Homily for Immaculate
Conception
Archbishop Fulton Sheen famously said,
“There are not over a hundred people in the United States who hate the Catholic
Church. There are millions, however, who hate what they wrongly believe to be
the Catholic Church…” He was referring, of course, not simply to the
institution, but more to what the Catholic Church teaches.
Let’s look first at what this
doctrine is not. It does not refer to the conception of Christ in the womb of
Mary, nor does it mean that Mary was somehow miraculously conceived. Mary was
conceived in the normal way as the natural fruit of the marriage of Ss. Joachim
and Anne; but at the moment of her conception she was preserved from original
sin and its stain.
As we know, the sin of our first
parents, Adam and Eve, became their bitter legacy to us. Original sin deprives
us of sanctifying grace, and the stain of original sin corrupts our human
nature. But by God’s grace, given at the moment of Mary’s conception, she was
preserved from these defects, and so from the first instant of her existence
Mary had the fullness of sanctifying grace, and was unburdened by the corrupt
nature caused by original sin. In this way, Mary becomes a “second Eve,”
conceived in the same state of original purity as God intended for mankind.
Why would God do this? We state
the reason every time we say the Creed. When we profess that Jesus Christ “was
incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary,” we’re proclaiming that God
took human flesh upon Himself. And from whom did He take that flesh? From Mary.
So, the question must be asked: would God – who can have no part in sin – take
upon Himself that which was fallen, stained and corrupt? The answer is obvious:
of course He wouldn't. So, as we can see already, the doctrine of the
Immaculate Conception has as much to do with our Lord Jesus Christ and His
Incarnation, as it does with the Blessed Virgin Mary. In fact, as we explore
the various Marian dogmas, we see this consistently. What God does in and
through Mary finds its ultimate purpose in Jesus Christ.
We can find a strong implicit
reference to the Immaculate Conception in St. Luke 1:28. In the original Greek
text, when the archangel Gabriel is addressing the young Virgin Mary, the word used
is translated to say that she is “full of grace.” In some translations of
scripture, Gabriel’s words are translated as “highly favored one,” but that
translation doesn’t capture the best and fullest meaning. The original Greek
clearly indicates that Mary was filled with grace in the past, and the effect
of it continues into the present. Understanding that, it’s apparent that the
grace received by Mary didn’t come about through Gabriel’s visit; rather, she
was always filled with grace.
Here’s another point used by
those who doubt the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception: They ask, “What
about the words Mary spoke in her Magnificat, when she says, “my spirit
rejoices in God my Savior…”? If she wasn’t a sinner, why would she need a
Savior?” Remember, Mary was a human being, a descendant of Adam and Eve. When
she was conceived, she was certainly subject to the contracting of original
sin, like all of us. But she was preserved from it – and how so? By grace. Mary
was redeemed by the grace of Christ, but in a special way; that is, by
anticipation. There’s a helpful analogy which has been used by the Church to
illustrate this very fact: a man falls into a deep pit, and somebody reaches
down and pulls him out. It would be true to say that the man was “saved” from
the pit. A woman is walking by that same pit, and she’s about to fall in, but
at that very moment someone reaches out and pulls her back from the edge. She
also has been “saved” from the pit. And in fact, she didn’t even get dirty like
the poor man did, who actually fell in. God, who is outside of time, applied
Christ’s saving grace to Mary before she was stained by original sin, rather
like the woman in the story who didn’t get dirty because she was prevented from
falling into the pit. So yes, Mary had a Savior, and He is none other than
Christ, her Son and her Lord.
Then we’ve got Romans 3:23,
where St. Paul
says that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…” Did St. Paul mean this
statement to be understood in an all-inclusive, no-one-excluded way? Well,
let’s consider. First of all, we certainly have to exclude Jesus Himself. Even
though He was fully man, we know He didn’t sin. And what about a new-born baby?
If sin is the deliberate disobedience to God’s law, could we say that a little
baby has committed sin? Although St. Paul was certainly
stating the truth about mankind, his purpose in writing this section of Romans
wasn’t to discuss the possibility of exceptions; rather he was constructing an
important argument about law and grace, justification and redemption. If
anybody wants to apply Romans 3:23 to Mary, then they’d have to apply it to
babies and young children, too.
Sometimes people object to the
doctrine of the Immaculate Conception using this argument: “if we’re saying
Mary was without sin, then we’re making her equal to God, because only God is
without sin.” But we need to remember that in the beginning, Adam and Eve were
created without sin, but they weren’t equal to God. The angels were created without
sin, and in fact, from Scripture we know that only some of the angels sinned –
Lucifer and his friends – but that means a lot of angels never sinned. And they
certainly are not equal to God.
Tragically, after the fall of
our first parents, sin became commonplace and even expected. In fact, think
about how often someone will say, after doing something wrong, “Well, I’m only
human,” as though sin is perfectly natural, and somehow even defines humanity.
Actually, sin is unnatural. We weren’t created to sin; we were created to know
God, and to love Him, and to spend eternity with Him in heaven. In Mary,
because of the Immaculate Conception, we see a human being as God intends all
of us to be. What was maimed by the first Adam and Eve, is restored by the
Second Adam and the Second Eve.
