The Immaculate Conception: Basic Foundations of the Dogma

Due to the sin of our first human parents, all human beings are conceived in a deprived state without the sanctifying grace in their souls that God had originally intended. Hence, there is the need for sacramental Baptism which restores the life of grace in the soul. Belief in Mary's Immaculate Conception is most reasonable, if we remember that it was God's original intention that all mankind be conceived in sanctifying grace and begin their existence in the family of God. It was only as a result of original sin that we are now conceived in a state deprived of sanctifying grace. Mary, rather than being the exception, fulfills in a real sense the original intention of what God wanted for all his human children: to be members of his family from the first moment of their existence.

Bl. Pius IX confirms that this preservation from original sin for the Blessed Virgin Mary was nonetheless "a singular privilege." The definition testifies that the Immaculate Conception was a unique privilege given by the all-powerful God to Mary alone. This free gift from God prepared Mary to be the stainless Mother of God-made-man. It fittingly allowed Mary to give Jesus an immaculate human nature, identical to her own, which respects the law of motherhood. For we know that God the Son could not be united to a stained fallen nature when he became man. Moreover, Mary would not suffer any of the effects of original sin, and therefore would retain the three major sets of gifts granted by God to Adam and Eve: the natural gift of a human body, soul, intellect, and will; the principal preternatural gifts of a certain infused knowledge regarding the providence of God, a perfect harmony between reason and the emotions, which the scholastics called "integrity," and the natural immortality of the body; and the supernatural gift of sanctifying grace in original justice. (12)

Mary's Preservative Redemption

A critical element of the papal definition states that this unique gift to Mary was granted "in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race." Mary received sanctifying grace at conception through an application of the saving graces that Jesus merited for all humanity on the Cross. Mary was redeemed by Jesus Christ as every human being must be.

Once again, it was the question of the universal Redemption of Jesus Christ that led several noted theologians during the scholastic period of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries to have difficulties in understanding and accepting the Immaculate Conception. Many theologians viewed Mary's gift of sanctifying grace at conception as running contrary to Scripture passages, such as Romans 5, which refer to Christ's need to redeem all humanity because of original sin and its effects. It was the insightful contribution of Blessed Duns Scotus (d.1308) who solved this theological misunderstanding with the principle of what is called "Preservative Redemption."

Preservative Redemption explains that Mary's preservation from original sin was an application by God of the saving graces merited by Jesus Christ on Calvary. Mary was redeemed at the moment of her conception through sanctifying grace by an application of Jesus' merits on Calvary. God, being out of time, has the power to apply the graces of Redemption to individuals in different times of history and did so to Mary at the first moment of her existence.

That the Blessed Virgin's soul was preserved from original sin at the moment of conception does not mean that Mary had no need of the Redemption of Jesus; rather, Mary owed more to the Redemption of Jesus than anyone else. In fact, Mary received from her Son a higher form of redemption. All other human beings are redeemed after they have received a fallen nature, through sacramental Baptism. Mary, on the contrary, was redeemed by the grace of Jesus at her conception, the grace which prevented Mary from ever receiving a fallen nature. Hence, the grace of Jesus redeemed Mary at conception before her nature was in any way affected by sin. Thus, we rightly say that Mary owed more to Christ than anyone else. Through the graces of Jesus at Calvary, Mary never received a fallen nature but was sanctified and thereby redeemed from the first instance of her existence.

This theological contribution by Blessed Duns Scotus helped many a theologian to see the profound complementarity between the universal Redemption of Jesus Christ and the Immaculate Conception of his Mother. In short, Mary needed to be saved, and was saved in an exalted way by her Son. (13)

The splendor of Mary's Immaculate Conception is echoed in these words of the Second Vatican Council:

It is no wonder then that it was customary for the Fathers to refer to the Mother of God as all holy and free from every stain of sin, as though fashioned by the Holy Spirit and formed as a new creature. Enriched from the first instant of her conception with the splendor of an entirely unique holiness, the virgin of Nazareth is hailed by the heralding angel, by divine command, as "full of grace" (cf. Lk 1:28) (Lumen Gentium, No. 56).

This article was excerpted from Introduction to Mary, The Heart of Marian Doctrine and Devotion, Queenship, third edition, June 2006.

Notes

(1) Cf. Juniper Carol, O.F.M., Fundamentals of Mariology, New York, Benzinger Bros., 1957, p. 90.

(2) Cf. Bl. Pius IX, Apostolic Constitution Ineffabilis Deus, December 8, 1854.

(3) Ibid.

(4) St. Ephraem, Sermones exegetici, opera omnia syriace et latine, 2, Rome, 1740, 327.

(5) St. Ambrose, Exposito in Psalm 118, Sermon 22, No. 30, PL 15, 1599.

(6) St. Severus, Hom., cathedralis, 67, PO, 8, 350.

(7) St. Sophronius, Oral in Deiparae Annunt., 25, PG 87, 3246-3247.

(8) St. Andrew, Hom. 1 in Nativ. Deiparae, PG 97, 913-914.

(9) Theognostes, Hom. in Dorm. Deiparae, PO, Graffin-Nau, 16, 467.

(10) The other principal objection to the Immaculate Conception in the scholastic age was based on the misunderstood notion of how original sin was transmitted. Since they erroneously held that original sin was transmitted from an infected body to the soul once the soul was created and infused, then Mary would have contracted original sin from the fallen nature of St. Anne, her mother. It was Bl. Duns Scotus who correctly clarified that original sin consisted rather in the absence of sanctifying grace in the soul at conception, a deprivation caused by the sin of Adam and Eve. Hence, Mary, by the merits of Jesus Christ, was granted that gift of sanctifying grace in her soul at conception.

(11) Cf. Mt 16:18; Jn 21:15-17; Lk 22:32; cf. also Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, November 21, 1964, No. 25, and the Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 891.

(12) Cf. St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, I, Q. 94-101.

(13) Cf. Burghart, S.J., "Mary in Eastern Patristic Thought," J. B. Carol, ed., Mariology, Vol. II, Bruce, 1957; Aidan Carr, O.F.M.Conv., "Mary's Immaculate Conception," J. B. Carol, ed., Mariology, Vol. I, Bruce, 1955; Michael O'Carroll C.S.Sp., "Immaculate Conception," Theotokos: A Theological Encyclopedia of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Delaware, Michael Glazier, Inc., 1983; Carol, Fundamentals, p. 90-115.