09/12/2023
Daily Saints - 8 December.
Feast of the Immaculate Conception of
the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception celebrates Mary's conception without sin. Even though this feast day occurs in the liturgical season of Advent, which prepares for the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Immaculate Conception refers to the conception of Mary in the womb of her mother, St. Anne.
Through the centuries the Church has become ever more aware that Mary, "full of grace" through God, was redeemed from the moment of her conception. That is what the dogma of the Immaculate Conception confesses, as Pope Pius IX proclaimed on December 8, 1854:
"The Most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Saviour of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin." ( Catechism of the Catholic Church, 491)
This declaration means that original sanctity, innocence and justice were conferred upon her, and that she was exempted from the evil effects of original sin, excluding sorrow, pain, disease and death, the temporal penalties given to Adam ( Catholic Encyclopedia).
"God freely chose Mary from all eternity to be the Mother of his Son. In order to carry out her mission, she herself was conceived Immaculate. This means, that thanks to the grace of God and in anticipation of the merits of Jesus Christ, Mary was preserved from original sin from the first instant of her conception." ( Compendium of the CCC).
The Fathers of the Church from the fourth century believed and taught that the Blessed Virgin Mary had been kept free of all traces of sin by the grace of God because she was to become the Mother of the Lord Jesus. This belief kept company with the other beliefs about Mary: her perpertual virginity, her sinlessness, and her Divine motherhood.
Monks in Palestinian monasteries started celebrating the "Feast of the Conception of Our Lady" by the end of the 7th century. The feast spread as the Feast of the Immaculate Conception in Italy ( 9th century), England ( 11th century), and France ( 12th century). Pope Leo VI propagated the celebration, and Pope Sixtus IV approved it was a Feast. Finally, in 1854, Pope Pius IX declared the Immaculate Conception to be a dogma of Faith.
It is established by tradition, by the writings of the Fathers, by feasts observed in honor of this prerogative, by the general belief of the faithful. Furthermore, four years later the same Virgin Mary, appearing in Lourdes to St. Bernadette, confirmed the truth of the doctrine by presenting herself with the title 'I am the Immaculata Conception.'
This Feast is in accord with the texts of Scripture ( Genesis 3), "I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and hers, He will strike at your head while you strike at His heel." The woman stands for Mary, and the promise would not be true if Mary had original sin.
God purified the prophet Jeremiah in the womb of his mother "Before I formed you in the womb of your mother, I knew you, and before you were born, I consecrated you" ( Jer 1 : 5).
God anoinced John the Baptist with His Holy Spirit before John's birth, as John's mother attests. "And how does this happen to me, that the Mother of my Lord should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the Infant in my womb leaped for joy" ( Luke 1 : 44). Hence, it is reasonable that God kept the mother of His Son free from all sin from the first moment of her origin.
The angel saluted Mary as "full of grace." This greeting means that she was never, even for a moment, a slave of sin and the devil. In the words of Lumen Gentium ( 56), Mary was "filled with an entirely unique holiness."
Saint Paul the Apostle teaches us that the Father made all fullness dwell in His Incarnate Son (c.f. Col 1 : -12 - 20), which overflows from Christ's head and spills out on His Mystical Body that is the Church. Before descending in Body, Christ's fullness was spread in a unique and unrepeatable way on Mary, predestined from eternity to be the Mother of God.
If we were allowed to select our mother, we would select the most beautiful, healthy and saintly lady. So did God. The All - Holy God cannot be born from a woman who was a slaw of the devil, even for a moment in her life. Don Scotus says "Deus potuit, decuit, fecit." Deus potuit = God could do it, decuit = found fitting to do it, fecit = and hence did it).
How was Mary immaculately conceived? Theologians explain it by "prevenient grace," the grace that, 'praevenit,' comes before. That is, the merits of Christ's saving life, death and Resurrection were applied to the Blessed Virgin Mary in advance of the actual events in history.
With God, there is no past, present, or future. He lives in an eternal life now. And so, in virtue of Mary's future role as "the Mother of the Redemeer," she was in fact redeemed in advance - in advance only from a human perspective, not from God's.
It is like giving a "preventive medicine." Humanity inherits original sin and its effects, and so, have to submit afterward to the medicine, which is called Baptism. God did something better for His Son's Mother - she never had to suffer the deficiency, to begin with.
"The feast of the Immaculate Conception expresses the grandeur of God's love. Not only does he forgive sin, but in Mary, he even averts the original sin present in every man and woman who comes into this world. This is the love of God which precedes, anticipates and saves."
Pope Francis, December 8, 2015
