The Immaculate Conception expresses that God's promises have been fulfilled: Pope

December 08, 2012: The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of Mary expresses the certainty of faith that God's promises have been fulfilled: that the alliance does not fail, but it produced a holy root, from which sprouted the blessed fruit of the whole universe, Jesus the Savior’, said Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday on the occasion of the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception.
It shows that Grace is able to elicit a response. The faithfulness of God knows how to create a true faith, the Pope told a large crowd in St. Peter’s square before reciting the ‘Angelus’ prayer with them.
Speaking from his studio window overlooking the square, he reflected on the Immaculate conception saying that ‘She is the new Israel, the Old Testament describe the symbol of the bride. And St. Paul takes this language in the Letter to the Ephesians, where he says: ‘… Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish’ (5:25-27).
The Pontiff noted that ‘the light that emanates from the figure of Mary also helps us to understand the true meaning of original sin. In Mary, in fact, is very much alive and working that relationship with God which sin breaks. In her there is no opposition between God and his being: there is full communion, full agreement. There is a mutual "yes" of God and of Mary. Mary is free from sin because she is all of God, totally emptied for Him 'full of His grace, His love.’
Mary is blessed, he said, because she had a strong faith in God, and that she is the ‘remnant of Israel’, the holy root that the prophets have announced. Mary’s ‘yes’ allowed the word of God to take flesh and come to dwell among us. Mary is the genuine expression of grace.