"The Young Virgin [Mary]," Francisco de Zurbarán, 1632–33, Metropolitan Museum of Art/Open Access.
The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary was the great divine act of grace that lay at the foundation of God’s whole work of salvation through Christ.
The Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception always celebrate the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, a Holy Day of Obligation, on Dec. 8 (this year on Dec. 9) with special joy. But what is the Immaculate Conception?
We asked Dr. Robert Stackpole, director of the John Paul II Institute of Divine Mercy and author of the book Mary: Who She Is and Why She Matters, for a refresher.
What is the dogma of the Immaculate Conception?
We can begin with what it’s not: It’s not the Virgin Birth, as many people think. That refers to the mystery of the Incarnation of Jesus on Christmas. Rather, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church (491-492) states:
Through the centuries the Church has become ever more aware that Mary, “full of grace” through God, was redeemed from the first moment of her conception. That is what the dogma of the Immaculate Conception confesses, as Pope Pius IX proclaimed in 1854: “The most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God and in virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin.”
Is there any Biblical support for this dogma?
Yes. In Genesis 3:15, after the fall of Adam and Eve, the Lord says to the serpent who had tempted them, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and be tween your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
This Old Testament passage is a prophecy of the Gospel, for the “seed” of the woman who will crush the “serpent’s” head (that is, the Devil’s head) can only be Jesus Christ, who is to crush Satan victoriously by His work of redemption. It follows that the “woman” prophesied in this same passage must be the Mother of Jesus (see Jn 2:4 and 19:26, where Jesus calls her “Woman”).
In Genesis 3, both Jesus and Mary are said to be in a state of “enmity” against the serpent, which in Hebrew means “complete and radical opposition” to him. Therefore, it is not likely God would have permitted Mary to inherit the condition of “original Concept sin” from Adam and Eve.
Another Bible passage is Luke 1:28, the words of the Archangel Gabriel grace to Mary at the Annunciation. In the original Greek of the New Testament, the word kecharitomene (“full of grace”) is used as a name or title for Mary. As she is the only one addressed in this way in the entire Bible, it must indicate something special or distinctive about her.
Was the Immaculate Conception a belief in the early Church?
Many of the early Fathers of the Church taught that as Jesus is called by St. Paul the New Adam, the Head of redeemed humanity, so the Blessed Virgin Mary must be the New Eve.
As Eve, the Mother of all the living, who was created in a state of grace, ushered in the age of sin by succumb ing to the temptation of the fallen angel (the serpent), so Mary, Mother of all the redeemed, was filled with divine grace from the first moment of her existence, and reversed Eve’s sin by her obedience to the angel Gabriel at the Annunciation. She thereby ushered in the dawn of our salvation as mother of the Savior.
So why do Protestants have a problem with this dogma?
Some Protestant Evangelicals object to the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception on the grounds that Scrip ture teaches, in several places, the universal “fallenness” of humanity (see Ps 14:1-3; 53; Rom 3:23; 5:18). But the Bible often uses broad language, even hyperbole, to make a point.
The passages in Scripture that speak of the universal sinfulness of the human race, therefore, may be said to refer to the mass of mankind in general, without excluding special cases such as the Blessed Virgin Mary (preserved from the wound of original sin) and little children (not yet guilty of actual, personal sin).
Are the Immaculate Conception and Divine Mercy connected?
Yes! As Pope St. John Paul II wrote in his encyclical Dives in Misericordia (Rich in Mercy, 9): “Mary is the one who experienced mercy in an exceptional way — as no one else.”
The late Fr. Seraphim Michalenko, MIC, would say, “The mystery of the Immaculate Conception ... is the expression of the first act of the heavenly Father’s mercy in Mary’s regard — an act of absolute gratuity. This is why we can see in it the Father’s mercy in its pure state. The first act is the Father’s prevenient mercy for this very tiny child that is to be born.”
In fact, we can go further and say that the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary was the great divine act of grace that lay at the foundation of God’s whole work of salvation through Christ. The Father of Mercy made her soul the very masterpiece of His mercy. It was this unique and extraordinary foundation of grace in Mary’s soul that enabled her, years later, to respond to the angel Gabriel’s message with total, trustful surrender:
“Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done unto me according to Thy word” (Lk 1:38).
May we all be so open to God’s mercy and plan in our lives.
Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, patroness of the United States and the unborn, pray for us!
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