Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary
What is the Immaculate Conception?
On December 8, the Catholic Church celebrates the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The event of the Immaculate Conception of Mary is due to God's special grace. This mystery shows the special role of Mary and also that each of us enjoys God's help in the tasks that God places on the path of our lives.
What is the Immaculate Conception? It expresses the truth that Mary's parents - Joachim and Anna - conceived their daughter who was saved by God from being wounded by original sin. The conception unblemished by original sin concerns only Mary, who was preserved from sin in a unique way because she became the Mother of the Son of God.
The Immaculate Conception is different from the Virginal Conception’ (Virginitas ante partum, virginitas in partu, virginitas post partum,) of Jesus Christ, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. God's intervention at the beginning of Mary's life was not to replace the actions of her parents, but to protect her soul from the effects of original sin. Of course, the Son of God in his humanity was also unaffected by sin.
The truth about Mary's Immaculate Conception can only be accepted by reason enlightened by faith. The Church solemnly proclaimed it as a dogma of faith in the middle of the epoch of rationalism and scientism in the mid-nineteenth century. This was done by Pope Pius IX in 1854 in his bull "Ineffabilis Deus" ( Ineffable God) We read there the following formula: " Accordingly, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, for the honor of the Holy and undivided Trinity, for the glory and adornment of the Virgin Mother of God, for the exaltation of the Catholic Faith, and for the furtherance of the Catholic religion, by the authority of Jesus Christ our Lord, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and by our own: We declare, pronounce, and define that the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin, is a doctrine revealed by God and therefore to be believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful.”
Dogma shows the uniqueness and freedom of God's action. Although mankind's salvation was accomplished through Christ's death and resurrection, Mary was previously redeemed from the Savior's merits and thus preserved from original sin. Thus, God prepared her for an extraordinary task in the history of salvation.
According to the Catholic faith, each person born into the world is marked with original sin. This sin is "transferred" along with the transmission of human nature, which in the First Parents, due to their distrust and disobedience to God - as mentioned in the first chapters of the Bible - was deprived of the original holiness and justice. Original sin - as the Catechism of the Catholic Church (No. 404) explains - is not committed but is contracted, it is not an act but a state in which a person begins. Only holy baptism frees a person from original sin.
Mary, on the other hand, was preserved from this inheritance of sin, and therefore the Scriptures calls her "full of grace" (cf. Lk 1:28). The Church teaches that it was fitting that she who was to become "Mother of her Creator" and Savior of the world, should be prepared in a special way by God. "Immaculately conceived" means not only that Mary was free from original sin, but also expresses her special closeness to God, total entrustment to God, inner harmony and full humanity.
Freedom from sin and perfection does not make Mary far from people. On the contrary, her communion with every human being is incomparable to anything, because what separates people, which distances them from one another, is, first of all, an egoism that arises from sin, which was not in Mary. That is why she is a mother not only loving, but also understanding and compassionate. The truth about the Immaculate Conception is also for all Christians a sign that shows how great things God can do in man and what He has planned for everyone: to lead to full humanity and holiness.
Faith in the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary has a centuries-old tradition. The theological controversy on this topic has been going on since the first centuries. St. Justin (100-167), St. Irenaeus (c. 140-200), and especially St. Augustine (354-430) pleaded in favor of recognizing Mary's extraordinary privilege. In the fifteenth century, there were already the first decisions of the Church on this subject, although they were not yet dogma.
In 1617, Pope Paul IV prohibited the expression of public opinions contrary to faith in the Immaculate Conception. In 1661, at the request of the King of Spain, Philip IV, Pope Alexander VII issued a bull in which he summarizes the history of the cult of the Immaculate Conception, using words that Pius IX repeated in his dogmatic formula. Pope Clement XI made December 8 a feast for the entire universal Church in 1708. Finally, on December 8, 1854, Pius IX proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
A dogma is an objective truth of faith contained in divine revelation that the teaching office of the Church (pope or council) communicates universally in ordinary or solemn teaching. Dogmas are unchangeable, but they can be learned more and more deeply by the Church, and therefore their formula can be refined. As St. Thomas Aquinas writes, dogma captures a truth that exceeds our ability to know and comprehend. It shows the truth that is not exhausted this way, but which we strive to know.
It is worth adding that the Immaculate Conception of Mary is only the most special case of God's universal dealings with people. God loved each of us first. He loved us while we were still in our mothers' wombs and even before our conception (cf. Ps 71: 6; 22:10; Sir 50:22; Eph 1: 4). No wonder then that the Eternal Father decided to give his Son to us, so that he would be the Perfect Man for us and among us, so that he would love his future Mother most especially, even before her conception? After all, it would not be right for God's only-begotten Son to be born of a woman who was touched by sin even for a moment!
“I greet You Mary, all Immaculate, Pure and Admirable. You are the Co-Redemptrix, the Dew of my barren heart, the Light of my darkened mind, the Repairer of all my evil” (St. Ephrem the Syrian).
Until Tomorrow
fr. george