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     The angel Gabriel manages to sum up almost all of the Marian theology and devotion of the Church in one simple greeting!   Mary has many titles in Catholic tradition. {Just visit the huge church in Nazareth to see all the images contributed by different countries!)  The title of "the Immaculate Conception" is about her parents conceiving her and God's favor of dispensing her from the "genetic guilt" of Original Sin.  She became a "New Eve," as some of the Church fathers have referred to her.  The other dogma about her deals with her death and another "dispensation" from the ordinary effects of human death - the Assumption.  From the beginning to the end of her earthly life, God was "with her."  Now she is the principal member of the Communion of Saints.

     These "dispensations" are based on God's plan of salvation which St. Paul refers to in the second scripture for this feast:  In [Christ] we were also chosen, destined in accord with the purpose of the One who accomplishes all things according to the intention of his will, so that we might exist for the praise of his glory, we who first hoped in Christ."  The message of the angel Gabriel makes all of this pretty clear!

     Our many devotional titles for Mary can obscure her humanity.  She was a first century Palestinian Jewish girl who found herself a principal player in a very big drama, without knowing just how big and difficult that would be.  We sometimes allow the extraordinary to overwhelm the ordinary and deny her, with all good theological and devotional intentions, the life that we live, with all its challenges.  She played and continues to play a big role in Catholic tradition, but we can meet her "offstage, " as it were, and simply enjoy the company of someone "full of grace."  AMEN