The World of Grandpa Don

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The Immaculate Conception

Mary, the "Mother of God"

As I write this on the feast of The Immaculate Conception during the season of Advent, I was prompted to reflect on my previous thoughts about Heroes. Many non-Catholics question the devotion we have to Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and it occurs to me that maybe we should give this mostly Catholic practice some thought. Sometimes we simply go along with the crowd in our religious practices without giving thought to the theology of it.

As Catholics (and Christians) we believe that Jesus is our Divine Savior, that He was born as a child to become the man who then died for us. Being a man, he was born of a woman and we believe that she was a virgin, fathered by the power of the Holy Spirit. This places the His mother in a very unique position, since Jesus is Divine. She is recognized as the Mother of God. 

No, we do not say or think that God did not exist before Mary or even that the Son of God did not exist before her. We know that the Son of God was "eternally begotten by the Father". Before the universe was created, He was. But Jesus is God. Mary is the Mother of Jesus. So, ... Mary is the Mother of God.

And so, Mary is a very special and unique person. As a young woman she was visited by an Angel and told that she had been chosen to be the Mother of the Savior of mankind. She accepted the words of the Angel even though it would be a tough sell, not only to Joseph to whom she was engaged, but to family and friends. She was in deed, an exceptional person to do this. 

It is also part of our tradition that it would be unthinkable for Jesus, God, to be tainted by sin of any kind. And so, we reason that his mother must not have been tainted by the Original sin of Adam and Eve as is the rest of mortal mankind. As a result we maintain that Mary was conceived free of original sin in anticipation of her future role as Mother of God. And so, ... Mary caries the name of "The Immaculate Conception". 

It is fitting that we celebrate this feast in anticipation of the birth of Christ because it, in a way, makes His birth possible.* We honor Mary as Mother of God and we honor her also as the first Christian. She accepted Him before he was born. She accepted Him in spite of the problems she knew were to come. You may say that Mary was not only the first follower of Christ but a hero in the true sense of the word. 

Also see "Heroes"

* It does not have anything to do with the Conception of Jesus as some have come to erroneously believe. A conception would not be "immaculate" because it is a virgin birth. Sex is not "dirty" and does not "dirty up" the participants by it's nature.

Don Plefka
12/08/03

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