Pope: Mary's Conception Points to Basic Truths
Says She Is Reflection of Beauty That Saves the World
VATICAN CITY, DEC. 9, 2008 (Zenit.org).-

Benedict XVI says the feast of the Immaculate Conception points to two fundamental Christian beliefs: original sin, and Christ's triumph over it.

The Pope said this Monday, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, when he prayed the Angelus with crowds gathered in St. Peter's Square.Christ's victory over sin "shines sublimely in Mary Most Holy," the Holy Father affirmed."

The existence of what the Church calls 'original sin' is, sadly, a crushing truth, suffice it to look around us and above all in our interior," he noted. "

The experience of evil is, in fact, so consistent, that it imposes itself and makes us ask the question: From whence does it come? […] If God, who is absolute goodness, has created everything, where does evil come from?"

The Pontiff explained that Genesis offers the answer to these questions: "God created everything so that it would exist, in particular he created man in his own image; he did not create death, rather, the latter entered the world because of the envy of the devil, who, rebelling against God, also attracted men with deceit, inducing them to rebellion."

This, Benedict XVI continued, is the "drama of freedom, which God accepts totally out of love." However, from the beginning, God promised that the head of the ancient servant would be crushed.

The Holy Father said that in God's eyes, the "Woman predestined to be mother of the Redeemer […] always had a face and name: 'full of grace,' as the Angel called her when visiting her in Nazareth."

Thus, the Pope added, "in Mary Immaculate we contemplate the reflection of the Beauty that saves the world: the beauty of God that shines on the face of Christ. In Mary, this beauty is totally pure, humble, free of all pride and presumption."