Behold Your Mother:An Introduction to Mariology

Part 2: The Immaculate Conceptionby Søren Filipski

Immaculate Conception

The Blessed Virgin Mary in the first instance of her conceptionwas preserved exempt from all stain of original sin by a singular privilege and grace granted by God,in view of the merits of Christ, the Savior of the human race.Ineffabilis Deus,Dec 8, 1854, Pius IX

Ineffabilis Deus (1850)

From the very beginning, and before time began, the eternal Father chose and prepared for his only-begotten Son a Mother in whom the Son of God would become incarnate and from whom, in the blessed fullness of time, he would be born into this world.Ineffabilis Deus,Dec 8, 1854, Pius IX

Ineffabilis Deus (1850)

God, by one and the same decree, had established the origin of Mary and the Incarnation of Divine Wisdom.Ineffabilis Deus,Dec 8, 1854, Pius IX

Predestination of Mary

The Father of mercies willed that the Incarnation should be preceded by assent

on the part of the predestined Mother, so that just as a woman had a share in the coming of

death, so also should a woman contribute to the coming of life.

Lumen Gentium, 56

Predestination Misunderstood

• Capricious• Involuntary

Is Command an Act of the Will or Reason?

Command is an act of the reason, presupposing an act of the will.St. Thomas Aquinas,

ST I-II, q. 17, a. 1, co.

Rationality of Providence

“Thou hast arranged all things by measureand number and weight.”Wisdom of Solomon 11:20

“It belongs to the wise man to order.”Aristotle

Protoevangelium (First Gospel)

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.(Gen 3:15)

Revelation 11:19

Then God's temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple; and there were flashes of lightning, voices, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail.

Revelation 12:1-2

And a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; she was with child and she cried out in her pangs of birth, in anguish for delivery.

Revelation 12:4

And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child, that he might devour

her child when she brought it forth

Revelation 12:6

And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which to be nourished for one

thousand two hundred and sixty days.

Revelation 12:9

And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan … he was thrown down to the earth…

Mary Compared with Eve

…Eve while yet a virgin, while yet innocent, while yet incorrupt, while not yet deceived by the deadly snares of the most treacherous serpent…

Mary Compared with Eve

Eve listened to the serpent with lamentable consequences; she fell from original innocence and became his slave.

Mary Compared with Eve

The most Blessed Virgin, on the contrary, ever increased her original gift, and not only never lent an ear to the serpent, but by divinely given power she utterly destroyed the force and dominion of the evil one.

Immaculate Conception

The Blessed Virgin Mary in the first instance of her conceptionwas preserved exempt from all stain of original sin…

“Original Sin”

The sin in man’s origin, distinct from actual sin.

Mary, therefore, is free both from sin and from all effects from sin.

Crucial Premise

Original sin and its effects are a kind of union

with Satan and his seed.

Kecharitomēnē, “Full of Grace”

And Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be (fiat) to me according to your word.”

(Luke 1:38)

Freedom

The angel Gabriel at the moment of the annunciation salutes her as “full of grace.” In fact, in order for Mary to be able to give the free assent of her faith to the announcement of her vocation, it was necessary that she be wholly borne by God's grace. (CCC 490)

“In the First Instance”

As opposed to presanctification:Preservation from all actual sin only, from the

womb, but not from conception.

Presanctification

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,and before you were born I consecrated you;I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” (Jer 1:5)

Presanctification

“…for he will be great before the Lord… and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother's womb.” (Luke 1:15)

“Preserved”

The Lord possessed me in the beginning

of His ways. (Prov 8:22)

St. Alphonsus de Liguori (1696-1787)

• Mary is God’s “firstborn daughter”

• “Repairer of the lost world”

St. Alphonsus de Liguori

• “He destined her to crush the head of that infernal serpent.”

• “All things that are ordained for God should be holy and free from stain.”

Immaculate Conception

…by a singular privilege and grace granted by Godin view of the merits of Christ, the Savior of the human race.

“Singular Privilege”

• Mary had a unique mission in history.• Original sin pertains to human nature,

universally.• “All have sinned and come short of the

glory of God.” (Ps 14:4; Rom 3:23)

“Merits of Christ”

My soul magnifies the lord and my spirit rejoices in God my savior.(Luke 1:46-7)

Aquinas on Mary

The Blessed Virgin was sanctified in the womb from original sin, as to the personal stain; but she was not freed from the guilt to which the whole nature is subject, so as to enter into Paradise otherwise than through the Sacrifice of Christ.

Summa III, q. 27, a. 1, ad 3.

Bl. John Duns Scotus (1266-1308)

For a most perfect mediator exercises the most perfect mediation possible in regard to some person for whom he mediates.

Bl. John Duns Scotus (1266-1308)

Thus Christ exercised a most perfect act of mediation in regard to some person for whom he was Mediator.

Bl. John Duns Scotus (1266-1308)

In regard to no person did he have a more exalted relationship than to Mary. Such, however, would not have been true had he not preserved her from original sin.

Galatians 4:4-5

But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to

redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive

adoption as sons.