Immaculate Conception Displaced
Immaculate Conception Displaced
There is something particularly special about the Marian feasts throughout the year. In a unique way they illumine the great mystery of Jesus Christ and God’s plan for all humanity. It is Jesus Christ, Himself, who stands at the point of intersection between God and man - the perfect man, who being God, makes men perfect as the Father is perfect. Nearest Him is His mother; and she far above all others has received a privileged and singular grace that uniquely situates her at the point of intersection with her Son. This was fitting and due to her election by God to be His mother.
While I always look forward to each Marian feast, I sometimes am confused as to the praise to offer on the Immaculate Conception. I used to not have such confusion, but, as I learn more about the mysteries of faith concerning the Virgin, I realized my previous understanding as not quite right or not rightly placed. My understanding of the Immaculate Conception in relation to Mary, Jesus, and God’s plan was displaced, and I find that I am not unique in this regard. I want to rightly understand this mystery so as to give greater and right praise on its celebration. What follows are my examinations, pondering, and struggles to understand, in hopes that it may lead to a greater celebration of the Immaculate Conception in my own life and (if God so wills) in others’.
Confusion
The Immaculate Conception was necessary due to the Western Augustinian understanding of original sin. No it was not. The Immaculate Conception was rejected by a great many Church Fathers and Doctors including St. Bernard of Clairvaux, St. Bonaventure, and St. Thomas Aquinas. It was not until after Bl. John Duns Scotus that the Immaculate Conception began to have widespread affirmation in academic circles. Scotus’s own argument did not argue necessity, but fittingness.
The idea that it is due to a Western understanding of original sin as opposed to an Eastern understanding of original or ancestral sin has led to the idea that it does not fit with Eastern theological thought. However, as indicated above, it had largely been rejected by fathers and doctors of the West so this simply is not so. There is nothing in Western thought that necessitates that Mary be immaculately conceived. As such, the question in dialogue with the various Orthodox and Oriental Churches may be better suited to fittingness just as was so in the West.
Because Mary was conceived without original sin, she would not suffer the effects of original sin. It is because she was immaculately conceived that she did not suffer in child birth and that she did not suffer death. This assertion is also incorrect. First, Mary did not suffer in child birth, but this was due to her perpetual virginity, not the Immaculate Conception. Second, Mary did suffer physical death - the separation of body and soul - but not bodily corruption in the grave. (For more on this being a teaching of the Church see my previous writing on this topic at Wordpress: The Death of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Sacred Tradition.)
Displacement
This last bit of confusion points to the the dogma of the Immaculate Conception having become (today) displaced in relation to the other dogmas and doctrines concerning Mary. Regarding Marian theology, we live in a time quite distinct from most of the Church’s history. We live in an ecclesiastical world after the dogmatic declaration of Mary’s Immaculate Conception by Pope St. Pius IX in 1854. Understandably this has had a profound affect on the common Catholic mind as opposed to the way Catholics would have generally understood the Church’s teaching on Mary.
Today when we speak of Mary’s purity, the primary dogma referred to (understandably) is the Immaculate Conception. She was conceived without the stain of original sin and, therefore, is all-pure and immaculate in the entirety of her being. However, Mary’s purity was held universally throughout the Church’s history in both East and West, including by fathers and doctors of the Church who denied that she was immaculately conceived. On what did their opinion rest if not the Immaculate Conception? The two poles of Marian teaching are the dogmas of her divine maternity and her perpetual virginity. It was the grace of her being mother and virgin that was the bedrock of affirming her being all-pure and immaculate, not the Immaculate Conception. The Immaculate Conception certainly develops and magnifies this mystery all the more, but it is not the foundation of its articulation. In our day, it is becoming so, and one must wonder what effect this change has on a right and deep understanding of the mystery of Mary. For as the light and beauty of the great mystery of the Immaculate Conception has entered ever more into the Catholic mind, the light and beauty of the great mystery of her perpetual virginity is being reduced to a mere sexual understanding in the Catholic mind. Such an understanding of the perpetual virginity of the Holy Mother of God is horribly impoverished.
The same shift has happened regarding her incorruptibility in the tomb and her bodily assumption into heaven. As stated above, the mystery of her giving birth without pain and of her incorruptibility in the tomb do not rest on the Immaculate Conception, nor do they necessarily follow from it. For instance, Bl. John Duns Scotus, the great champion of the Immaculate Conception, was emphatic concerning the fact that she did physically die prior to her soul being reunited with her body, her being risen from the dead, and subsequently assumed into heaven.
In all this, we see a displacement in the relationship between the dogma of Immaculate Conception and the Church’s teaching on Mary - or, put another way, a displacement of the dogma’s position in the hierarchy of truths.
Resolving the Displacement
The Marian dogmas and doctrines of Catholic faith magnify the Lord, just as Mary’s soul magnifies the Lord. The key to understanding the mysteries of Mary lie in understanding her in relation to the mysteries of Christ, rather than in the Marian dogmas themself. For it is Jesus Christ, the Alpha and Omega, who is the First Principle of theology - the person Jesus Christ, not truths about Jesus Christ. Therefore, in order to properly understand the Marian dogmas in relation to one another (not to mention in relation to the whole of the mysteries of faith), we must first understand the person of Mary in relation to her Son. It is Jesus Christ, Himself, who determines the proper understanding of the mysteries of Mary.
As the new Eve, Mary is inseparably united to her Son, the new Adam, and His work of salvation. This began prior to her divine motherhood. It began with her virginity. “Mary’s dignity is grounded more in relation to her Virginity than to her Maternity, since her Virginity forms the immediate disposition for her fullness of grace.” (Fr. Ruggero Rosini, Mariology of Blessed John Duns Scouts, p. 97 - commenting on St. Augustine’s treatment of Mary’s maternity and virginity) What is significant about Mary’s virginity is that it first begins with her. She chose of her own free will to remain a virgin, consecrating herself to God. She made this decision and commitment prior to her divine motherhood (as indicated by her question to the angel). Her virginity in conceiving and her virginity in giving birth (hence, painless) was God’s preservation of what Mary had already vowed in relation to Him.
Mary’s incorruptibility in the tomb follows the witness of her incorruptible maternity - a maternity first of her heart and soul, and then the body. The incorrupt body of the holy dormition and assumption was a participation - above all others - in the Cross and Burial of her Son. She died with Christ, she was buried with Christ, remained incorrupt in Christ, and was risen and assumed in Christ.
The place of the Immaculate Conception in this is found in the reason for it.
Why the Immaculate Conception
“One should attribute to her [Mary] whatever is objectively most excellent, provided that it be not contrary to the authority of the Church and of Scripture.” (Bl. John Duns Scouts; cf. Rosini, p. 73)
In the Immaculate Conception it is Jesus Christ who is glorified above all else. For it is Jesus Christ who redeemed His mother through her preservation from sin. This singular grace was given to Mary not because it was needed for her divine maternity or perpetual virginity. It was given to Mary because it reveals Jesus Christ as perfect Redeemer. In Mary’s conception we see the perfection of redemption. In this mystery, it is fitting that the one who was most intimately joined in the redemptive work of her Son - the woman standing at the Cross, whose heart was pierced by a sword - would receive the perfection of redemptive grace, never being under the weight of sin by the saving action of her Son. The mystery of the Immaculate Conception, therefore, emphasizes all the more the fullness of Mary’s participation in the saving work of Jesus Christ. This participation in Christ’s saving work is something we are all called to, but none other than Mary will enter into its fullness as none other than Mary have received its perfection.
The solemnity of the Immaculate Conception being celebrated in the context of Advent is most fitting. It points us to our redemption in Christ as we run forth to meet Him in His eschatological return. It calls us to strive for purity of heart where He may be conceived by the Holy Spirit in us; so that, as we prepare to celebrate His birth from the womb of Mary, we may give birth to Him in our lives from our hearts.