Immaculate Conception

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 Yes, it's December 8th and we are celebrating one of the most misunderstood mysteries in the Catholic faith.  In 1854, Pope Pius IX used the authority of his seat as Vicar for Christ on earth to proclaim infallibly (NO ARGUING) that Jesus' mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, was conceived without original sin.  For some people, this teaching seems so far-fetched and yet, as Catholics, we are to necessarily believe it.  It's considered MANDATORY.  Now that shouldn't be an issue in our day and age.  Seeing as it was given in 1854, I would normally think that would be enough time to sink in; then again, not everyone believes that Jesus is the Son of God either.

People are not always aware that a teaching like the Immaculate Conception is not an old time teaching.  One might think that the early Church Fathers believed it and passed it down through the centuries.  Not so.  Even the most well known theologians (Aquinas, Augustine, Benedict, Dominic,..) didn't have this understanding or if they did, they never wrote about it.

The story is taken from a document named "the protoevagelion of St. James."  It's not a long document.  It was not made to be part of the Bible, but the story makes sense of it (at least in what it offers).  Joachim and Anne are the parents of this wondrous little girl.  It is revealed to them that their daughter was conceived without the stain of Adam and Eve because she was going to serve God with a higher purpose.  Her parents went on to teach Mary and raise her to remain faithful to such an amazing gift, even though they didn't know what the higher purpose was going to be.  And faithful she was.

The question came to me from a parishioner after one of the Masses today asking why, if we are celebrating Mary's conception, are we hearing the Gospel of Jesus' conception.  The first part of that answer is that there isn't a biblical foundation for the actual teaching; however, the second part is clever by the Church - you see, in order for Jesus to be born into humanity, he needed a human body to be generated.  That body couldn't have been just anyone.  God was going to be sure that there would be someone who was completely pure so that not only did she not have to experience the pangs of childbirth, but that the baby to be born was pure as can be too.  It needed to be this way.  We all want to be able to relate to Jesus as a human being and say that we cannot because we sin.  But Mary was born of TWO human beings so there had to be something extra-special about her that would set her apart while retaining her humanity.

I hope this clears things up a little bit.

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