Christ, the Son, did not come to existence at the moment of the Annunciation. He has been in existence with the Father ever since before the Creation (John 1:1-3; 17:5; Colossians 1:15-17; 1 Peter 1:20; cf. Proverbs 8:22). Therefore, the Son enjoys the coeternity with the Father (Isaiah 9:5-6; 57:15; 1 Timothy 1:17; Revelation 1:8) because he is consubstantial with Him (John 10:30, 38). During the 3rd century, the heresy of Arius made an argument in contrary to this truth, by insisting that Christ the Son was “created” by the Father, therefore, “less than” the Father. However, this Arian heresy was disputed and condemned at the Council of Nicea. Upon eliminating this heresy, the Council summed up the comprehensive Christian doctrine, integrating the Christology in Trinitarian context with ecclesiology.
In this Christological truth, as set in the Nicene
Creed, we acknowledge that Christ the Son was incarnated in the womb of Mary
the Blessed Virgin by the power of the Holy Spirit at the Annunciation (Luke
1:35), in the Trinitarian context.
The Creed states Christ the Son, as sent by the
Father, comes to us, incarnated in the womb of Mary, by the power of the Holy
Spirit, in order to save us as the suffering messianic servant, in fulfilling
the scriptures, by his death and resurrection. Then, he ascends into heaven to
sit on his heavenly throne at the right hand of the Father. In the fullness of
time, he will return to judge and redeem those who are worthy into his Kingdom.
For this to be consummated, it is absolutely necessary
that Christ the Son needs to be incarnated in the human flesh. However, the
problem is that the incarnated Son must be unblemished as he is the Lamb of God
who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29), to be the ultimate paschal sacrificial
lamb (Exodus 12:5), so that we may be delivered from the snare of sin, as the
Israelites were delivered from the slavery in Egypt through Passover. Because of the Original Sin, committed by
Adam and Eve, the human flesh has been stained with the Original Sin (St.
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, I,
II, q83). To solve this problem, God the Father predestined Mary to be
conceived in the womb of her mother, Anna, without any stain of the Original
Sin, thus, making her the Immaculate Conception, before the time. In 1854, Pope
Pius IX wrote:
From
the very beginning, and before time began, the eternal Father chose and
prepared for his only-begotten Son a Mother in whom the Son of God would become
incarnate and from whom, in the blessed fullness of time, he would be born into
this world. Above all creatures did God so loved her that truly in her was the
Father well pleased with singular delight. Therefore, far above all the angels
and all the saints so wondrously did God endow her with the abundance of all heavenly
gifts poured from the treasury of his divinity that this mother, ever
absolutely free of all stain of sin, all fair and perfect, would possess that
fullness of holy innocence and sanctity than which, under God, one cannot even
imagine anything greater, and which, outside of God, no mind can succeed in
comprehending fully.
And
indeed it was wholly fitting that so wonderful a mother should be ever
resplendent with the glory of most sublime holiness and so completely free from
all taint of original sin that she would triumph utterly over the ancient
serpent. To her did the Father will to give his only-begotten Son — the Son
whom, equal to the Father and begotten by him, the Father loves from his heart
— and to give this Son in such a way that he would be the one and the same
common Son of God the Father and of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It was she whom
the Son himself chose to make his Mother and it was from her that the Holy
Spirit willed and brought it about that he should be conceived and born from whom
he himself proceeds (Ineffabilis
Deus, 1-2).
This was, indeed, to fulfill the Father’s own prophesy against Satan, when Adam, Eve, and he were about to be evicted from Eden, as reflected in the First Reading (Genesis 3:9-15, 20):
I
will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers;
they will strike at your head, while you strike at their heel
(Genesis 3:15).
The Father may imply “the woman” directly to Eve.
Therefore, the woman’s offspring may indicate the humans in general. However,
given the predestination of Mary to be the mother of His Son before the age, as
Pope Pius IX describes, “the woman” can also be Mary as “the new Eve”. And
Jesus, the incarnated Christ, born of her, is the firstborn of her son (Luke
2:7). The rest of her offspring are us, as it was the incarnated Christ, Jesus,
her Son, who made us, the believer and follower of him, her children (John
1:27). And Satan will attack Mary’s offspring (striking their heel) (1 Peter 5:8–9;
Revelation 12:1-17; cf. Ezekiel 28:1-19). However, he will be destroyed (his
head being crushed)(Romans 16:20; Hebrews 2:14; Revelation 20:4-10).
For this grand salvific and redemptive scheme of God
the Father, His Son, is sent by Him, comes to us, incarnated in Mary’s womb,
born of her. And Mary being the Immaculate Conception is an absolutely
necessary condition, as well as, an integral component of this scheme.
In the Gospel Reading (Luke 1:26-38), we see God the
Father revealed what He had predestined Mary for, through Archangel Gabriel, to
her, in His greetings:
Hail,
favored one! The Lord is with you (Luke 1:28).
In Luke’s original Greek text, the verse is written
as:
χαῖρε,
κεχαριτωμένη, ὁ κύριος μετὰ σοῦ (Chaire, kecharitomene, ho kyrios meta sou).
To God the Father, Mary is the “favored one”, and it is χαῖρε, κεχαριτωμένη (chaire kecharitomene)
in the original Greek text of Luke. The word,” χαίρω”(chaire)
can be translated as a joyful greeting exclamation, “hail”, indicating being
favored, as this word share the same etymological roots with “χάρις”(charis), which means “favor” and “grace”(gift). The conjugated
word, “κεχαριτωμένη”(kecharitomene) is the perfect participle
of the verb from, “χαίρω”(chariot), a denominal verb form of the
noun, “χάρις”(charis)(grace). So, “κεχαριτωμένη”(kecharitomene) is translated as “full of
grace”, “highly favored one”, as well as, “grace being bestowed”. This has been
translated in Latin as “gratia plena”,
which literally means “full of grace”.
What is important is how we interpret “κεχαριτωμένη”(kecharitomene). Because it means “full of grace”, we can see God
the Father regards Mary as being free from any trace of the Original Sin. Being
“full of grace”(gratia plena), being bestowed with grace fully, there is no
space for any stain of the Original Sin to enter her. And this is because Mary
has been preserved from inheriting a stain of the Original Sin from her mother,
Anna, as God had predestined her to be the mother of His Son, Christ, to be
incarnated in her. So this is the essence of the Immaculate Conception, meaning
that Mary was conceived without any stain of the Original Sin, though the
humans inevitably inherit this form their parents through the flesh, as Paul
addressed (Romans 5:12-13), and as St. Thomas Aquinas points (Summa Theologiae, I, II, q83). However,
the good news is that grace from Christ can help us overcome this inherent
problem of the flesh (Romans 5:13-21; 2 Corinthians 12:6-10). And for Mary,
ever since the moment of her conception, she has been preserved from any stain
of the Original Sin, because she has been “full of grace”( “κεχαριτωμένη”(kecharitomene), being fully bestowed with grace, because she is the
Immaculate Conception (being conceived immaculately, without any inheritance of
Original Sin’s stain). So, she was made fitting to conceive the Son, and let
him incarnate with her “immaculate”, unblemished, human flesh, though being
virgin, because of the power of the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35).
In order to for a woman to conceive, she needs to be
inseminated by a man, during intercourse.
Conceiving is a carnal act. However, ever since Adam and Eve committed
the Original Sin (Genesis 3:1-13), the humans have lost the original purity and
innocence, as the stain has entered in the humanity through the flesh. And the
stain of the Original Sin has been passed on to us, from Adam and Eve, as we
have been conceived carnally through parents’ intercourse. But for Mary not
only to be conceived in the womb of her mother, Anna, but also to conceive her
Son, Christ, God assured that no trace of the Original Sin would enter the
incarnated Son. Therefore, not only that Mary is the Immaculate Conception but
also that she conceived the Son in incarnation as virgin, as it was made
possible by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Though Mary is the only human to be totally free from
any stain of the Original Sin, as she is the Immaculate Conception, we can also
strive toward redeeming the lost original purity and innocence. It is because
God has blessed us in Christ (Ephesians 1:3) and predestined us to be holy and
unblemished even before the Creation so that we may be adopted as God’s beloved
children, through him (Ephesians 1:4-5; cf. Galatians 4:4-7). But for this to
take place, Mary was predestined by God to be the Immaculate Conception in
order to let His Son be incarnated and to serve as his mother (Ineffabilis Deus, 1). Because our
salvation and redemption are only through Christ, incarnated and born of Mary,
the Blessed Virgin and the Immaculate Conception.
So we praise God for making it possible to be adopted
as God’s beloved children, having our lost innocence and purity redeemed
through the incarnated Christ (Ephesians 1:11-12). And, “Ave Maria, gratia plena”, for being the Immaculate Conception to be
the Theotokos, as God’s handmaid
(Luke 1:39). The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, therefore,
is an indispensable factor in God’s grand scheme of salvation and redemption of
the humanity.
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