Transcript Slide 1

MARY
MOTHER OF JESUS,
MOTHER OF GOD
Part IIIa:
Mary’s Immaculate Conception
“Rejoice, O highly favored daughter!” (Luke 1:28)
The Immaculate Conception of Mary
The Immaculate Conception of Mary,
the Mother of Jesus, is the belief that
God preserved Mary from any
inclination to sin, the inheritance of
original sin passed on to all mankind
from our first parents, Adam and Eve.
The belief of the Immaculate
Conception of Mary says nothing about
Mary and personal sin (Romans 3:23).
Christian belief holds that every human
being through faith and through baptism
is freed from sin - original sin and personal sin
-through the grace of Jesus Christ.
Catholic Christians simply claim that Mary was the first one to whom this
was done. What Mary received before her birth, all Christians receive at
their baptism.
Catholics also believe that there have been other certain saints who were
cleansed of original sin while still in the womb.
Jeremiah 1:5
Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were
born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you.
Luke 1:15
And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his
birth, for he will be great in the sight of (the) Lord. He will drink
neither wine nor strong drink. He will be filled with the Holy
Spirit even from his mother's womb, and he will turn many
of the children of Israel to the Lord their God.
But, Mary did not need that cleansing. She never had original sin.
Catholics also know that the unfallen angels are sinless.
The Privileges of the Mother of God
Mary's Immaculate Conception
Dogma : Mary was conceived without stain of original sin.
(De fide; It must be believed to be Catholic and remain a Catholic)
Pope Pius IX, December 8, 1854, Ineffabilis
“The Most Holy Virgin Mary was, in the first moment of her conception,
by a unique gift of grace and privilege of Almighty God, in view of the merits
of Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of mankind, preserved free from all stain
of original sin.” D 1641
Explanation of the dogma
By conception is to be understood the passive conception. The first
moment of the conception is that moment of time in which the soul was
created by God and infused into the bodily matter prepared by her parents.
The essence of original sin consists in the lack of sanctifying
grace, in consequence of the fall of Adam. Mary was preserved from this
defect, so that she entered existence in the state of sanctifying grace.
Mary's freedom from original sin was an unmerited gift of God (gratia),
and an exception from the law which was vouchsafed to her only.
The efficient cause of the Immaculate Conception of Mary was Almighty
God.
The meritorious cause was the Redemption by Jesus Christ.
It follows from this that even Mary was in need of redemption, and was in
fact redeemed. By reason of her natural origin, she, like all other children
of Adam, was subject to the necessity of contracting original sin but by
a special intervention of God, she was preserved from stain of original sin.
Thus Mary also was redeemed “by the grace of Christ” but in a more
perfect manner than other human beings.
While other human beings are freed through baptism from original sin
present in their souls, Mary the Mother of the Redeemer, was preserved
from the contagion of original sin.
Thus the dogma of the lmmaculate Conception of Mary in no way
contradicts the dogma that all children of Adam are subject to Original Sin
and need redemption.
The formal cause of the Immaculate Conception of Mary is her
Motherhood of God.
Proof from Holy Scripture and Tradition
The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of Mary is not explicitly
revealed in Scripture. According to many theologians it is contained
implicitly in the following passages:
Genesis 3:15
I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed
and her seed. He (the seed of the woman) shall crush your head, and
you shall crush his heel.
The literal sense of the passage is possibly the following: Between Satan
and his followers on the one hand, and Eve and her posterity on the
other hand, there is to be constant moral warfare. The posterity of Eve
wiII achieve a complete and final victory over Satan and his followers,
even if it is wounded in the struggle. The posterity of Eve includes the
Messiah, in whose power humanity wiII win a victory over Satan. Thus
the passage is indirectly messianic. (D 2123)
The seed of the woman was understood as referring to the Redeemer
and thus the Mother of the Redeemer came to be seen in the woman.
Since the second century this direct messianic-marian interpretation has
been expounded by individual Fathers
St. Irenaeus, St. Epiphanius, Isidor of Pelusium, St. Cyprian, the author of the
Epistola ad amicum aegrotum, St. Leo the Great. However, it is not found in
the writings of the majority of the Fathers, among them the great teachers
of the East and West.
According to this interpretation, Mary stands with Christ in a perfect and
victorious enmity towards Satan and his following.
Many of the later scholastics and a great many modern theologians argue,
in the light of this interpretation of the Protoevangelium that:
Mary's victory over Satan would not have been perfect if she had ever been
under his dominion. Consequently she must have entered this world without
the stain of original sin.
The Bull Ineffabilis approves of this messianic-marianic interpretation.
It draws from it the inference that Mary, in consequence of her intimate
association with Christ, “with Him and through Him had eternal enmity
towards the poisonous serpent, triumphed in the most complete fashion
over him, and crushed its head with her immaculate foot.”
The Bull does not give any authentic explanation of the passage. It must
also be observed that the infallibility of the Papal doctrinal decision extends
only to the dogma as such and not to the reasons given as leading up to
the dogma.
Luke 1: 28
Hail, full of grace!
The expression “full of grace” (kecharitomene) in the angel's salutation,
represents the proper name, and must on this account express a
characteristic quality of Mary. The principal reason why the pleasure of
God rests in special fashion on her is her election to the dignity of the Mother
of God. Accordingly. Mary’s endowment with grace proceeding from God’s
pleasure must also be of unique perfection. However, it is perfect only if it
be perfect not only intensively but also extensively, that is, if it extends over
her whole life, beginning with her entry into the world.
Luke 1: 41
Blessed are you (eulogemene) among women and blessed is the
fruit of your womb.
The blessing of God which rests upon Mary is made parallel to the blessing
of God which rests upon Christ in His humanity. This parallelism suggests
that Mary, just like Christ, was from the beginning of her existence, free
from all sin.
Neither the Greek nor the Latin Fathers explicitly teach the Immaculate
Conception of Mary. Still, they teach it implicitly in two fundamental notions.
Mary, most perfect purity and holiness.
St. Ephrem (b. ? – 373 AD)
“Thou and thy mother are the only ones who are totally beautiful in every
respect; for in thee, 0 Lord, there is no spot, and in thy Mother no stain.”
(Carm. Nisib. 27)
St. Augustine (354 – 430 AD)
says that all men must confess themselves sinners,
“except the Holy Virgin Mary, whom I desire, for the sake of the honor
of the Lord, to leave entirely out of the question, when the talk is of sin.”
(De natura et gratia 36, 42).
According to the context, however, this must be taken as referring to
freedom from personal sins.
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The similarity and contrast between Mary and Eve.
Mary, is on the one hand, a replica of Eve in her purity and integrity before
the Fall, on the other hand, the antitype of Eve, in so far as Eve is the
cause of corruption, and Mary the cause of salvation.
St. Ephrem (b. ? – 373 AD)
“Mary and Eve, two people without guilt, two simple people, were identical.
Later, however, one became the cause of our death, the other the cause
of our life.” (Op. syr. II 327)
Cf. St. Justin, Dial. 100, St. Irenaeus Adv. haer. III 22, 4; Tertulian, de carne
Christi, 17.
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The Constant Faith and Practice of the Church
Since the seventh century (600s) a Feast of the Conception of St. Anne
that is, of the conception of Mary, was celebrated in the Greek
Eastern Church.
The celebration and the Feast spread later to the West, first to southern
Italy, then to Ireland and England, under the title, Conceptio Beatae Mariae
Virginis. The object of the celebration of the feast was initially the active
conception of St. Anne, which, according to the Protoevangelium of St.
James, occurred after a long period of childlessness, and was foretold
by an angel, as an extraordinary manifestation of God's grace.
At the beginning of the twelfth century (1100s), the British monk Eadmer,
(1060-1124) a pupil of St. Anselm of Canterbury, and Osben of Clare,
advocated the Immaculate Conception of Mary, that is, her conception free
from original sin. Eadmer wrote the first monograph on this subject.
Feast of the
Conception
of St Anne
Eadmer
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Under the influence of St. Bernard, the leading theologians of the twelfth
and thirteenth centuries (Petrus Lombardus, St. Alexander of Hales,
St. Bonaventure, St. Albert the Great, St. Thomas Aquinas (cf. S. Th III 1,7,
1), rejected the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. Their difficulty
was that they had not yet found the way to bring Mary's freedom from
original sin into consonance with the universality of original sin, and
with the necessity of all men for redemption.
On the other hand, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, on the occasion of the
institution of the Feast in Lyons (about 1140), warned the faithful that
this was an unfounded innovation, and taught that Mary was sanctified
after conception only, that is, when she was already in the womb (Ep. 174).
The correct approach to the final solution of the problem was first
achieved by the Franciscan theologian, William of Ware, and this was
perfected by his great pupil John Duns Scotus (d. 1308). The latter taught
that the animation need not precede the sanctification in order
of time but only in order of concept (ordo naturae).
Feast of the
Immaculate
Conception
St Bernard
Duns Scotus
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Through the introduction of the concept of preredemption, he succeeded
in reconciling Mary's freedom from original sin with her necessity for
redemption. The preservation from original sin, is, according to Scotus,
the most perfect kind of redemption. Thus. it was fitting that Christ should
redeem His mother in this manner.
The Franciscan Order allied itself with Scotus, and in contrast to the
Dominican Order, decisively advocated the doctrine and the Feast of
the Immaculate Conception of Mary.
In the year 1439, the Council of Basle, in its thirty-sixth session, which,
however, had no ecumenical validity, declared in favor of the Immaculate
Conception.
COUNCIL
OF BASLE
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Pope Sixtus IV (1471-1484) endowed the celebration of
the Feast with indulgences, and forbade the mutual
censuring of the disputing factions. (D 734 et seq.)
The Council of Trent, in its Decree on original sin, makes the significant
declaration “that it was not its intention to involve Mary, the Blessed and
Immaculate Virgin and Mother of God in this Decree.” (D 792)
In 1567, Pope Pius V condemned the proposition
advanced by Baius, that nobody but Christ had been free
from original sin, and that Mary's sorrows and her death
were a punishment for actual sin or for original sin.
(D 1073)
COUNCIL
OF
TRENT
Sixtus IV Pius V
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Popes Paul V (1616), Gregory XV (1622) and Alexander VII (1661),
advocated the doctrine (cf. D 1100).
On the eighth day of December, 1854, Pope Pius IX, having consulted
the entire episcopate, and speaking ex cathedra, declared the doctrine
of the Immaculate Conception to be a Dogma of the Faith.
Alexander VII
Gregory XV
Paul V
Pius IX
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Argument from Reason
Reason bases the dogma on the Scholastic axiom, which is already
found in the writings of Eadmer; potuit, decuit, ergo fecit (God could
do it, He ought to do it, therefore He did it).
This, it is true, gives no certainty, but still, it rationally establishes for
the dogma a high degree of probability.
Mary's Freedom from Evil Concupiscence and
from Every Personal Sin
Freedom from Concupiscence
From her conception Mary was free from all motions of concupiscence.
(Sententia communis; common consensus of theologians)
Freedom from original sin does not necessarily involve freedom from
all defects which came into the world as a punishment for sin. Mary,
like Christ Himself, was subject to the general human defects, in so far as
these involve no moral imperfection. Concupiscence cannot be reckoned
among these because concupiscence excites a person to commit acts
which are materially contrary to God's Law, even where, through lack of
assent, they are not formal sins.
It would be incompatible with Mary’s fullness of grace and her perfect purity
and immaculate state to be subject to motions of inordinate desire.
Mary’s merits are no more prejudiced by her freedom from concupiscence
than are the merits of Christ, because concupiscence is indeed an occasion,
but not an indispensable precondition, of merit. Mary acquired rich merits,
not by any struggle against sensual desire, but by her love of God, and by
other virtues (faith, humility, obedience). Cf. S. Th. III 27, 3 ad 2.
Many of the older theologians, with St. Thomas, distinguish between
the binding and the complete removal or extinction of concupiscence.
In the sanctification of Mary in the mother’s womb, concupiscence was so
bound that every inordinate motion of the senses was excluded.
In Christ’s conception, concupiscence was completely removed, so that
the powers of the senses were completely subject to the direction of
reason (S. Th. III 27, 3). The distinction made by St. Thomas rests on
the assumption that Mary was cleansed from original sin. Since she
was preserved from original sin, it is logical to assume that she was,
from the very beginning, entirely free from concupiscence.
Freedom from Actual Sin
In consequence of a Special Privilege of Grace from God, Mary was free
from every personal sin during her whole life.
(Sententia fidei proxima; a close understanding of faith)
Council of Trent (1545-63)
“No justified person can for his whole life avoid all sins, even venial sins,
except on the ground of a special privilege from God such as the Church
holds was given to the Blessed Virgin” (nisi ex speciali Dei privilegio,
quemadmodum de beata Virgine tenet Ecclesia). D 833
Pope Pius XII Mystici Corporis , June 29, 1943
“She (Mary) was immune from all sin, personal or inherited.”
Mary's sinlessness may be deduced from the text:
Luke 1, 28
Hail, full of grace!
Personal moral defects are irreconcilable with fullness of grace.
While individual Greek Fathers (Origen, St. Basil, St. John Chrysostom,
St. Cyril of Alexandria) taught that Mary suffered from venial personal faults,
such as ambition and vanity, doubt about the message of the Angel Gabriel,
and lack of faith under the Cross, the Latin Patristic authors unanimously
teach the doctrine of the sinlessness of Mary.
St. Augustine teaches that every personal sin must be excluded from
the Blessed Virgin Mary for the sake of the honor of God.
(De natura et gratia, 36, 42.)
St. Ephrem the Syrian puts Mary, in her immaculateness, on the same
plane as Christ ( Par. 3).
According to the teaching of St. Thomas, the fullness of grace which Mary
received in implied confirmation in grace and therefore sinlessness.
S. Th. III ; 27, 5 ad 2.
A Biblical Argument
A basis for the belief in the Immaculate Conception of Mary can be found in
the Biblical revelation of holiness and the opposite of that state, sinfulness.
God is revealed as perfect interior holiness.
Isaiah 6:3
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts!” they (the Seraphim) cried
one to the other.
No sin or anything tainted with sin can stand in the face of the holiness of
God. “Enmity” is that mutual hatred between Mary and sin, between
Christ and sin.
Genesis 3:15
I will put enmity between you (the serpent, Satan) and the woman
(Mary), and between your offspring (minions of Satan) and hers
(Jesus); He will strike at your head, while you strike at his heel.
The salutation of the Angel Gabriel indicates that Mary was exceptionally
“highly favored with grace” (Gk. charitoo, used only twice in the New
Testament; in
(1) Luke 1:28 for Mary - before Christ's redemption; and
(2) Ephesians 1:6 for Christ's grace to us – after Christ's
redemption).
Luke 1:28
And coming to her (Mary), he (the angel Gabriel) said, “Hail,
favored one (kecharitomene).”
Ephesians 1:4-6
(God) chose us in him (Jesus), before the foundation of the
world, to be holy and without blemish before him. In love he
destined us for adoption to himself through Jesus Christ, in
accord with the favor of his will, for the praise of the glory of his
grace (echaritosen) that he granted us in the beloved.
End of
Mary the Series: The Immaculate Conception, Part IIIa
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Mary the Series: The Immaculate Conception, Part IIIb