Immaculate Conception of Mary

We celebrate the feast of the Immaculate Conception on 8 December. What does the Church teaching say about Immaculate Conception? The Church teaches us that from the very moment of her conception, the Blessed Virgin Mary was free from all stain of original sin. Mary was in a state of grace whilst she was conceived in the womb of her mother, St. Anne. In our case, original sin is removed from our soul by baptism but in the case of Mary, this sin wasn’t there at all, rather she was in the state of original sanctity, innocence, and justice, as opposed to original sin.

The primary understanding of Immaculate Conception comes from two scriptural references, namely, 1. In the book of Genesis 3:15, we see the parallel between Mary and Eve. “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed: he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” If there was an enmity between the woman and the serpent, she never should have been in any way subject to him even briefly, this implies an Immaculate Conception.

2 In the Gospel of Luke 1:28, the angel calls her ‘full of grace’. Mary was full of grace, which means she must not have not submitted to evil one. Hence, she must have been conceived immaculate.

In 1854, Pope Pius IX in his Bull Ineffabilis Deus proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception: “we declare, pronounce and define that the doctrine which asserts that the Blessed Virgin Mary, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God, and in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, Saviour of the human race, was preserved free from every stain of original sin is a doctrine revealed by God and, for this reason, must be firmly and constantly believed by all the faithful.” (DS 2803). This constitution affirmed Immaculate Conception of Mary on 8 December 1854. Therefore, we celebrate this feast on 8 December. This day also is the feast of the Cathedral of our Diocese.

Mary was sanctified in her mother’s womb because Word had to make flesh, in other words, Son of God had to be born in the womb of Mary. The Mother of the Redeemer had to be free from the power of sin and God gave her this privilege to the God-Bearer.

Immaculate Mary is our model in the Church. Let us take her example of immaculate in our own ways in this life. We are called to be immaculate, free of sin, pure and without blemish. We are also called to live a life worthy of God. If God has to make his home in us, we have to be sinless as Mary was by being faithful to God’s call to each one of us.

I would like to encourage all of us to be God-bearers for which we need to immaculate or pure. We are God-bearers when we receive Holy Eucharist, for which we need to prepare ourselves and be clean of every stain. We shall ask our Lady to pray for us with her Son to consolidate us in our faith in the Holy Communion and that we might become truly carriers of Christ in our lives. This way, let our life be perpetually and intimately related to God, and thus remains holy.