Mary's Immaculate Conception

By Father William G. Most

In teaching that Mary was conceived
immaculate, the Catholic Church
teaches that from the very moment of
her conception, the Blessed Virgin
Mary was free from all stain of original
sin. This simply means that from the beginning, she was in a state of grace,
sharing in God's own life, and that she
was free from the sinful inclinations
which have beset human nature after
the fall. History of the Doctrine There are two passages in Scripture
which point us to this truth. We look
first at Genesis 3.15, in which we see
the parallel between Mary and Eve of
which the early Church Fathers already
spoke: "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your
seed and her seed: he shall bruise
your head, and you shall bruise his
heel." The Jews saw this passage as
referring to the struggle between
Christ and Satan, and so the Church see in "the woman" a prophetic
foreshadowing of the Virgin Mary
(Vatican II, Lumen gentium, # 55).

If there is to be complete enmity
between the woman and the serpent,
then she never should have been in
any way subject to him even briefly.
This implies an Immaculate
conception.

We can also reason from the text of Lk
1:28, in which the angel calls her "full
of grace". If we can validate the
translation--we can, and will do so,
shortly--then in this verse we can see
even more strongly the complete enmity with the serpent--for God's
grace is complete opposed to Satan's
reign. But if Mary was "full of grace," it
seems that she must have been
conceived immaculate.

We turn to the early Fathers of the
Church. First, many, not all of them,
make sweeping statements about her
holiness. That could imply an
Immaculate Conception. Secondly,
very many of them speak of her as the New Eve. They could have reasoned:
the first Eve had an immaculate start in
life--no sin was yet committed. So the
New Eve, who was to share in
undoing the harm of original sin,
should have also an immaculate start. However, none of the Fathers actually
followed this line of reasoning. (A few
Fathers even tried to find sins she had
committed, e.g. St. John Chrysostom,
Homilies on John 21. PG 59. 130ff).

During the middle ages, authors such
as St. Bernard of Clairvaux and St.
Thomas Aquinas denied the doctrine.
At this time, the data from Scripture
and the Fathers was still not clear. In
addition, the understanding of original sin was not as clear as it should have
been--it was often thought of as
having a positive element, instead of
merely being an original lack of the
grace to which God calls us. This
positive element was thought to be transmitted from parents to children
through the marital act (which was
itself thought to be somehow sinful,
though pardoned by God), and so it
was hard to see how there could be
an immaculate conception. This conception had been found in some,
though by no means all, of the Fathers.
Now of course we know it to be false.
Finally, it was not generally seen at this
time how an Immaculate conception
of Mary would not take away from the universality of redemption through
Christ.

After a while, however, the theological
tide began to turn, and the objections
which had long obscured the content
of divine revelation began to be
overcome. This was due especially to
the work of the Franciscan, Venerable John Duns Scotus. He showed that for
God to preserve Mary from original sin
was a greater redemption than to
allow her to fall into it and then rescue
her. Scotus wrote (cited from J. B.
Carol, Mariology I, 368): "Either God was able to do this, and did not will to
do it, or He willed to preserve her, and
was unable to do so. If able to and yet
unwilling to perform this for her, God
was miserly towards her. And if He
willed to do it but was unable to accomplish it, He was weak, for no one
who is able to honor his mother
would fail to do so."

We also note again that behind most
of the objections was the rather
positive notion of original sin. If we
jump ahead several centuries to the
clearer understanding of original sin
we have now, we can remove this objection. Pope John Paul II epressed
this understanding in a General
Audience on Oct 1, 1986: "In context
it is evident that original sin in Adam's
descendants has not the character of
personal guilt. It is the privation of sanctifying grace in a nature which,
through the fall of the first parents, has
been diverted from its supernatural
end. It is a 'sin of nature' only
analogically comparable to 'personal
sin'". In other words: It is only the lack, or privation, of that which God
wanted us to have, which we should
have inherited from our first parents."

Now back to our history. After that this
change in theological tide had gone
far towards removing objections, the
Popes began to make statements of
varying clarity. Sixtus IV in 1477 (DS
1400) praised the liturgical celebration of the Immaculate Conception. The
same Pope added further support in
1483 (DS 1425-26), condemning
those who said it was sinful to preach
and believe the Immaculate
Conception. The Council of Trent explicitly declared in its decree on
original sin (DS 1516): "... it is not its
intention to include in this decree ...
the blessed and Immaculate Virgin
Mary, Mother of God. Rather, the
Constitutions of Sixtus [IV] of happy memory are to be observed."

After Trent, the attacks on the
Immaculate Conception were greatly
moderated. Then Pope St. Pius V, in
1567 (DS 1973) condemned the error
of Baius who said Our Lady was
subject to original sin. And in 1568 the same Pope put the feast of the
Immaculate Conception on the
calendar of the Roman breviary.
Alexander VII in 1661 explained the
doctrine much as Pius IX did later: DB
1100. Pope Clement XI in 1708 made December 8 a holyday of obligation.
Further, the Sixth Provincial Council of
Baltimore in the U. S. in 1846 declared
Mary Immaculate to be Patroness of
the United States, and Pius IX on Feb. 7,
1847 confirmed this dedication.

The result was that about a century
and a half before the definition of
1854, the whole Church believed the
Immaculate Conception. Finally, in
Ineffabilis Deus, in 1854, Pius IX
defined this doctrine and added that Mary was conceived immaculate by
anticipation of the merits of Christ. This
is not strange, for to the eye of God, all
time is present.

Now the Church continues to elucidate
the scriptural basis of the doctrine of
the Immaculate Conception. Pius XII, in
Fulgens corona, 1953 wrote: "... the
foundation of this doctrine is seen in
the very Sacred Scripture itself, in which God ... after the wretched fall of
Adam, addressed the ... serpent in
these words... 'I will put enmity....' But
if at any time, the Blessed Virgin Mary,
defiled in her conception with the
hereditary stain of sin, had been devoid of divine grace, then at least,
even though for a very brief moment
of time, there would not have been
that eternal enmity between her and
the serpent ... but instead there would
have been a certain subjection."


Preventive redemption

We have said that Mary needed
redemption, although she was never
subject to original sin. Nor did she
have an "obligation" to contract it, as
some have foolishly said: there can be
no obligation to any sin. We can merely say she would have been in
original sin in the sense just explained,
i.e. , she would have been born
without grace, were it not for the
preventive redemption. The word
"preventive" means anticipatory: the grace she received at her conception
was given in anticipation (Latin
praevenire) of Christ's merits, which
earned that grace.

The nature of Mary's grace at the
Immaculate Conception

In Lk 1:28 the archangel hails her as,
"full of grace". Most versions today do
not use that rendering, but greatly
weaken it. Yet it is the correct
translation as we can see from the
Magisterium (Pius XII, Fulgens Corona, AAS 45, 579, and constant use of the
Church) and also from philology.

For the Greek word in the Gospel is
kecharitomene. It is a perfect passive
participle of the verb charitoo. A
perfect passive participle is very
strong. In addition, charitoo belongs
to a group of verbs ending in omicron omega. They have in common that
they mean to put a person or thing
into the state indicated by the root.
Thus leukos means white, so leukoo
means to make white. Then charitoo
should mean to put into charis. That word charis can mean either favor or
grace. But if we translate by favor, we
must keep firmly in mind that favor
must not mean merely that God, as it
were, sits there and smiles at
someone, without giving anything. That would be Pelagian: salvation
possible without grace. So for certain,
God does give something, and that
something is grace, are share in His
own life. So charitoo means to put into
grace. But then too, kecharitomene is used in place of the name "Mary". This
is like our English usage in which we
say, for example, someone is Mr.
Tennis. That means he is the ultimate
in tennis. So then kecharitomene
should mean "Miss Grace", the ultimate in grace. Hence we could reason that
fullness of grace implies an
Immaculate Conception.

Overflowing grace: Pius IX, in the
document, Ineffabilis Deus, defining
the Immaculate Conception in 1854
wrote: "He [God] attended her with
such great love, more than all other
creatures, that in her alone He took singular pleasure. Wherefore He so
wonderfully filled her, more than all
angelic spirits and all the Saints, with
an abundance of all heavenly gifts
taken from the treasury of the divinity,
that she, always free from absolutely every stain of sin, and completely
beautiful and perfect, presented such
a fullness of innocence and holiness
that none greater under God can be
thought of, and no one but God can
comprehend it."

What about the words of Jesus in Lk
11:27-28 (cf. Mt. 12:46-50 and Mk
3:35)? A woman in the crowd
exclaimed: "Blessed is the womb that
bore you...." He replied: "Rather
blessed are they who hear the word of God and keep it."

The dignity of being Mother of God is a
quasi infinite dignity, as we just saw
from the words of Pius XI. Yet here,
our Lord is teaching us that the
holiness coming from hearing the
word of God and keeping it is something greater still. Her holiness
must indeed be great--so great that
"none greater under God can be
thought of, and no one but God can
comprehend it."

Even though Mary was full of grace at
the start of her life, yet she could still
grow, for, as it were, her capacity for
grace could increase.

In general, a soul will grow in
proportion to these things: (1) The
greater the dignity of the person, the
greater the merit In her case, the
dignity of Mother of God is the highest
possible for a creature. (2) The greater the work, the greater the merit: her
cooperation in the redemption was
the greatest work possible to a
creature. (3) The greater the love, the
greater the merit. Love of God means
the attachment of our will to His. Her will adhered supremely, with no
obstacle at all, so that even ordinary
household duties, which she saw as
the will of the Father for her, were
supremely valuable.

From EWTN

The Blessed Virgin Mary: Her Privileges and Relation to Christ and His Church

By Father William G. Most

According to a late tradition, the
parents of Our Lady, the Blessed Virgin
Mary, were St. Joachim and St. Anne,
natives of Bethlehem who lived in
Nazareth.

Mother of God

Mary's most fundamental privilege is
that of being the Mother of God. We do
not mean she produced the divine
nature, of course. But her Son is God,
so she is the Mother of God. Similarly,
Mrs. Jones shares only in the production of the body of her son
John, not at all in the making of his
soul. Yet we do not say she is mother
of the body of John Jones, but of John
Jones, the person. Pius XI quoted St.
Thomas Aquinas with approval in saying that "From the fact that she is
the Mother of God, she has a sort of
infinite dignity from the infinite good
that God is. (Lux veritatis, Dec. 25,
1931, citing St. Thomas, Summa
Theologiae I. 25. 6. ad 4).

Mary conceived her son by the power
of the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35). The
Archangel first told her that her Son
was to be the Son of the Most High.
However, any devout Jew could be
called a son of God. But there was more: the angel told her He would
reign over the house of Jacob forever:
right then she would know He was to
be the Messiah, for Jews then
commonly believed the Messiah would
reign forever. Finally, the angel said He would be conceived when the Holy
Spirit would "overshadow" her. That
word, she would know, was the one
use to describe the Divine Presence
filling the ancient Tabernacle in the
desert (Exodus 40:35). Her Son was to be called Son of God "for this reason".
So that He was the Son of God in a
unique sense. From this alone she
likely knew of His divinity, especially
when she would add the words of
Isaiah 9:5-6 that the Messiah would be "God the Mighty". Even though the
Jews found that text hard, she, full of
grace, would readily grasp it.

Ever Virgin

So this was a virginal conception, that
is, without the intervention of a man.
Both Matthew and Luke make this
clear. If we believe the Gospels, we will
understand that readily. The teaching
of the Church, already in the oldest creeds, which call her "ever-virgin,"
tells us she remained a virgin during
and after His birth. Some have tried to
say the teaching on her virginity was
not physical, but just a way of
expressing her holiness. But it is more than that: Vatican II (Lumen Gentium #
57) wrote that His birth "did not
diminish, but consecrated her virginal
integrity." That word "integrity" refers
to physical condition.

Therefore when the Gospels speak of
the "brothers and sisters" of Jesus,
they do not mean other children of
Mary. The Hebrew words were very
broad, could cover any sort of
relationship. For that matter, modern English uses these words even more
broadly for members of fraternities
and sororities.

Immaculate Conception

As a result of this Divine Motherhood,
because it was fitting for Her Son, she
obtained the great grace of the
Immaculate Conception, defined by
Pius IX in 1854. This means that from
the first instant of conception her soul had sanctifying grace, a share in God's
own life, given in anticipation of the
future merits of her Son.

The angel's greeting to Mary is
traditionally translated "Hail, full of
grace," but this has been disputed in
modern times. Vatican II, Pope John
Paul II and others understand the
Greek of Luke 1:28, kecharitomene, to mean "full of grace". The word is a
perfect participle, a very strong form.
The root verb, charitoo, means to put
someone into the state of grace/favor.
And especially, the word is used
instead of her name, in direct address. This is like saying someone is Mr.
Tennis--the ultimate in tennis. So she is
Miss Grace, the ultimate in grace. Pius
IX, in defining the Immaculate
Conception, said that even at the start,
her holiness was so great that "none greater under God can be thought of,
and no one but God can comprehend
it"!


Cooperation in the Redemption

One of the oldest teachings of the
Church is that Mary is the New Eve. Just
as the first Eve really contributed to the
disaster of original sin, so Mary the
New Eve really contributed to
removing it, that is, to redeeming us. She was Mother of the Redeemer
precisely insofar as He is our
Redeemer. Every Pope since Leo XIII,
and Vatican II, in seventeen
documents have said that her role in
redeeming us extends even to a part in the great sacrifice of Calvary itself! It
is a general principle, that if something
is taught repeatedly by the Church,
even on a level less than a definition,
the teaching is infallible.

Vatican II, echoing earlier papal
teaching, tells us that at the cross she
was asked even to "consent" to the
death of her Son (LG # 58). Pope John
Paul II, in his Encyclical, The Mother of
the Redeemer, set out to further deepen that teaching (as he tells us in
his Guardian of the Redeemer [on St.
Joseph]). He showed that this was the
"deepest self-emptying in history" for
her and her Son. In in it, Mary practiced
"the obedience of faith". Now since all perfection lies in positively willing
what God wills whenever we know His
positive will, it is clear that Mary was
called on to positively will that her Son
die, die then, die so horribly. She had
to will this in spite of a love for her Son so great that "only God can
comprehend it"--for Pius IX had said,
as we saw above that her holiness
was that great even at the start. But
holiness and love of God are
interchangeable words. So in willing the death of her Divine Son, it is clear
that her suffering was such that "no
one but God could comprehend it."

Mediatrix of All Graces

As we would expect, having shared at
immense cost in earning all graces, she
shares similarly in distributing all of
them as Mediatrix of all graces. This
truth too has been taught numerous
times by a long series of Popes--every Pope from Leo XIII through John
XXIII.

Assumption and Queenship

At the end of her earthly life, Mary was
taken up (assumed) into heaven,
body and soul. Pius XII, in defining the
Assumption, explained that "Just as
the glorious resurrection of Christ was
an essential part and final sign of this victory [over sin and death by Calvary]
so that struggle [Calvary] which was
common to the Blessed Virgin and her
Son, had to be closed by the
glorification of her virginal body". That
is, the struggle, a work common to the two was a common cause. It brought
Him glorification; it had to bring the
same to her. (In all this it is understood
she is subordinate to Him, and really
depends on Him for all her ability to do
anything at all).

As a result, just as He is now King of
the Universe, she is Queen of the
Universe. "And her kingdom is as vast
as that of her Son and God, since
nothing is excluded from her
dominion" (Pius XII, Bendito seia, May 13, 1946).

Vatican II

Chapter 8 Vatican II's Constitution on
the Church is entirely on her. In it the
Council goes through in detail her
association with Him. She is eternally
joined with Him in the eternal decree
for the Incarnation. She will remain eternally joined to Him as Queen in His
Kingdom. And the council went
through in detail every one of the
mysteries of His life and death,
showing in each case her close
association with Him. The place the Father gave her is really all-pervading,
in His approach to us. In writing this,
Vatican II wrote more extensively
about her, went farther theologically
than all previous Councils combined!
In spite of talk that it downgraded her, it was the opposite. Vatican II could
really be called the Marian Council.

Spiritual Motherhood

On the floor of the Council, Pope Paul
VI declared Mary Mother of the Church.
This was not entirely new. Pius XII, in a
message to the Marian Congress of
Ottawa, Canada, on July 19, 1947 said:
"When the little maid of Nazareth uttered her fiat to the message of the
angel... she became not only the
Mother of God in the physical order of
nature, but also in the supernatural
order of grace, she became the Mother
of all, who... would be made one under the Headship of her Son. The
Mother of the Head would be the
Mother of the members."

From EWTN

MAN, UNIQUE IN UNIVERSE

By Pope John Paul II

The Spirit of God who, we are told in
the Book of Genesis, breathed upon
the waters at the very beginning of
creation (cf. 1:2), is the same Spirit of
life who was breathed into man, so
that "man became a living being" (ibid., 2:7). This is what makes
us different from every other creature.
In our bodies we are a mere speck in
the vast created universe, but by virtue
of our souls we transcend the whole
material world. I invite you to reflect on what makes each one of you truly
marvelous and unique. Only a human
being like you can think and speak
and share your thoughts in different
languages with other human beings
all over the world, and through that language express the beauty of art
and poetry and music and literature
and the theater, and so many other
uniquely human accomplishments.

And most important of all, only God's
precious human beings are capable of
loving. Love makes us seek what is
good; love makes us better persons. It
is love that prompts men and women
to marry and form a family, to have children. It is love that prompts others
to embrace the religious life or become
priests. Love makes you reach out to
others in need, whoever they are,
wherever they are. Every genuine
human love is a reflection of the Love that is God himself, to the point where
the First Letter of Saint John says: "The
man without love has known nothing
of God; for God is love" (4:8).

From his Homily at Central Park, 7
October 1995

PRAYER OF CONVERSION

By Saint Augustine

O God, Framer of the universe, grant
me first rightly to invoke Thee; then to
show myself worthy to be heard by
Thee; lastly, deign to set me free. God,
through whom all things which of
themselves were not, tend to be. God, who out of nothing hast created this
world, which the eyes of all perceive to
be most beautiful. God, the Father of
truth, the Father of wisdom, the Father
of the true and crowning life, the
Father of blessedness, the Father of that which is good and fair, the Father
of intelligible light, the Father of our
awakening and illumination, the
Father of the pledge by which we are
admonished to return to Thee.

God, from whom to be turned away, is
to fall: to whom to be turned back, is
to rise again: in whom to abide, is to
stand firm. God, from whom to go
forth, is to die: to whom to return, is to
revive: in whom to have our dwelling, is to live. God, whom no one loses,
unless deceived: whom no one seeks,
unless stirred up: whom no one finds,
unless made pure. God, by whom we
distinguish good from ill. God, by
whom we flee evil, and follow good. God, who leadest us to the door of life.
God, who causest it to be opened to
them that knock. God, who givest us
the bread of life. God, who cleansest
us, and preparest us for Divine
rewards, come graciously to me.

Thou the only God, come unto my
help. God, whom all things serve, that
serve, to whom is compliant every
virtuous soul. By whose laws the poles
revolve, the stars fulfill their courses,
the sun enlivens the day, the moon tempers the night: and all the
framework of things, day after day by
turns of light and gloom, month after
month by waxings and wanings of
the moon, year after year by
unceasing order of spring and summer and fall and winter, and
through the mighty orbs of time,
folding and refolding upon
themselves, as the stars still recur to
their first conjunctions, maintains, so
far as mere visible matter allows, the mighty constancy of things. God, by
whose laws the choice of the soul is
free, and to the good rewards and to
the evil pains are distributed by
necessities settled throughout all
natures. Who hast made man after Thine image and likeness, as he who
has come to know himself discovers.
Hear me, hear me, graciously hear me,
my God, my Lord, my King, my Father,
my Cause, my Hope, my Wealth, my
Honor, my House, my Country, my Health, my Light, my Life. Hear, hear,
hear me graciously, in that way, all
Thine own, which though known to
few is to those few known so well.

Henceforth Thee alone do I love, Thee
alone I follow, Thee alone I seek, Thee
alone am I prepared to serve, for Thou
alone art rightly Lord, and of Thy
lordship I desire to be. Direct, I pray,
and command whatever Thou wilt, but heal and open my ears, that I may
hear Thine utterances. Heal and open
my eyes, that I may behold the signs
of thy command. Drive delusion from
me, that I may recognize Thee. O Lord,
most merciful Father receive, I pray, Thy fugitive; enough already, surely,
have I been punished, long enough
have I served Thine enemies, whom
Thou hast under Thy feet, long
enough has error had its way with me.
To Thee I feel I must return: I knock; may Thy door be opened to me; teach
me the way to Thee.