Lecture 29 Handout - The Doctrine of the Immaculate Conception

 

On 8 December, 1854, Pope Pius IX declared:  "The doctrine which holds that the Most Blessed Virgin Mary was preserved from all stain of original sin in the first instant of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of Almighty God, in consideration of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race, has been revealed by God and must, therefore, firmly and constantly be believed by all the faithful." The 8^th of December is the Feast day of the Immaculate Conception and is a holy day of obligation for all Catholics

 

On 25 March 1858 in a French village of Lourdes, a peasant girl by the name of Bernadette had a vision of the Blessed Mother in which the Virgin declared, "I am the Immaculate Conception."

 

 

From St. Augustine the West inherits the notion that humanity's propensity to sin is passed on at conception.  A classic prooftext is Psalm 51:5, "In sin did my mother conceive me."

 

One excellent demonstration of the power of original sin is the disobedient actions of the disciples who cannot remain awake during Jesus trial in Gethsemane (Mk 14:32-42), disappear at the first sign of trouble even if it means fleeing naked (Mk 14:50-52), and the head of the disciples brazenly denies even knowing him (Mk 14:66-72).  No sooner are they tempted than they fall ("immediate sin").

 

Yet, in the history of salvation it is imperative that God be born of a woman.  Given that our free-will is so impaired what can be done to facilitate Mary to say "yes" as she does at the annunciation (Luke 1:26-38, esp. 38)?  What if she was to behave like the disciples?

 

So…God chooses/elects Mary in such a way that does not cancel out her free will but grants her sufficient grace so that she can make the right choice.*  He does this by intervening miraculously at her conception to preserve her from original sin.  She is paradoxically both predestined and free.**

 

God could have, of course, interrupted Mary's life at any number of points to remove the taint of original sin.  But the church has followed the reasoning of Scotus (d. 1308) insisted that "whatever was both possible and most eminently fitting for God to do (potuit, decuit, ergo fecit), he did."  Unless scripture contradicts it, he argued, it was fitting to "attribute greater rather than lesser excellence to Mary."

 

Mary's immaculate conception puts her in the same position as Eve in the Garden of Eden.  For Eve, too, was free of original sin prior to her disobedience.  And so Mary becomes a sort of "Second Eve"  (As Christ was a "Second Adam") who by her giving birth to Christ allows us to overcome the sin of Adam.

 

*In this sense the doctrine is very Biblical even if the Bible never mentions it explicitly.  For it allows us to understand how Mary could say yes when the disciples so often are inclined to say no.

 

**In this sense the salvation of Mary is not wholly unlike ours  (and so she is called mater ecclesia, "mother of the Church").  For we too are predestined to grace by God (Romans 8:28-30) yet consent to this predestined glory by our own free will.  The difference is that God chose us while we were yet sinners (Romans 5:8),  whereas He chose Mary prior to any sin.  But her preservation from sin is wholly an act of grace in view of the role she will play in the advent of Christ.