ON TUESDAY, December 8, we will celebrate the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. This is day when Catholic schools usually institute the sacrament of Holy Communion to children aged 7 and above.
In the past, I thought the Feast of the Immaculate Conception was the conception of Christ in Mary’s womb through the action of the Holy Spirit as announced by the Angel Gabriel. I was so wrong. That moment is recognized as the Annunciation, celebrated every March 25, exactly nine months before Christmas.
To rectify a wrong notion, the Immaculate Conception refers to the condition that the Blessed Virgin Mary was born free from original sin from the very moment she was conceived in the womb of her mother, St. Anne. Mary was born on September 8, nine months before December 8, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.
The Catholic Church recognized the Immaculate Conception as a doctrine when Pope Pius IX on December 8, 1854 declared it a dogma. In Ineffabilis Deus, Pope Pius IX wrote that “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.”
Mary’s immunity from the original sin happened the moment of the creation of her soul and its infusion into her body. The formal active essence of original sin was not removed from her soul, as it is washed away like us during baptism. In Mary’s case, it was excluded. Meaning, original sin was never in her soul.
With the exclusion of sin, the state of original sanctity, innocence, and justice was conferred upon her. However, she was not spared from the temporal penalties of Adam and Eve like sorrow, bodily infirmities, and death.
Eve, the first woman created, became the mother of all the living (Gen.3:20). She was a virgin and undefiled. However because of listening to serpent’s words and succumbing to temptation, disobedience and death were brought into the world.
When the Angel Gabriel brought to Mary the message that the Holy Spirit would come upon her and that the power of the Most High would overshadow her, so that the Holy One born of her would be the Son of God, she answered, “Let it be done to me according to thy word” (Lk. 1:38).
With the Immaculate Conception and the Annunciation, the fathers of the Church herald Mary as the new Eve. The Eve-Mary parallel began in the latter half of the Second Century when St. Justin, the Martyr, (+165) in his work, Dialogue with Trypho, states that, “Christ became a man by a virgin to overcome the disobedience caused by the serpent.”Thus was born of her the Child. Through Him, God crushed the serpent, along with those angels and men who had become like the serpent.”
St. Ireneus, Bishop of Lyons, (+202) considered the first theologian of the Virgin Mary, took up St. Justin’s Mary-Eve theme and further integrated it into his theology. He says, “Mary is treated as the New or Second Eve who is the beginning of the second Creation or re-creation of humanity through the Redemption.” He added: “The knot of Eve’s disobedience was loosened by Mary’s obedience. The bonds fastened by the virgin Eve through her disbelief were untied by the Virgin Mary. When Mary believed God’s message given to her at the Annunciation, she brought salvation and life to the world in her Son, Jesus, Who crushed the head of the serpent. St. Ambrose of Milan (+397) wrote: “It was through a man and woman that flesh was cast from paradise; it was through a virgin that flesh was linked to God.”
St. Jerome (+420 ) succinctly stated, “Death through Eve, Life through Mary.” (Epist. 22, 2 I). St. Peter Chrysologus (+450) picked up on this theme in his writings, “Christ was born of a woman so that just as death came through a woman, so through Mary, life might return.”
Pope Pius XII is responsible for the principle papal contributions on this theme. In the Encyclical, Ad CaeliReginam dated Oct. 11, 1954, he wrote: “Mary, in the work of Redemption was by God’s will, joined with Jesus Christ, the cause of salvation, in much the same way as Eve was joined with Adam the cause of death.”
The Fathers of the Second Vatican Council recall the Eve-Mary parallel in the document on the Church. Lumen Gentium, Chapter 8, the role of the Blessed Virgin Mary. They quote from the Church Fathers, Sts. Ireneus, Jerome, and Epiphanius : “What the virgin Eve bound by her unbelief, Mary loosened by her faith. “( L.G. 56 ) In the same document, the Eve-Mary parallel is treated in relation to the Church: “For believing and obeying, Mary brought forth on earth the Father’s Son. This she did, knowing not man but overshadowed by the Holy Spirit, as the New Eve. Mary placed her absolute trust not in the ancient serpent but in the messenger of God. (L.G. 63) We, the faithful of the Church are called to follow Mary’s example of trusting faith and fidelity to the Holy Will of God.”
The Feast of the Immaculate Conception connects so many other feasts of the Blessed Mother. The major lesson we are to learn from Mary, the New Eve, the Mother of all Creation is the virtue of obedience.
We must obey God’s laws, His teachings, His messages, His missions for us. God speaks to us at all times. Whether it’s a verse in a homily, a smile from a stranger, an assistance from nowhere, a blessing and even an ailment or a trial. All we need to do is to be like Mary, believe and obey.