1. The Liturgical Year and the Immaculate Conception.
The Immaculate Conception occurs in the Liturgical Year when we are approaching the Day of General Judgment celebrated during Christ the King. Though it teaches us how to prepare for the Day of Judgment, it is celebrated after Christ the King but still is a preparation for Christ the King.
Preparation for Christ the King is two fold; the negative preparation wherein we are warned of the evil things that will happen. And secondly, the truths we must know to save our souls.
With regard with the first, the Gospels before Christ the King and their attachments which is the Sundays of Advent remind us that during these days the sun, moon and stars will darkened. This refers to the priests, bishops and cardinals who will be utterly ignorant of the Catholic Faith.
With regard with the second, the Gospels had been describing to us the Church. Today the Church must be like Mary, the Immaculate Conception. The Church must be immaculate in that her members must be free from mortal sins. This is commonly referred to as the wheat. While the evil elements are referred to as the cockles.
2. This vision of the Catholic Church as the Immaculate Conception is confirmed by the narration of the apostolic boat trip in Lake Tiberias wherein the fishes caught were only good and holy fishes. Further confirmation of this image is shown in the second visible sign of the true Church of Christ that we recite in the Nicene Creed……Holy. The Church was not immaculately conceived but it must be immaculate by the end times, that is why this feast continues to preparing us for the General Judgment of God.
3. The Church as personified by Mary’s Immaculate Conception
During the time of St. Augustine, the Donatist believed that the true Church of Christ was existing only in Africa. Augustine refuted them but the controversy was so intense both sides went into a civil war. And confusion on which is the true Church continued through the centuries. It was intense during the Great Schism and worsened during the time of Luther. Today there are thousands of Christian sects that it is impossible for most to know which is the true Church.
God, from the beginning knew this would happen so He gave His true Church four visible signs that are enumerated in the Nicene Creed. And the Fathers of the Church elaborated on these four signs and spread it out into 7, 9 and even up to 15 as St. Robert Bellarmine did.
4. There is absolute no other way by which we can know the true Catholic Church except through these four visible signs or through, my favorite, the 15 Marks of the true Church according to the Jesuit Doctor of the Church, St. Robert Bellarmine. When both four visible signs and 15 Marks describe ‘Holy’, they always refer to the fact that the true Church is ‘Immaculate’ like the Blessed Virgin Mary.
5. The feast of the Immaculate Conception is immediately followed by the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, principal patroness of the Philippines. The feast tells us where to find the Church. Our Lady of Guadalupe is the Woman of the Apocalypse who left the cities of sin and flew to the purifying desert. This tells us where to find the Church. The Jubilee Year of Mercy does not tell us where to find the Church. Though Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI did tell us.
An Immaculate Church in the desert amidst a hierarchy that is in darkness, should tell us where to look for her.