The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception is the feast of one who gives herself entirely to Our Lord Jesus Christ, born free of original sin.
Newsroom (December 8, 2021, 11:55 AM, Gaudium Press) Our Lady, in anticipation of the future Passion and Death of Jesus, was sanctified from the first instant of her conception, not only free of original sin and all its consequences but also filled with a surge of grace that would only increase throughout her existence.
In the treasures of Tradition, there are a plethora of commentaries on the Immaculate Conception of Mary, in which her total exemption from sin is emphasized.
The Most Excellent of Creatures
This emphasis is because once the stain of the fault of our first parents is extended to all men, to create a Virgin without any trace of contamination, neither in her origin nor in the course of her life, signifies the full victory of Our Lord Jesus Christ over the devil, the world and the flesh.
In Mary, the Savior enforces the Sacrifice of Calvary with the greatest efficacy and manifests his power to remedy completely the effects of original guilt in fallen human nature.
The Immaculate Conception is, therefore, the triumph of Jesus, the triumph of Mary, and the triumph of the Church, which finds in Her its most eminent member.
However, to maintain that Our Lady was exempt from original sin is too little. We see a Pope go much further in his pronouncements about Her.
The Privilege of the Immaculate Conception
Along the same lines, John Paul II, in one of his catecheses, provided important elements for a more complete formulation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary.
In explaining this doctrine which Pius IX declared to have been revealed by God, he elucidated that “immunity from all stain of original guilt implies as a positive consequence the complete immunity from all sin and the proclamation of the perfect holiness of Mary, a doctrine to which the dogmatic definition offers a fundamental contribution. In fact, the negative formulation of Marian privilege, conditioned by the previous controversies that developed in the West about original guilt, must always be completed by the positive enunciation of Mary’s holiness, emphasized more explicitly in the Eastern tradition” (John Paul II, General Audience, 12 June 1996).
Another aspect still implicit in the “negative formulation” employed by Pius IX would be the complete exemption from the disordered movements of concupiscence: “Pius IX’s definition refers only to immunity from original sin, which does not explicitly imply immunity from concupiscence. However, Mary’s complete preservation from every stain of sin has as a consequence in her also immunity from concupiscence, a disordered tendency which, according to the Council of Trent, proceeds from sin and inclines to sin (Dec 1515)” (John Paul II, op. cit.).
Therefore, it is easily concluded that the Magisterium itself has interpreted the infallible doctrine of the Immaculate Conception not only in the light of the explicit statement contained in the words of the dogmatic definition, but also by discovering the “positive privilege” that is implicit in the “negative formulation” of the dogma and encompasses such realities as the unparalleled fullness of grace with which the Heart of Mary was adorned, her subsequent impeccability, and her total exemption from concupiscence. Only in this way is the doctrine on the Immaculate Conception of Mary fully understood in the Church.
Mary Most Holy: Exempt from Sin from Conception and Full of Grace
If it is true that “where sin abounded, grace abounded” (Romans 5:20), as St. Paul teaches us about the mystery of Redemption, we must conclude that Mary’s original holiness far surpassed that of Eve at the moment of her creation.
Furthermore, by her faithful correspondence to the wealth of graces received from her Divine Son, Our Lady progressed from fullness to fullness, to the point of seeing herself so filled with God that it was necessary to make her pass from this life to the next.
Therefore, the fullness of grace that united Her in the highest degree to God is the most relevant aspect of Her immaculate conception.
Sin Underscores Mary’s Immaculate Purity
In Our Lady, as seen, original sin was repaired in the most profound and radical way possible. In the first place, She was given a grace that was highest above all thought, already at the moment of her conception.
Moreover, there was not in her the least trace of any kind of inclination to concupiscence; on the contrary, her soul was kept in full harmony, always submissive to God’s will by correspondence to all the motions of grace.
His passions were subordinated to reason, enlightened by faith. She was, in consequence, a virginal creature, endowed with a gift of super-excellent integrity, all oriented to the most sublime perfection.
In Mary, human nature regained the ideal beauty it had lost when our first parents left Paradise, punished by the most just hand of God. In her, the supernatural grandeur that was Eve’s glory before sin shone forth, dazzling and even more gracious.
Through the Immaculate Conception, the beautiful days of Eden returned to the land of exile, making it the most beautiful garden.
We are children of Mary Immaculate! And if we have an appreciation for our natural mother, much greater must be our love for Her who is the Mother of our supernatural life.
Filled with gratitude, let us ask Her that, just as She triumphed over sin, She may triumph in our soul, infusing it with a ray of Her immaculatability. And that, purified of all our miseries, we may be assisted by her Divine Spouse and become effective instruments for the promotion of another triumph, promised by Her in Fatima and so desired by us: that of her Sapiential and Immaculate Heart.
Msgr. João Scognamiglio Clá Dias, EP
Text taken, with adaptations, from the book Maria Santíssima! The Paradise of God revealed to men by Msgr. João Scognamiglio Clá Dias, EP.
Compiled by Sarah Gangl
