The Immaculate Conception

This one is for my friend Daniel...

The Immaculate Conception refers to Mary’s conception through her parents, Joachim and Anne; it does not refer to Mary’s conception of Jesus by the Holy Spirit.

The dogma of the Immaculate Conception states that Mary was kept free from the stain of Adam and Eve’s original sin from the time of her conception in the womb of her Mother Anne. Not defined by the papal bull INEFFABILIS DEUS issued by Pope Pius IX on December 8, 1854 which pronounced the belief as dogma, is the similar and parallel belief in Mary's perpetual state of sinlessness; that she was not only free from original sin at the time of her conception, but from all sin throughout her entire life.

The Immaculate Conception cannot be fully understood until Mary’s title Mother of God is understood.

The belief in the divinity of Jesus Christ is one of the fundamental tenets of Christianity. With the exception of some radical sects such as the Jehovah Witness’ and the Mormons, the understanding of Jesus as both fully man (though without sin) and fully God is universal throughout Christianity. If Jesus Christ is fully God, and if Mary is his mother, then Mary must be the Mother of God. It's really that simple. 

Upon hearing the term “Mother of God”, many Christians, Catholic or otherwise, ask how it is that Mary could have preexisted God. The logic behind the question, that Mothers must necessarily exist before their sons, feeds the mistaken beliefs about Catholic Marian doctrines; that Catholics believe Mary superior to God, Catholics worship Mary, etc. The question itself shows a lack of basic theological understanding about the nature of the Trinity; for Mary did not preexist the trinity, nor was Mary in existence prior to God the Father’s existence, nor does Mary’s existence predate that of the Holy Spirit. Mary did exist however, prior to God’s birth as a human being.

Mary existed before God was born.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. … And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us… (John 1:1,14) 

Jesus Christ is God’s Word which took on flesh and lived among us. Jesus Christ is the incarnation, the embodiment in flesh of God. We call Jesus “Emmanuel” which means “God is with us”. We celebrate God’s birth as a human, with Mary as his mother, during advent. We leave the manger empty and put baby Jesus in only on Christmas day. And so it is that Mary was the vehicle through which God chose to become Man. Mary is the Mother of God in the flesh. Mary is the Mother of Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity. Mary is the Mother of God. It really is just that simple.

In Jesus Christ and his Mother Mary, we have the only time in all of creation where a son was able to choose his own mother. More than this, given that Jesus Christ is God, in Mary and her son Jesus we have the only time in creation where a son was able to create his own mother! The circular logic may make a Christian’s heads spin but Catholic’s who are familiar with such things simply call it a mystery of faith and thank God for revealing it to us through his Apostles and his Holy Church.

The question to be asked is, if one were to create his own mother, what kind of mother would he create? It goes without saying that one would create for himself the most perfect mother he was able to. And what if God were to create a mother for himself? That question may need to sink in for a moment…

God’s mother would have to be a perfect vessel, perfectly holy, to hold his perfect self, his perfect son.

The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. And coming to her, he said, “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.” (Luke 1:26-28)

At the annunciation, the Archangel Gabriel greets Mary with the title “Full of Grace.” One must not ignore the fact that Mary is identified by God’s messenger as being “full” of grace and as such, she must be empty of anything else that is not grace. Some Bible translations render the phrase “Hail, favored one” and the impact is lessened only slightly, for to be favored by God is, if not to be entirely free from sin, is to be a very holy person indeed.

Objections are placed by “Bible alone” Christian sects that the specific doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God and her subsequent freedom from all sin is not specifically stated in the Bible and is therefore not to be believed. This is a conclusion drawn from the belief in the mistaken doctrine of sola scriptura, that the bible alone is the sole source of teaching on religous truth and that nothing Christian can ever come from outside of the Bible. 

Catholic tradition, based on the "many other things that Jesus did" (John 21:25) and which were not written in the bible, those things which were handed down orally, has always argued the “Rightness” of Mary’s Immaculate Conception and subsequent preservation from sin based on the facts presented above. Insofar as it is not inconsistent with or specifically denied by scripture, the Immaculate Conception simply makes sense.

Catholics may simply have to part company here with their non-Catholic brothers and sisters and ponder why twenty centuries of Christian belief, prodigious writings of Church fathers such as St. Augustine, St. Ambrose, St. Ephraem, and the writings of the progenitor of the Protestant reformation Martin Luther himself are ignored, yet the teaching of twentieth century Protestant and Evangelical theologians are taken as fact without a second thought.

That simply doesn't make sense.  

And I'd like that sliced THIN please.

-Tim-

References

INEFFABILIS DEUS
Magesterial document defining Ex-Cathedra the Dogma of The Immaculate Conception

Apostolic Constitution issued by Pope Pius IX on December 8, 1854.