The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary

On December 8, we celebrate the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Blessed Pope Pius IX formally proclaimed Mary’s Immaculate Conception in 1854—that God preserved her from the stain of original sin.

Between February 11 and July 16 of 1858, fourteen-year-old Bernadette Soubirous (now a Saint) began having visions of a beautiful Lady in Lourdes, France. On March 25, Bernadette asked the Lady who she was at the urging of her parish priest. The reply which came forth, “I am the Immaculate Conception,” meant nothing to Bernadette, who’d never heard of this dogma proclaimed less than four years prior.  Notice that Our Lady of Lourdes did not say, “I am immaculately conceived.” In perfect humility, Mary defined herself entirely by proclaiming the work of God in her soul.

The Immaculate Conception
by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
(c. 1767-1769)  

Why was this revelation to Bernadette, a simple, sickly girl, and not some great theologian? Perhaps because God, in His infinite wisdom, rarely chooses as we would expect.

As I ponder what Mary as “Immaculate Conception” means to me in my day to day existence, I must back up to the very beginning of the story of salvation history—all the way back to the “garden.” God created Adam and Eve in an unblemished state to enjoy an intimate relationship with Him directly. At some point, the first couple chose self-indulgence over obedience to God, thereby separating themselves, and all of creation, from God’s plan of perfect harmony and introducing death. We have inherited the rotten fruit of our first parent’s choice (original sin) and thus bear an inborn tendency toward sin (concupiscence) and inevitable death.

After the fall, God the Father’s perfect plan redeemed us from eternal death through the sacrifice of His Son, the God-Man, Jesus Christ, which brings me to His Mother Mary. At the moment of her conception, the good fruit of Christ’s redemption was imputed to her by a “singular” grace. (CCC 491) It is important to note that Mary had to be redeemed, just like us, as she is fully human, sharing our nature but “full of grace” sufficient to allow God to “tabernacle” within her womb. However, unlike us, Mary is uniquely holy, never made a single choice of self over obedience to God.

Baptism washes away original sin–but not our concupiscence. If Mary was free from original sin, was she also free from concupiscence as we are? Since the twelfth century, Catholic theologians have universally agreed that Mary was free from sin her entire life. St. Thomas Aquinas maintained that, at the time of Mary’s conception, concupiscence was present but bound—never actualized. Further, that only when Mary conceived Christ in her womb was concupiscence wholly removed. (Summa Theologica, 3, q. 27, a. 3) If so, then can we then still look to Mary as our model for holiness? And if her only Son was perfect, can she love a sinner-daughter like me?

Mary has been called the “Reparatrix” for her part in the divine plan to “untie” (or repair) the “knot” of Adam and Eve’s disobedience.  As the “new” Eve, Mary is my “supermodel” of holiness and obedience. I rejoice that God’s pinnacle of creation was a woman and that His plan of redemption required her “Yes.”  Adam and Eve were free from original sin, yet they weren’t able to give that 100% “Yes” to all that God asked of them, as did Mary.

God desires to integrate us into the communion of love called the Trinity. Mary has a special relationship with each Person of the Trinity. She is the daughter of God the Father, the Mother of God the Son, and the spouse of the Holy Spirit¹. Every single woman alive, regardless of her vocation in life, is mirrored through at least one of Mary’s relationships with the Persons of the Trinity.

Mary’s Immaculate Heart is intimately bound by mutual love to the Sacred Heart of her Son. When we place ourselves under Mary’s mantle, she leads us directly to her Son. Her perfect humility reflects all glory back to God. Just as the moon has no light of its own and reflects only the light of the sun, Mary reflects the light of the Holy Spirit. Oh, if we could all proclaim, “My soul magnifies the Lord!” as did Mary.

By meditating on the Mysteries of the Rosary, I have deepened my relationship with and admiration of Mary. Freedom from the nastiness of original sin didn’t preserve Mary from pain or suffering, any more than it spared her Son. I know that I can run to her for intercessory help.

Mary experienced the trauma of an out-of-wedlock pregnancy that required an angel’s intervention to put Joseph at ease with its scandal. Mary and Joseph experienced horror at losing their twelve-year-old Son in a big city. I doubt that Mary fully understood what God asked of her at the Annunciation and throughout her life with a precocious and miraculous son like Jesus. Mary, like all young Jewish women, knew that the Messiah would come from a virgin birth, but only time would unravel the meaning that the Messiah would be something other than a political king. At the Annunciation, the angel said, “and his kingdom will rule forever.”  As Mary witnessed her Son’s passion and death, she never faltered in her trust that God knew what He was doing.

That is the kind of trust that I want for myself!  Mary is my go-to saint of “All the Right Choices,” “Unfailing Trust,” and “Perfect Humility.” She loves me despite my many bad choices, or when I’ve lost heart too quickly, or stumble over my pride.  Christ bequeathed His Mother to us as she stood at the foot of the Cross. Consider accepting her spiritual motherhood.  She is the mother who always knows best. 

1. See https://saintmaximiliankolbe.com/who-are-you-o-immaculate-conception/ for more on Mary as the spouse of the Holy Spirit.

The Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows

September 15th is the Feast of Our Lady of Sorrows. My favorite image of Our Lady of Sorrows is “Dolorosa,” painted by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo in 1670. Here Mary appears not sad with tears streaming down her face; instead, the artist depicts Mary with eyes, face, and hands lifted in prayer. Murillo portrays Mary’s entire body in supplication as if offering her sorrow and grief to the Father.

Through Mary’s Immaculate Conception, she received a special grace that allowed the merits of Christ’s redemption to be applied at the moment of her conception. (1)  Because of that, we may dismiss or minimize the testimony of Mary’s life and her sacrificial suffering. We may think that she had no choice but to say, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word,” ¹ and was incapable of sin. But we would be wrong—Mary had free will just as we do.

Perhaps we forget that the first woman, Eve, was created without the stain of sin in her soul. Moreover, Eve certainly had no worries or anxieties before the fall. Yet the absence of concupiscence, as original sin confers to us, did not keep Eve from sinning (nor her husband, Adam).

Mary’s Immaculate Conception was not sufficient to preserve Mary from sinning—Eve demonstrated that through her unfortunate choice. But because the Son of God was to "tabernacle" and grow in Mary’s womb and she was to give birth to the Son of God, her Immaculate Conception was necessary to provide honor and glory to whom Jesus was and is! And although Mary had free will, rather than sinning, she chose to cooperate fully with the extraordinary graces given to her. (2)

Thus, the Immaculate Conception was necessary to honor Christ’s divinity but not sufficient to keep Mary free from committing any sin. A life lived free from sin required effort on Mary's part. The Feast of Our Lady of Sorrow reminds us that Mary did know unspeakable suffering and sorrow. Her complete trust and submission to the will of God through the events associated with this Feast of Seven Sorrows and, indeed, agreeing to carry Jesus in her womb before she lived with Joseph, all took place in a fallen world. She had choices and she chose well.

The Seven Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin Mary that are historically associated with this feast are:

1.      The prophecy of Simeon that a sword would pierce the heart of Mary at the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple (Luke 2: 34-35).

2.      The Holy Family’s terrifying flight into Egypt to save the child Jesus from Herod’s massacre of the Holy Innocents (Matthew 2: 13-14)

3.      The loss of Jesus at age twelve in the Temple of Jerusalem after Passover (Luke 2: 41-50)

4.      Mary’s encounter with Jesus on His way to Calvary while carrying His cross (Traditional Fourth Station of the Cross)

5.      The Crucifixion of Jesus (Matthew 27:45-56, Mark 15: 33-41, Luke 23: 33-49, John 19: 17-20)

6.      Mary witnesses the piercing of the side of Jesus and holding His body removed from the Cross (John 19: 31-37)

7.      The burial of Jesus. (Matthew 27: 57-61, Mark 15: 42-47, Luke 23:50-56, John 19: 38-42

When I pray the Mysteries of the Rosary, I often reflect on just how much Mary must have trusted in the Lord when her understanding was lacking or incomplete. She watched as God’s plan of salvation unfolded without the complete picture that we, who are on this side of the Cross, are presented with through the Scriptures.

Mary understands our pain and losses more than we do because her Immaculate Heart is perfectly united to her Son’s Sacred Heart. Mother Mary is the pinnacle of God’s creation and worthy of our love, honor. 

Mary, Mother of Sorrows, pray for us!

(1) See https://www.ncregister.com/blog/did-mary-need-to-be-redeemed.

(2) See https://www.catholic.com/qa/did-mary-have-free-will.

The Inescapable Beauty of Mary's Assumption

Today Catholics all over the world celebrate and remember the day when the Blessed Virgin Mary’s body and soul were “assumed” into heaven—The Assumption. Being conceived without the stain of original sin, Mary escaped the decay of death and now enjoys that perfect unity with God for which we have all been created. The Church calls what we would think of as her death as “dormition” or “falling asleep” at the completion of her earthly life. The Assumption and the Immaculate Conception of Mary are inextricably bound together.  By applying the salvific graces of Christ’s redemption at the moment of her conception, Mary escaped our destiny of death and decay.  For those who may struggle with the dogma of Mary’s Immaculate Conception and her Assumption, remember that God is not bound by space and time as we are—God is God and we are not! 

As my pastor said during his homily at this morning’s Mass, the Blessed Mother, as the Immaculate Conception, gives us plenty of food for thought about the role of suffering in Mary’s life. For example, did Mary experience the pain of childbirth, did she get sick, and so on? We know directly from Scripture of the terrible emotional pain that Mary suffered when losing the child Jesus in the temple and then later witnessing the passion and death of Jesus.  No doubt there were many occasions of confusion and grief for the Blessed Mother. Anyone that has reared a child knows that suffering and pain is part of the motherhood equation.  Given that Mary’s sinless life was still burdened with suffering this should lead us to ask if there is another way to view suffering—a way that does not come naturally for us—a redemptive way of viewing suffering. The Theology of Redemptive Suffering is that great gift of Catholic theology to us.

Today’s feast takes me back to a memory from my past.

The Assumption of Mary by Peter Paul Rubens

The image shown to the left is from page 83 of my book, Bead by Bead: The Scriptural Rosary.  Peter Paul Rubens completed this massive painting in 1626 as the main altarpiece for the Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp, Belgium.  It remains there to this day. The painting took Rubens 15 years from concept to completion. 

During my forties, I spent many weeks at a hotel in Antwerp located on Gorenplats (Green Square) across the from the Cathedral of Our Lady.  Although Mass is still celebrated in the Cathedral, I do not know if the Cathedral remains open as it was years ago affording the opportunity for people to enter at their leisure. (The world was not quite as crazy as it is today.)

The first time I entered the Cathedral, I was still hung over from jet lag. It was a Sunday afternoon and I timed my visit well after any Mass would have been celebrated.  I was not a practicing Catholic or even an avowed Christian at the time.  I knew nothing about the art inside, but I was intrigued by the outer architecture of the cathedral.  

As I stepped inside the cathedral, the only available light streamed through the stained glass windows. Being alone, I walked up to the altar to “take in” the majesty of the 15.8 ft by 10.7 ft Ruben's painting more clearly. Even in the non-optimal late-afternoon light, the beauty of this commanding painting conveyed a labor of love that was both infectious and breathtaking.  How I would love to go back to that cathedral now for the celebration of Mass! 

Ruben uses poetic license in his interpretation of the Assumption as a choir of angels escorts Mary from a would-be-tomb surrounded by the apostles—many of whom are shocked by Mary ascending into heaven.

Awe and appreciation of such exquisite religious art, such as Ruben’s The Assumption of Mary, fails to escape the agnostic, atheist, or non-Christian believer in God. In beauty, we find God—whether we are looking for Him or not.  All that is beautiful pulls us towards the One that is Perfect Beauty.  Our intrinsic love and attraction to beauty are great gifts from our passionate and persistent God who uses all of His creation and our artistic creations to draw us to Himself.