258 mystery of her Immaculate Conception which fascinated Blessed Stanislaus and which is, from the fi rst moment, the sign, strength and joy of the Marian vocation. May it also be today our sign, strength and joy; may it also become our inspiration, hope and the path for our conversion and renewal in the time of our Jubilee. The mystery of the Immaculate Conception communicates above all God’s triumph over sin. Humanity is under the legacy of sin, but the power of evil has never been total. This realization ought to be a source of consolation and hope for us in the fi rst place. In various ways, we struggle against sin in our lives, our milieu, our communities, and our entire Congregation. The despondency may overcome us when we look at the human inadequacy in ourselves and in our Congregation. The mystery of the Immaculate Conception gives us courage and affi rms that the powerful love of God is greater than evil. Saint Paul wrote: “In love, He [God] destined us for adoption to Himself through Jesus Christ, in accord with the favor of His will, for the praise of the glory of His grace that He granted us in the Beloved” (Eph 1:4-6). Brothers, today, on our Patronal Feast Day, let us allow ourselves to experience the fact that we are deeply loved by God and let us rejoice in the gift of this grace, of which the Apostle speaks. May nothing turn us away from this joy, and may it not be obscured by anything! Let us be enveloped in Christ’s loving gaze. Let us ask with faith, that we would be immersed in His grace, and let us become enraptured once again by the beauty of the life to which He has called us. The truth of the Immaculate Conception reminds us that Christ is the One who saves us. Let us surrender to Him today all of our shortcomings and our helplessness. Let us give Him the present and the future of our Congregation. Note that Jesus did not expect any good deeds before performing one of His miracles: all He wanted was faith and trust. He was the fi rst to embrace us with love, even before our conception in our mother’s wombs. And He does not take His love away now, looking down on our lives marked by sin. In our spiritual lives, we tend to get unduly focused on sin and the things that enslave us. The Immaculate Conception teaches us an entirely different strategy. Instead of focusing on sin, let us give our entire attention to God’s love for us. Let us contemplate His love. The experience of God’s love will allow us to conquer sin. What counts most in the spiritual life is not how adequate our love for God and neighbor is (which it certainly is not!) but rather how much we believe that we are loved by God, completely undeservedly, and how we respond to His love with our trustful faith in imitation of Mary, who cried out: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to Your word” (Lk 1:38).
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