SAINT JOHN NEUMANN AND THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION

 

St. John Neumann and the Immaculate Conception

In a lavish ceremony in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, on December 8, 1854, Pope Pius IX formally declared Mary, the Mother of Jesus, to have been immaculately conceived in the womb of her mother.  This was an infallible act of the pope and elevated this article of faith, which was already widely believed, to a central doctrine of the Catholic Church.  With the fourth bishop of Philadelphia, St. John Neumann, holding the decree from which he read, Pius IX made the following sacred pronouncement:  

“We declare, pronounce and define that the doctrine which asserts that the Blessed Virgin Mary, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God, and in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race, was preserved free from every stain of original sin is a doctrine revealed by God and, for this reason, must be firmly and constantly be believed by all the faithful.” 

Saint John was enormously gratified to have been invited to the ceremony, and before he sailed for Europe he issued a pastoral letter to the faithful of the Diocese of Philadelphia, which in those days was extremely large, including all of Pennsylvania, Delaware, and parts of New Jersey.  In it he argued for the validity of the doctrine, quoting Saint Cyril, a father of the Church, who also defended it: “Who hath ever heard that an architect built a glorious dwelling for himself and at once gave it over to be possessed by his most cruel and hated enemy?”  Mary was predestined before the world began to be the Mother of Jesus.  The Holy Trinity would not permit her to be soiled by Original Sin when she was conceived by Saints Joachim and Ann.    

In every baptism a rite of exorcism is celebrated.  The priest or deacon says over the child, “Almighty and ever-living God, you sent your only Son into the world to cast out the power of Satan, spirit of evil, to rescue man from the kingdom of darkness, and bring him into the splendor of your kingdom of light. We pray for this child: set him/her free from original sin, make him/her a temple of your glory, and send your Holy Spirit to dwell with him/her.”  Through baptism the child is released from the clutches of Satan, and he/she is anointed with the holy oil of Chrism, symbolizing the anointing of the Holy Spirit. 

God gave Mary the privilege of receiving the grace of baptism at the moment of her conception.  There was never any emptiness in Mary, as there is in every descendent of Eve.  Since God graced her soul from the beginning of her existence, Mary never had any inclination to sin.  This privilege was given in order to provide a pure habitation for the Lord when he was conceived in Mary’s womb.  He did not have to say, as his ancestor King David wrote in Psalm 51, “Behold, in guilt was I born, in sin my mother conceived me.”  We are all children of sinners, and so we are all born in guilt, because Eve, the mother of all humans, rejected the innocence in which she and her husband were created.  Mary persevered in the grace she received throughout her life and always remained innocent. 

As we celebrate the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception on Thursday (a holy day of obligation), let us carefully heed the words of St. John Neumann in the pastoral letter to his people: “Never, Christian brethren, never can we admit that she was for one moment the slave of the devil.  The Virgin who was destined to be the Mother of God, the Spouse of the Holy Spirit, the Ark of the New Covenant, the Mediatrix of Mankind, the Terror of the Powers of Darkness, the Queen of all the Heavenly Hosts.  Purer than heaven’s purest angel, brighter than its brightest seraph, Mary, after her Creator, God – who made and gave her all – is the most perfect of beings, the masterpiece of Infinite Wisdom, Almighty Power, and Eternal Love.”