Why the Immaculate Conception?

e3mil.com ^ | 12/08/04 | Rev. Paul Mankowski, S.J.

[AAABEST]

The 7 step Rosary

[Salvation]

Why the Immaculate Conception?

Catholic Encyclopedia: Immaculate Conception (The Doctrine and Its Roots)

The Immaculate Conception of Our Lady December 8

Mary's Immaculate Conception: A Memorable Anniversary

Ineffabilis Deus: 8 December 1854 (Dogma of the Immaculate Conception)

Why do we believe in the Immaculate Conception?

John Paul II goes to Lourdes; reflections on the Immaculate Conception

Your Praises We Sing--on the Dogma of the Proclamation of the Immaculate Conception, Dec. 8th

Eastern Christianity and the Immaculate Conception (Q&A From EWTN)

Memorandum on the Immaculate Conception [Newman]

On The Feast of The Immaculate Conception, The Patroness of the US, We Must Pray For Our Country[Read only]

[Kolokotronis]

Aside from the "original sin" part, this is a great article. Rather than argue the "original sin" matter again, let me tell a story which I think illustrates who the Most Holy Theotokos is to my own very Greek Orthodox wife.

During Great Lent this year, my father-in-law, an 88 year old man, lay dying. He was much loved by his whole family. My wife, one of his two daughters had a particularly hard time with this. Several times a week in the evening she went to our Orthodox Church to attend the Akathist services which are a series of hymns to the Mother of God. She stood through all of these praying the prayers and chanting the hymns in tears, but she felt better being with Panagia, the All Holy One, Mary, because she knew that the Mother of God too knew crushing grief, even in the greatness of her Faith and would comfort her. The good Jesuit who wrote this article need not fear that Mary's all consuming humanity has been lost in doctrine, at least for the Orthodox.

[AskStPhilomena]

Check out what secular sources are making of this great feast....
http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/ns/news/story.jsp?id=2004120809050002965312&dt=20041208090500&w=RTR&coview=

[sassbox]

wow, that one left me speechless! Using a feast of Mary to promote a pill that often kills a newly conceived child is just unbelievable. Sick, sick, sick.

[kosta50]

...she knew that the Mother of God too knew crushing grief, even in the greatness of her Faith and would comfort her

That is so Orthodox Kolo, so beautiful. When my grandmother died, my mother was crushed, evend though she was as Orthodox as one can be. She didn't eat or drink naything for a couple of days and was beginning to look very ill. The Orthodox priest came and blessed the house. He then sat with my mother and said to her "You are a believer?" and my mother says "Yes, Father, I am," tears running down her cheeks and her voice quivvering. He then said "Then, as a believer, you know that life is only a comma, and not a full stop." After those words my mother came back to life. It was a powerful message that reached her spirit profoundly. No big speaches, no special doctrinal statements, just a simple statement of faith. Orthodoxy!

Now, this is not exactly what the topic was, but it is that faith that keeps us going even when everything else is hopeless, and of all humans Theotokos' faith was tested to the max. One of the most memorable scenes in the "Passion of the Christ" that I keep watching over and over is not the floggin and torturing, but the scenes of our Blessed Mother of God watching her Son. She not once cast an anrgy look at the Jewish High Priests, the Romans or the crowd. How many of us could do that?! She could only watch Him, knowing that, no matter how difficult, it was God's decision. That kind of sinlessness, faith and devotion to God by an ordinary, mortal woman is our hope that we too can deny sin -- not because some of us are "elect" but because we want to.

In other words, for the Orthodox, a Theotokos who was concieved sinless, as the Immaculate Conception implies, by God's intervention, is not a feat of her faith and humanity and, consequently, not within the realm of our human capacity to even try to emulate.

[Tadhg Séamus]

I've never read anything by Fr. Mankowski that I didn't enjoy immensely and find very edifying. This is no exception. Some "old-school" Jesuit writing by (as far as I know) a relatively young Jebbie. There IS hope!! Thanks for posting!

[Lilllabettt]

The Blessed Virgin Mary lived her life in the state in which Adam and Eve lived before their sin. She was as capable of sin as they were; her life, to this extent like ours, was a series of choices between good and bad, self and other, God's will and her own. Her glory, for which all generations will call her blessed, is that in every instance she said, "I am your servant. Let it be done to me in accordance with your word."

By far, by far, the best answer to the question "Did Immaculate Mary have free will?" I have ever read.

[visually_augmented]

Romans 3:10-12,23
10 as it is written, "THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE; 11 THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD; 12 ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE."
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God

I don't see in this Romans passage (which is actually a quote from Psalm 14:3) that Mary is excluded. Please show me the scripture passage that states that Mary was without sin. If all her ancestors where born under sin and she had two sinful parents, how could Mary not be of the same line?

Jesus was excluded only because His father was not of Adam!

[kjvail]

I'm only going to say this once because this debate doesn't particularly interest me - sola scriptura (bible alone) Christianity is not biblical in and of itself.

"I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions even as I have delivered them to you" (1 Cor. 11:2).

"Follow the pattern of the sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus; guard the truth that has been entrusted to you by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us" (2 Tim. 1:13-14).

"So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by letter." (2 Thess. 2:15)

"You, then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me before many witnesses entrust to faithful men who will be able to teach others also" (2 Tim. 2:1-2).

"First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by the impulse of man, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God" (2 Peter 1:20-21).

"‘Though I have much to write to you, I would rather not use paper and ink, but I hope to come to see you and talk with you face to face, so that our joy may be complete" (2 John 12).

[visually_augmented]

Of course all these references were made prior to the New Testament's canonization. The primary method of evangelism and preaching was word of mouth since the "Good News" was not yet a published work.

Since the traditional church (Roman Catholic, in this case) was one of the chief preservers of Scripture through the ages, certainly they would have preserved reference to Mary's sinlessness if it existed? Where is the reference?

[visually_augmented]

"Perhaps then we're in a little better position to understand the unique complications this presents in terms of the Virgin Mary. She says, "My soul glorifies the Lord...for He has looked with kindness on His lowly servant." Now isn't there a voice in the back of our heads which whispers at this point, "Lowly? We should all be so lowly!" That is, we assume that Mary's perfection would have been as obvious to her as it is to us, and it seems a trifle stagy in such circumstances to pretend to true lowliness. Now I apologize to those of you who have never been vexed by this problem, but I think it is common enough to be worth trying to free ourselves from it. "

Well, I must admit that I have been vexed by this inconsistency and came to the obvious conclusion that Mary certainly was lowly (surely she must speak truth) compared to God for she was due the wrath of God like all mortal men after Adam. Mary was born in sin (unless you claim she had sinless parents) and even if you claim she never committed a sin, her condition before God was unregenerate. She needed God's mercy just as much as you or I.

[kjvail]

Ineffabilis Deus (The Immaculate Conception)

Pius IX 12/8/1854

[HarleyD]

I guess if Pope Pius IX says it so it must be so. Can't argue with that reasoning.

[visually_augmented]

You might try this web site. It give a very detailed explanation of the history of Immaculate Conception (and is Roman Catholic friendly). The concept of Mary's sinlessness evolved over centuries and never was original teaching by Christ nor His disciples...

http://www.udayton.edu/mary/resources/kimmac.html

[visually_augmented]

I have a question for you. Does the Roman Catholic Church teach that Mary died or did she ascend into heaven as did Christ? Since death is the payment for sin, and she was sinless, it would seem necessary that she not suffer death.

[kjvail]

I'm guessing that your statement is sarcastic but there's more truth in it than you probably realize. Most of the encylical linked is background, the infallible statement comes towards the end: "We declare, pronounce, and define that the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin, is a doctrine revealed by God and therefore to be believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful.

(Declaramus, pronuntiamus et definimus doctrinam quae tenet beatissimam Virginem Mariam in primo instanti suae conceptionis fuisse singulari Omnipotentis Dei gratia et privilegio, intuitu meritorum Christi Jesu Salvatoris humani generis, ab omni originalis culpae labe praeservatam immunem, esse a Deo revelatam, atque idcirco ab omnibus fidelibus firmiter constanterque credendam.)

This is a very rare thing, the exercise of papal infallibility, John Paul II has used it only a few times, the most famous being:

“Therefore, by the authority which Christ conferred upon Peter and his Successors, in communion with the bishops—who are various occasions have condemned abortion and who in the aforementioned consultation, albeit dispersed throughout the world, have shown unanimous agreement concerning this doctrine declare that direct abortion, that is, abortion willed as an end or as a means, always constitutes a grave moral disorder, since it is the deliberate killing of an innocent human being. This doctrine is based upon the natural law and upon the written Word of God, is transmitted by the Church’s Tradition and taught by the ordinary and universal Magisterium.”

(Evangelium vitae, #62) "

This is a great statement to use as an example since it pretty much spells out the requirements for an ex cathedra statement

[kjvail]

Munificentissimus Deus (Defining the Dogma of the Assumption)

Pope Pius XII 11/01/1950

"44. For which reason, after we have poured forth prayers of supplication again and again to God, and have invoked the light of the Spirit of Truth, for the glory of Almighty God who has lavished his special affection upon the Virgin Mary, for the honor of her Son, the immortal King of the Ages and the Victor over sin and death, for the increase of the glory of that same august Mother, and for the joy and exultation of the entire Church; by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and by our own authority, we pronounce, declare, and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma: that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory. "

You found another one heh - this isn't done often you just happened to ask about two instances where papal infallibility has been invoked and I provided you a 3rd as a means of example.

[Lilllabettt]

Here I am, butting in again! Aren't I special.

The Church is silent as to whether or not Mary died. The vast majority of theologians agree she did.

Jesus we know, was without sin, yet suffered death. Mary was THE imitator of Christ, par excellence, and my personal belief is that she imitated Him in dying.

Also, you say: "did Mary ascend?" ONLY Jesus 'ascended' into Heaven. Mary was "Assumed" into the other world. She did not do it of her own power; God had to come and get her. The Church in the east speaks of Mary's "Dormition" (or falling asleep,) and pictures Jesus cradling His Mother in His arms and carrying her up to Heaven with Him.