Immaculate Conception, Redemption, and the Raising of Humanity

Detail, Francisco de Zurbarán, “The Immaculate Conception” (1628–1630)

Last week’s post was a bit meandering - to use my wife’s word. It was “my examinations, pondering, and struggles to understand” the mystery of the Immaculate Conception. It was myself working through the processes of my thought in hopes of understanding and giving greater praise to this remarkable mystery. That has continued through the week. Last week my primary concern was working out the proper place of the Immaculate Conception in relation to other mysteries of faith. This week I want to reflect on the Immaculate Conception in itself, and offer praise to our Lord and Lady in it.

I guess one place to begin is the question: Why should I believe this? Why should I believe that Mary, the holy Mother of God, was free of original sin (and, therefore, concupiscence) from the moment of her conception? Why should I believe that Mary was all-pure, all-holy, immaculate from the very first instant of her conception as opposed to some other later point of sanctification in the womb or after her birth? The answer, fundamentally, is because the Church dogmatically declared so. The assent of belief given to this mystery is, first and foremost, an exercise of the obedience of faith. Faith, however, is reasonable - it is never blind! - so we seek to understand what we believe; we seek the reason for its truth, its goodness, and its beauty. When we do this with the mystery of the Immaculate Conception, our belief unfolds and blooms into a bright, fragrant, multi-layered rose.

Faith seeking understanding

Our God is not the God of enough. He is the God of abundance (cf. Is 66:11) and lavishness (cf. Eph 1:7-8). God does not withhold Himself. He poured Himself to the last dregs on the Cross, set the entire world ablaze with the fire of His Spirit starting at Pentecost, and filled His mother to overflowing with grace. Our God is not the God of good enough.

This is important to understand because Jesus Christ is enough in Himself; He is sufficient and wholly satisfactory in Himself. In Jesus Christ all the demands of love and justice are met - and met in such a way that no one could complain against God for want of more. Jesus Christ is the God-man, wholly God and wholly man. He is the new Adam; He is the perfect man. As man He loves the Father perfectly. His will is in perfect union with the Father’s will from the moment of His conception to the moment of His ascension, and eternally in heaven - again, as man. He renders as man perfect justice to God and is the perfect Redeemer whose redemptive act is perfect. If He alone of all humanity were in the glory of heaven, He would have fulfilled in Himself what God made us for. It would have been enough. But our God is not the God of enough, and the reaction that should have been elicited from the last statement proves it.

If He alone of all humanity… if just Him… if all others were in hell and He was the sole human being who was in heaven… don’t such thoughts strike us as repulsive? Even if true, they are not the reality, precisely because God is love, abundant, and lavish. What would we think of God and His redemptive action if this were all? I wouldn’t think much. Perhaps I will be numbered with the reprobate, but all? What good is a redeemer to us if only the redeemer Himself enjoys redemption? No. We recognize the truth of the above because of who and how great Jesus is, but we also know it is not the reality because there are so many others in heaven with Him. His redemptive work is such that He has not only conquered sin and death for all and won freedom for all, but that many have been brought into that victory and freedom.

But what is the greatest redemption? Perfect redemption? It is redemption that consists not in having been pulled out of the mire of sin, but in having been persevered from ever being in the mire of sin in the first place. Such an application of redemption reveals a perfect Redeemer. This is precisely how redemption was applied to our Blessed Mother. This is the Immaculate Conception - that from the very first instant of her conception the Blessed Virgin Mary was preserved from original sin. From the very first moment of her life, the Blessed Virgin was never under the weight of sin, never under the power of Satan. Having been preserved from original sin, she did not suffer concupiscence, an inclination to evil. She enjoyed the right balance and order between her higher and lower faculties - her intellect and will ruling without tiring over her passions; her passions rightly oriented toward the good as their proper end. Like her Son, she did not once sin her entire life. Like her Son, she never once gave offense to the Holy Trinity. Why is this important? Because Jesus alone is enough, but God is the God of abundance. If Jesus alone were the sole human being who gave no offense whatsoever to God, it would be enough. And, yet, there is something disappointing about such a notion.

“Since all the blessed angels are innocent, will there be no innocent human soul in Heaven, except the soul of Christ?” (Bl. Duns Scotus; cf. Rosini, Mariology of Blessed John Duns Scouts, p. 80, n. 29*)

Such a question should strike to our depths. For even though Jesus Christ is true man, there is something other. He is God-become-man, Emmanuel; He is a human being, but not a human person. When we think of the angels and their innocence is it too much to hope for at least one human person who with Jesus Christ is wholly innocent and pleasing to the Holy Trinity? A human who is man-become-God rather than God-become-man? This person is Mary through the singular grace of the Immaculate Conception.

This is not mere intellectualism. It is too plumb the depths of the mystery of mediation and what is owed to the Most Holy Trinity. I’d like to let Bl. Scotus speak regarding this mystery:

“A most perfect mediator enjoys a most perfect act of mediation in regard to some person for whom he mediates… but in regard to no person did [Christ] exercise [mediation] more perfectly than in respect to Mary… this, however, would not have been the case, had He not preserved her from original sin.” (Ibid, n. 27)

Due to the perfect act of mediation, Mary was and remained innocent from the moment of her conception; again, never giving God offense. Not giving God offense is important. The Holy Trinity having been offended needs to be placated. On this Scotus says:

“No one supremely or most perfectly placates an offended person for any offense committed (against him), unless he can prevent that person from being offended… therefore, Christ would not have perfectly placated the Trinity for the sin contracted by the children of Adam, had He not prevented the Trinity from being offended by someone.” (Ibid, n. 26)

Christ, as true man, fulfills this requirement of someone (a human from Adam) not giving offense. But it is fitting that Jesus Christ as the perfect and one mediator between God and man would fulfill this perfect mediation through at least one human person not having ever given offense to the Holy Trinity and, as such, perfectly placating the Trinity. With all of this in mind, Fr. Rugero Rosini says regarding the absence of this mediation: “…even in Heaven something would have been lacking: Jesus would not have had another innocent soul on par with that of His own — the innocence of Mary would have been missing.” (Ibid) There really isn’t anything surprising about the wholly innocent humanity of Jesus for He is a divine person assuming humanity without change or diminishment - He become man in all things but sin. It is to be expected. A human, however, who was not also wholly God is another question entirely. This we would not expect and so reveals the power, the perfect mediation, and divinity of Jesus Christ.

In this we find cause for awe, amazement, wonder, joy, and praise. This is what we human beings are naturally inclined toward. We witness the skill, talent, and prowess of others far beyond our own capabilities and take joy in seeing such. All the more in the life of grace should this be elicited. Mary, wholly innocent, lives in the love and beauty of union with God far above all others (including the angels). In her, in her Immaculate Conception, we are dawn to praise and glorify the Lord in awe of such grace and wonder worked and lived in one of us. The whole, complete, entire innocence of Mary beginning with the Immaculate Conception gives glory, incomparably above all others, to her Son with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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*I rely a great deal on Fr. Rugero Rosini’s Mariology of Blessed John Duns Scotus. It is a magnificent introduction not only to Scotus’s Mariology in general, but Scotus’s argument and understanding of the Immaculate Conception in particular. Any mistakes above are a reflection on my own intellectual weakness and should not be seen as reflective of Rosini’s work.