On the 8th of December the Catholic Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The observance of the feast began with a Papal Encyclical when Pope Pius IX gave it the status of Dogma in the Papal Bull “Ineffabilis Deus” in the year 1854. Several years later, in 1858 the Blessed Mother Mary appeared to St. Bernadette at Lourdes in France stating, “I am the Immaculate Conception”.
According to Catechism of the Catholic Church 487 – 492, 508, Immaculate Conception means that God chose Mary from all eternity to be the Mother of His Son. In order to carry out her mission she herself was conceived Immaculate. That means that, thanks to God’s Grace and in anticipation of the merits of Jesus Christ, Mary was preserved from original sin from the first instance of her conception in the womb of her mother St. Anne. Mary is a part of God’s Plan. Christ who receives His human flesh from His mother, receives this gift from a person who by a singular gift from God, herself comes to be born into this world without sin.
Immaculate Conception does not mean that Christ’s mother did not need a savior or that she somehow saved herself. Christ saved her in an extraordinary way and gave her holiness that she did not achieve for herself. This gift of holiness is what the Immaculate Conception is all about. By giving Mary the grace from the very first moment of her conception, God showed us an image of our own destiny.
Pope John Paul II noted, “In contemplating this mystery in a Marian perspective we can say that Mary at the side of her Son is the most perfect image of freedom and liberation of humanity and the universe. St. Irenaeus says, “Being obedient Mary became the cause of salvation for herself and the whole human race.”
Biblical defense of the Immaculate Conception of Mary: – It was intrinsic to God’s plan of salvation that Mary was created without original sin. Since Adam & Eve represented all of the human family when they fell away from God, all of the humanity fell away from them. God’s rescue plan was to have His only Son assume a human nature so that both God and Man Jesus could accomplish the redemption of human race.
God is all holy. Therefore, He is in total opposition to sin. Sinners cannot even come into His presence without being purified. How then would God the Son be able to intimately join Himself with a fallen human nature? This is where God’s plan for Mary comes in. God chose her to be conceived without original sin so that she would be able to give Jesus a pure and sinless human nature. In the book of Genesis 3.15 God announced for the first time His plan of salvation that will be accomplished through Christ. “I (God) will put enmity (complete separation) between you (the devil) and the woman (Mary) between your seed (sin) and her seed (Jesus). He (Jesus) will crush your head (devil) while you shall bruise His heel (through Crucifixion). In the Gospel according to Luke, Mary is revealed to be (full of Grace). In Luke 1 : 42 Mary is revealed to possess a “Blessed State”. Mary is revealed to be “New Eve” in Luke 1 : 37 – 38, Revelation 12.
The knot of Eve’s disobedience was united by Mary’s obedience. Comparing her with Eve, Mary is called the mother of the living and frequently claim, “Death through Eve.” And “Life through Mary”. From among the descendants of Eve, God chose Mary to be the mother of His Son, “Full of Grace”. Mary is the most excellent fruit of redemption.
Catechism of the Catholic Church 492: “The splendor of an entirely unique holiness by which Mary is enriched from the first instant of her conception comes wholly from Christ. She is redeemed in a more exalted fashion by reasons of the merits of her Son.” The Father blessed Mary more than any other created person in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places and chose her in Christ before the foundation of the World to be holy and blameless before Him in love.
Terence D’Souza (Ward 5)