5 Insights into the Immaculate Conception

On December 8, Catholics around the world celebrate the feast of the Immaculate Conception by attending a Mass in honor of the feast day. Although it is now a holy day of obligation, and the Immaculate Conception is now accepted and cherished as Catholic doctrine, it wasn’t always that way. Although Christian celebrations of the feast of the Immaculate Conception go back to at least the Fourth century, there was much debate about its validity among saints for many centuries. However, much of the debate was caused by a misconception about what original sin is and the definition of conception. Because of this, the journey to fully recognizing and celebrating the true miracle of the Immaculate Conception of Mary within the Catholic Church took more than a millennium to complete. But it’s a journey that most Catholics are grateful for. Here are five insights into the Immaculate Conception of Mary.

Meaning of the Immaculate Conception

Meaning of the Immaculate Conception: Multitudes of people, including many Catholics, don’t realize what the Immaculate Conception is. Because of common false portrayals of what it is in various forms of media, many confuse the Immaculate Conception with the Incarnation of Christ. In fact, the Immaculate Conception refers to Mary’s miraculous conception in the womb of her mother, Saint Anne. Although her parents, Saint Anne and Saint Joachim, conceived of Mary in the natural way, God’s grace created Mary so that she was conceived without original sin. God the Father is believed to have preserved her from the stain of original sin, knowing that He would choose her to be the mother of God the Son.

Journey to Becoming a Holy Day of Obligation

In the Middle Ages two things seemed to fuel the debates about whether or not Mary was conceived without original sin. The first was a false perception that original sin carried a “positive element” of guilt. The second was the misunderstanding that the term “conception” referred to physical conception, not the moment her soul was infused into her body. It was a Scottish theologian and Franciscan priest, the Venerable John Duns Scotus, who helped the Church be open to the truth. Between the late 1200s and early 1300s, he wrote "Either God was able to do this, and did not will to do it, or He willed to preserve her, and was unable to do so. If able to and yet unwilling to perform this for her, God was miserly towards her. And if He willed to do it but was unable to accomplish it, He was weak, for no one who is able to honor his mother would fail to do so." The popes who came after moved towards validating the Immaculate Conception, with Pope Clement XI making the feast a holy day of obligation in 1708.

Finally Becoming Doctrine

On December 8, 1854, Pope Pius IX issued an Apostolic Constitution entitled Ineffabilis Deus (The Immaculate Conception). He wrote “Therefore, having full trust in the Lord that the opportune time had come for defining the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, which Holy Scripture, venerable Tradition, the constant mind of the Church, the desire of Catholic bishops and the faithful, and the memorable Acts and Constitutions of our predecessors, wonderfully illustrate and proclaim, and having most diligently considered all things, as we poured forth to God ceaseless and fervent prayers, we concluded that we should no longer delay in decreeing and defining by our supreme authority the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin. And thus, we can satisfy the most holy desire of the Catholic world as well as our own devotion toward the most holy Virgin, and at the same time honor more and more the only begotten Son, Jesus Christ our Lord through his holy Mother—since whatever honor and praise are bestowed on the Mother redound to the Son.”

Understanding that Mary was Redeemed by Christ

Although Mary was conceived without sin, she was redeemed by Christ. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states “Through the centuries the Church has become ever more aware that Mary, ‘full of grace’ through God, was redeemed from the 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 by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin.’ The ‘splendor of an entirely unique holiness’ by which Mary is ‘enriched from the first instant of her conception’ comes wholly from Christ: she is ‘redeemed, in a more exalted fashion, by reason of the merits of her Son.’

Immaculate Conception Brings Us Closer to God

December 8, 2005, during a Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica, Pope Benedict XVI spoke to the crowd in Italian. According to an English translation, he said “The closer a person is to God, the closer he is to people. We see this in Mary. The fact that she is totally with God is the reason why she is so close to human beings. For this reason she can be the Mother of every consolation and every help, a Mother whom anyone can dare to address in any kind of need in weakness and in sin, for she has understanding for everything and is for everyone the open power of creative goodness. In her, God has impressed his own image, the image of the One who follows the lost sheep even up into the mountains and among the briars and thornbushes of the sins of this world, letting himself be spiked by the crown of thorns of these sins in order to take the sheep on his shoulders and bring it home.”