The Immaculate Conception 

   Today we celebrate the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  In 1854, Pope Pius IX declared the dogma of the immaculate conception – the truth that Mary, through a special grace, was preserved free from original sin from the moment of her conception, hence the greeting of the archangel Gabriel, “Hail, full of grace!  The Lord is with you.” (Luke 1: 28).

   This was not a new idea or something that the Pope had just come up with.  It had been a belief among the early Church Fathers and a widely accepted truth for over 1800 years.  Pope Pius simply formalized the teaching as dogma, which all Catholics are to believe and accept as truth.

   We hear the argument that this isn’t possible.  All humans are subject to original sin, Mary must have been as well.  But the grace of God knows no time limits, all is as now.  Therefore, by a special grace the Blessed Mother was, through the grace of the Son she was to bear, saved from original sin.  How else could she become the mother of God?  Could Jesus, God Himself, have come to us by the womb of a sinful mother?  No.  So Mary was prepared to provide the pure womb which would bear her own Savior.

   People also argue that there has never been anyone who did not have original sin, so it’s not logical to expect Mary to be the first and only.  But that isn’t quite the whole story.  Adam and Eve were created without sin.  Until the fall, they were both sinless, as man was created to be.  Original sin came with the fall from grace in the Garden.  Just as Eve was created without sin, so was the second Eve, Mary, the Mother of God.

   For those who would ask, no this does not mean that Catholics worship Mary or consider her divine.  Such belief would be heretical and wrong.  It means that we recognize Mary’s special place in God’s salvation plan and that she deserves praise and honor as the woman who bore the Savior of the world, our Lord, Jesus Christ.