THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION

 

THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION

            The Immaculate Conception refers to the conception without sin of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the womb of her mother, Saint Ann, in view of her predestination to be the Mother of the Word made flesh.  This was a singular election.  In the tradition of the Church, it is believed that Saint John the Baptist was consecrated by the Holy Spirit when Mary visited his mother, St. Elizabeth.  We know this by the testimony of the mother: “At the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy” (Luke 1:44).  John the Baptist was consecrated for his prophetic office as the precursor of the Messiah while he was still in the womb.  However, unlike Mary, he was not conceived without sin.

            What does it mean to be conceived in sin?  The Bible teaches that all people, of every time and place, are implicated by the sin of Adam, from whom every human being is descended.  Saint Paul writes, “Sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned” (Romans 5:19).  The sin of Adam is transmitted by propagation because human nature was deprived of its original holiness and justice.  Without holiness and justice there is a wound in human nature which inclines it to sin.  This inclination is called “concupiscence,” which is an affliction shared by every human being except for Jesus, who is divine and therefore is never deprived of holiness and justice, and Mary, who was always filled with the grace that made her perfectly holy and just. 

The Catholic Church baptizes babies because they are born with original sin, even though they have not yet committed a personal sin.  Baptism is a sacrament of forgiveness and adoption by God.  By it the Holy Spirit fills the emptiness in the human soul that resulted from the fall of Adam.  Nevertheless, the bad effect of original sin endures, for the sentence pronounced by God against Adam, the representative of mankind, remains in effect.  Human beings still need to work by the sweat of their brow and to experience death.  Concupiscence is the reason why grace is necessary for salvation.  It prevents them from being able to win back by their own power the original justice in which Adam and Eve were created.  “All have sinned and are deprived of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).  “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8).

Mary was conceived by her parents in the same manner as all human beings.  At the moment of conception, however, God infused his grace into her soul, so that she would not suffer from concupiscence.  The result was that Mary was never, in any way, inclined to sin.  Rather, she was fortified with the presence of the Holy Spirit from the first moment of her life, which gave her an advantage over Eve, the only other woman in the history of humanity who was created without sin.  Eve was not inclined to sin when she was created.  She fell to temptation that came from the devil.  He convinced her to try to be like God by her own action and by her disobedience.  Mary had a free will like Eve, but it was fortified by a special grace of the Holy Spirit and by her always obedient cooperation. 

In his solemn proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception Blessed Pope Pius IX declared that “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, Savior of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin.”  Like every human being, Mary was saved by sin through the Cross of her Son, Jesus Christ.  The grace we receive in Baptism was given to Mary at the moment of her conception by God.  He foresaw the salvation that would be won for humanity and applied its grace to she who would be Mother of the Savior.  This is important to know, for Mary is one with us in being a disciple of Jesus – actually, the first disciple – and in being saved by his Cross.  Her Immaculate Conception prepared her to be the perfect means by which the Savior would come into the world.  As the Catechism explains, “The angel Gabriel at the moment of the annunciation salutes her as ‘full of grace.’  In fact, in order for Mary to be able to give the free assent of her faith to the announcement of her vocation, it was necessary that she be wholly borne by God’s grace” (Catechism #490).  We celebrate the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception on Wednesday, which is rightfully a holy day of obligation.  O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death!  Amen.