Sermon of St. Laurence of Brindisi: Sermon V, Concept. Immac. We can judge the conception of Mary from that of her Son

The evangelists were guided by no merely human motive when they recorded the sacred events of the gospel for all succeeding ages: they were inspired by the Holy Spirit. Now the Holy Spirit would not have them say anything about the Virgin Mary's conception; his will was that they should honor it with respectful silence, as they had honored the creation of heaven and the angels; and he wanted us to gain an understanding of the blessed Virgin's holy birth and immaculate conception from the conception and birth of Christ. The creation of the earth was very like the creation of the heavens, the moon was created in much the same way as the sun, and woman's making was very similar to man's; even though the heavens have more nobility than the earth, the sun more light than the moon, and man a higher rank than woman. In the same way, although Christ's conception is a much nobler thing than the blessed Virgin's and belongs to a much higher category, there is still a very close resemblance between her conception and his, just as there was between Adam's making and Eve's, if we may judge by the text, Let us make him a help like unto himself. Eve was fashioned from Adam's side and was made like him, though less than he; and so it was with Mary, who was fashioned from the side Of Christ. But whereas it was Eve's natural gifts that came from Adam, what Mary derived from Christ was grace.

Mary is like Christ in every respect: in nature, in grace and in glory. She is like him in nature: she has the same nature as he has. She is like him in grace because she too is holy, being full of grace, full of the Holy Spirit. She is like him in glory, as the moon is like the sun or as a queen is like her king (At thy right hand stands the queen). And Christ and Mary were alike in their predestination and birth, their life, death and resurrection, their assumption and glorification. They were alike in their predestination because Christ was predestined not as God but as man, as Mary's Son: so that her predestination was bound up with his. Her birth was like his because she was born holy, as he was. Her death was like his because she died through no fault Of her own. Her rising was like his, because she rose in glory and went up to heaven, where she sits at his right hand, supremely honored, above all the choirs of angels. And so, we must assume that her conception too was like his and suppose that like him she was conceived without sin, holy and full of grace; just as the sun and moon and stars—all analogues of her—were created full of light. If the Church has chosen for the feasts of the Conception and Nativity of the blessed Virgin the gospels of Christ's conception and nativity, it is precisely because of the great similarity between the two. And in any case, if Christ really is Mary's Son, Christ's ancestors are Mary's ancestors.