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The Dogma of the Immaculate Conception - a love letter to Mary

During the Advent season we reflect upon Jesus’s birth and are reminded to be ready for his Second Coming. We also celebrate our Blessed Virgin Mary and her Immaculate Conception. Of the Church’s four Marian dogmas, this teaching is often the hardest to accept. It takes faith and an open heart to believe it as truth.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC 508) states, ‘Mary is the most excellent fruit of redemption: from the first instant of her conception, she was totally preserved from the stain of original sin and she remained pure from all personal sin throughout her life.’

The Church’s veneration and honoring of Mary stems from the understanding of Christ. The Council of Chalcedon, in 451, canonized the Christian conception of Christ as a unique person, existing in two complete natures. Early Christians stressed the holiness of the mother of Jesus as a way of explaining the full humanity of her son. The mother of Jesus gave birth to the Word of God into humanity, and was by necessity, the purest and holiest of human beings. This belief had been part of Christian tradition from the second century on. And although scripture does not speak of the Immaculate Conception in a direct way, many theologians point to Luke 1:28, “Hail, full of grace.” This emphasizes that Mary was always filled with grace and thus without sin.

There would be no formal Church declaration regarding Mary’s Immaculate Conception until Pope Pius IX elected to define it as dogma on December 8, 1854. He said his declaration was based on deep Christian love. The Holy See had been petitioned on the Immaculate Conception for centuries because the vast majority of Catholics already believed it and wanted to see the Church define the doctrine. Pope Pius IX set up a special congregation (synod) to study the matter and sent a letter to all the bishops in the world asking them to pray and give him their view of whether he should define the dogma. The response from the bishops, clergy, religious, and laity, was an overwhelming and enthusiastic yes. With that, Pope Pius IX said that “the opportune time had come” for this doctrinal love letter to Mary.

The dogma states, ‘The Most Holy Virgin Mary was, in the very first moment of her conception, by a unique gift of grace and privilege of Almighty God and in view of the merits of Jesus Christ the Redeemer of mankind, preserved free from all stain of original sin.’ (Ineffabilis Deus, Apostolic Constitution of Pope Pius IX on the Immaculate Conception.) Defining the doctrine was not a response to a crisis nor born out of the necessity of fighting a falsehood that threatened the peace of the Church. Skeptics may say that the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception has insufficient evidence in Scripture.

However, we do know from scripture that with God all things are possible (Mt 19:26). God has the power to extend redemption to Mary (without sin) before she was conceived in the womb of St. Anne. Mary received this privilege because of God’s providence, to be the Christ bearer. She was free from original sin and free from personal sin. Her nature was spotlessly incorrupt. All made possible by her Immaculate Conception.


Author - Deacon Dan Vaugh