THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

(Solemnity – 8 December)

LITURGICAL BACKGROUND

More than any other feast the Immaculate Conception spurred on and anticipated doctrinal development. And it was a slow development. A feast of Mary’s nativity was celebrated in the East in the late 6th century. In the 7th century there arose a feast of the Conception of Mary. In the West a feast of the Conception of Mary appears in England towards 1060 introduced possibly through an Eastern monk. After the Norman conquest the feast revived and passed into Europe, and within the century it had become a feast of the Immaculate Conception. St. Bernard in a celebrated letter to the Canons of Lyons protested against the introduction of this feast there. Like many theologians of his time, Bernard thought that original sin was transmitted by the concupiscence which he saw as being inherent in sexual intercourse. After some centuries of controversy a Mass, Office and octave were approved for the whole Church by Innocent XII (1695), and the feast was made a holy day of obligation by Clement XI (1708). The Miraculous Medal apparitions to St. Catherine Laboure in 1830 lent further support with its invocation , “O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse thee.” Four years after the 1854 definition of Pius IX, we have Mary giving her name at Lourdes. “I am the Immaculate Conception.” In the revised liturgy the celebration has the rank of solemnity.

CHURCH DOCUMENTS

The Immaculate Conception was defined by Pope Pius IX in the bull Ineffabilis Deus (1854):

…we declare, pronounce and define that the doctrine which holds that the Most Blessed Virgin Mary from the first moment of her conception was, by the singular grace and privilege of Almighty God, in view of the merits of Christ Jesus the Saviour of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin, is revealed by God and is therefore firmly and constantly to be believed by all the faithful.

Quite simply the definition states that Mary was never bound by any guilt of original sin. But in view of many historical difficulties the definition states in technical language the exact meaning of the dogma: from the first moment of her conception – the definition seeks to avoid biological questions and to state merely that from the moment she was a person, whenever she came to be she was free from sin, and thus the view that Mary briefly had original sin but was immediately purified is excluded; a singular grace and privilege – she is the only case of this privilege of which the Church knows (this terminology is dropped in the definition of the Assumption); in view of the merits of Christ Jesus the Saviour of the human race – Mary was truly redeemed by the future merits of Jesus Christ, significantly described as “Saviour” since Mary is not outside the universal need of redemption; preserved immune – again it is being stated that she never had original sin, and it is probably implied that has God not intervened she would have been subject to original sin; from all stain of original sin – whatever is of sin is excluded in the case of Mary, but the definition does not state what the stains are. It is the task of theology to attempt an understanding of what is involved, e.g. Mary still could suffer, be tempted, die….The definition is thus couched in negative terms to eliminate false views, rather than as a positive statement of Mary’s holiness.

The bull of definition went through eight drafts. It was only in the penultimate one that it was decided to drop any attempt to “prove” the doctrine from scripture and tradition. Anew process was then adopted. The Immaculate Conception was seen clearly to be the faith of the Church. The bull then re-read the documents of scripture and of tradition and found in them implications and deeper significance than their authors had grasped at the time of writing.

REFLECTION

The Immaculate Conception is often misunderstood as referring not to Mary’s conception but to the virginal conception of Jesus. Though it is possible to indicate important stages in the development of the doctrine, it is not easy to grasp the internal dynamic of the progression from the New Testament, which is silent about Mary’s conception, to the dogmatic definition. One of the critical stages was the writings of Eadmer (d.1130), a disciple of St. Anselm. He argued that the Immaculate Conception was possible: God certainly could do it; if therefore he willed it, he did it. This form of argument was later sharpened into three-word aphorism, potuit, decuit, fecit (God could, it was appropriate, therefore he did). The results of this maxim in mariology was often unfortunate. The divine power is unlimited. What theologians and preachers deemed appropriate was without controls and frequently both without foundation and unwise, e.g. that Mary should have had the beatific vision whilst on earth. Once then theologians decided what was appropriate, they concluded that God had effected it.

There are several significant points of contrast, at least at first sight, between the two late marian dogmas and the earlier ones. The early dogmas of Mary’s virginity. and divine motherhood were christological, that is to say that they made statements about Mary in order to preserve truths about Christ. The modern dogmas of the Immaculate Conception and Assumption more directly envisage Mary. At one level they can be seen as privileges and gifts to Mary, to the woman who is Mother of Jesus who is God and man. But their deeper significance is soteriological: they teach us about our end, about the triumphant grace of Christ which overcomes sin leads to final glory.

The most fundamental thing to say about the Immaculate Conception is the assertion that Mary was redeemed: in this world where sin reigns, she was conceived sinless, that is, she was redeemed by the merits of her Son. Jesus died for all on Calvary. We must thus say that he earned on the cross the grace of his Mother’s Immaculate Conception.

All christian theologians will agree that salvation is a free gift of God. The infant is sanctified by baptism; the adult accepts God’s gift of justifying grace through faith. When we say that Mary was immaculately conceived we state that she was redeemed in the most perfect possible way; sin was prevented from touching her. The gift of God is pure grace, the most perfect example of “grace alone” (the gratia sola so emphasized in the Reformation tradition). She did nothing to merit or to acquire this grace: it is totally gratuitious. Later at the Annunciation she would respond in faith to God’s gift.

We can therefore see why this gift is so dear to Mary, why at Lourdes she gave her name in the words: “I am the Immaculate Conception.” She rejoices that she was never for an instant outside God’s love, that she was never tainted by sin. It is as reflect on her love for God and on her awareness of how much he loved her that we can have some fleeting insight into Mary’s joy at her Immaculate Conception.

In the Immaculate Conception we can see the redemption fully at work. We can say that through this gift Mary is the fully healed one: she never had the spiritual flaws that hold us back from total love of God. Thus the Immaculate Conception allowed Mary’s yes at the Annunciation to be limitless, without any unconscious restriction. In several places the liturgy speaks of Mary as the beginning of the Church. She is also where the grace of redemption reaches its highest expression. Already in the Immaculate Conception the Church begins to exist “with no speck or wrinkle…but holy and faultless” (Eph 5:27). What the whole church will one day become is already perfect in Mary through her Immaculate Conception and Assumption. These are consoling mysteries since they are

the real pledge and guarantee that (God’s) grace is more powerful than our guilt. So the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin reveals that God loves humanity as such….The Immaculate Conception also means that God surrounds this life of humanity with loving fidelity.