Hope in the Immaculate Conception

Thou art all fair, O my love,
there is not a spot in thee.
- Song of Songs 4:7

Today Catholics celebrate the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary. Pope Pius IX in 1854 pronounced and defined in church canonical law what had long been believed: The Blessed Virgin Mary "in the first instance of her conception, by a singular privilege and grace granted by God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the human race was preserved exempt from all stain of original sin."

What does all that mean? I won't go into details, but the belief that Mary was conceived without sin has been tripping up Protestants for years. (Click this link if you are interested in learning more.) To think of her as clean from the stain of original sin seems to put her in too much competition with the uniqueness of Jesus. I get that, but this particular bit of Catholic theology resonates in my little American, orginialy Protestant soul.

I've written before about my love for Mary, the Mother of God. She inspires me and instructs me by her life and choices. This belief - that Mary was immaculately conceived - is close to my heart. Do I believe it without question? No. I'm still too "protesting" for that. But here is what I love about this theology and why I think it's worth a celebration: Mary is like a window wiped clean by the saving power of her Son so that it is His Glory, His Merit - not hers - that shines through without any distortion. Mary is not the source of the Light; she is simply the window - i.e. her human flesh - by which His Light shone into the world.

This Advent, I have been meditating on hope. My first sense of hope is that it is like dreams or wishes - something that we want but aren't sure we will get. We can work for our dreams and hopes but we have no guarantee that they will materialize. Biblical hope is not like that. Biblical hope begins with a promise and is sustained by the sure expectation of its fulfillment. With Biblical hope, we hope for what we cannot see. We do not hope for what may be. Biblical hope says that it will happen. It is not a question of if but when. That is the hope of the Prophets.

So I asked myself, "What do I hope for? What seems impossible to me right now but has been promised by God? What is the "when" not the "if" in my life with God?" My answer? That I am being changed from one degree of glory to another. (2 Corinthians 3:18) That in my inner being, I have been rescued completely - no brokenness, no stain, no shortcomings, no hurts. (Romans 8:1-4) That I have within me the seed of complete redemption. More than that, the seed has sprouted and is growing roots and twining leaves, moving out from my soul into the outer reaches of my being. And that one day, this seed will flower completely and eternally. I will be resurrected in body and spirit - someone who as C.S. Lewis described will be a creature which if you saw me unveiled now, "you would be strongly tempted to worship." (Weight of Glory)

Mary in her Immaculate Conception is a foretaste of this. She is the new Eve - fully human but no sin. By that, I don't think of Mary as being simply good and knowing how to "just say no" to conniving animals offering luscious fruit. Rather, she is able to experience daily, face-to-face communion with God. She has no self-consciousness about her vulnerability or "nakedness." She has no reason to hide. The fact that she is weak and human is a gift rather than a liability to be overcome, by having her eyes opened and seeing as God does, knowing good and evil. (Genesis 3: 4-5) She has no desire to be like God. She is content to be a creature with Her Creator and simply walk with Him in a glorious garden at the cool of day.

In short, Mary knows who she is. She has no illusions of grandeur. She is in right relationship with God. Today I celebrate her as a picture of who I am when Christ dwells in me. Her "yes" to God being conceived within her was a salvation explosion that blew up any time line - reaching into the past to her own conception, stretching itself out beyond eternity.

Holy, Beautiful Jesus. Be conceived in us. Grow strong and lovely. Rescue us completely by your Presence within us, and be born into our world - full of grace and power.