Council of Trent in 1545 to avoid future abuses.

It is our attachment to sin that leads us to reject the graces God sends our way. Mary had no such attachments. She is our model and our help.