December 8th in the Roman Catholic Church is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, which honors Mary's preservation from original sin.
December 9th in the Eastern Orthodox Church is the Feast of The Conception of the Theotokos by Saint Anna, which honors Mary's conception.
These feasts remind us of Mary's singular privilege in being chosen to bear the Word of God made flesh, Jesus Christ.
The Church has always recognized the role of Mary in salvation.
St. Ireneaus, writing in the 2nd century, wrote that the “knot of Eve's disobedience was undone by Mary's obedience.”
St. Jerome, writing in the 4th century, wrote, “death through Eve, life through Mary!”
The Church officially proclaimed the doctrine that Mary is the Mother of God (Theotokos, God-Bearer) at the Council of Ephesus in 431 CE. But it is taught in the New Testament itself. The Child she was carrying in her womb was Jesus the Christ, the Eternal Word and Son of God, equal to the Father. Mary carried God in her womb.
The angel Gabriel, greets Mary: “Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women.” (Luke 1.28). Elizabeth, the Mother of John the Baptist, receives Mary for a visit, and exclaims, “Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb! And how have I deserved that the Mother of my Lord should come to me?” (Luke 1.42,43).
You can see that these verses form the basis of the Hail Mary. Also, note that the New Testament calls Mary the “Mother of the Lord.” The honor accorded to Mary goes back into the pages of the New Testament itself. The Church has always believed she is the Mother of God.
The Church has also always believed in Mary's purity. In the Eastern Church, she is known as Panagia, the All-Holy.
Some of the Early fathers taught Mary was all holy and without sin:
It becomes you to be mindful of us, as you stand near Him who granted you all graces, for you are the Mother of God and our Queen. Help us for the sake of the King, the Lord God Master Who was born of you. For this reason you are called 'full of Grace'..." (373 A.D., St. Athanasius)
Blessed Virgin, immaculate and pure you are the sinless Mother of your Son, the mighty Lord of the universe. You are holy and inviolate, the hope of the hopeless and sinful; we sing your praises. We praise you as full of every grace, for you bore the God-Man. We all venerate you; we invoke you and implore your aid...Holy and immaculate Virgin...be our intercessor and advocate at the hour of death and judgment...you are holy in the sight of God, to Whom be honor and glory, majesty, and power forever (373 A.D., St. Ephrem of Edessa)
You alone and your Mother are more beautiful than the others; for here is no blemish in you, nor any stains upon your Mother. (St. Ephraim, Nisibene Hymns, 27:8, 370)
Pope Pius IX formally proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in 1854:
We declare, pronounce and define that the doctrine which holds that the Blessed Virgin Mary, at the first instant of her conception, by a singular privilege and grace of the Omnipotent God, in virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of mankind, was preserved immaculate from all stain of original sin, has been revealed by God, and therefore should firmly and constantly be believed by all the faithful.
—Pope Pius IX, Ineffabilis Deus, December 8, 1854
The Eastern Church, having a different understanding of original sin, does not teach the Immaculate Conception, but nevertheless holds Mary to be without sin.
It is fitting that the Mother of our Lord and God would have no sin herself. It is by God's grace and design that Mary was preserved from sin.
It is important to remember that Mary's spotlessness is a gift of the God's grace. She is a human creature, who needed a Savior like the rest of us.
Father Sergius Bulgakov, perhaps the greatest Orthodox theologian of the last century wrote on Mary's sinlessness:
In its countless divine services dedicated to the Mother of God, the Holy Orthodox Church firmly and clearly teaches the absolute sinlessness of Mary in her birth, her holy childhood and adolescence, in the Annunciation, in the birth of her Son and throughout her entire life. We shall pause at only the most important dogmatic witnesses borrowed from the services of Theotokos feasts. As is evident from these witnesses, the Most Holy Virgin is called in her very birth "Holy of Holies," "living heaven," "temple of all kings and thrones," "sole immaculate one," "the true temple pure from infancy on," "hostile to the course of sin," etc. The question arises: is the idea of any sort of assault of sin, which even some fathers of the church, and with them other orthodox theologians, allow, compatible with this veneration? Obviously not. The Mother of God was sinless, not a single attack of sin approached her most pure soul, the bearer of perfect virginity. But in that case is she not made equal "to the one sinless" Lord Jesus? No, and therein is the whole point. Sinlessness belongs in a unique and exclusive sense to the Son of God conceived without seed from a virgin who had never known a man, in that He was a stranger not only to every personal sin but also to original sin. The latter had absolutely no power over the new Adam. ... It is quite the opposite in the case of the Most Pure and Immaculate One: in her, original sin preserved its entire power with all its fatal consequences--weakness and mortality of the body (for death is only the final revelation of this weakness). The Theotokos died a natural death in fulfilment of the natural law, which she bore in her human nature. Death was defeated only by the salvific power of Christ's resurrection and was ultimately annulled by it. The Lord Jesus is in this sense the Saviour for the entire human race, and in it of His mother as well.
- Sergius Bulgakov, in The Burning Bush: On the Orthodox Veneration of the Mother of God
Bulgakov teaches us that Mary is sinless, but that her sinlessness is of her Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. It is he who salvation for Mary, and for all of us.
Today, let us honor the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Immaculate Mother of God.
Thanks for a great article! I linked back to it in my post today.
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