He is Born!

He is born!, thanks to Mary's Immaculate Conception

The Church also presents Mary to us as “Model
Disciple” because she was totally open and
responsive to God’s word. It has been well said that
long before Mary conceived Jesus in her womb, she
had conceived him in her heart. Mary is Model
Disciple because she trusted God when it was not
easy to do so. When nearly all of Jesus’ disciples had
fled in fear, Mary remained faithful to him all the
way to Calvary.

The Immaculate Conception (C 490-94,
USC p. 143). The Catechism states: “The most
Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of
her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of
Almighty God, and by virtue of the merits of Jesus
Christ, Savior of the human race, preserved immune
from the stain of original sin” (491).

The above dogma of the Church was proclaimed by
Pope Pius IX in 1854. This doctrine declares that
Mary was, at the moment of her conception,
preserved free from original sin. As we pray on her
feast day, “Father, you let her share beforehand in the
salvation Christ would bring by his death and kept
her sinless from the first moment of her conception”.
The Catholic Church also believes that Mary due to
her total cooperation with God, remained free of all
personal sin during her life on earth.

The biblical support for this doctrine is found in the
angel Gabriel’s greeting to Mary: “Hail, full of
grace”. (Lk 1:28) Mary was not just graced like the
rest of us. She was “full of grace”, i.e. she was totally
free of sin and totally full of God. Her union with
God was never spoiled. The Church reasons that it
was only fitting that the one who housed the sinless
Savior of the world would, by the grace of God, be
free of all sin. “In preserving Mary from original sin,
God was choosing a perfect door for a perfect God to
enter an imperfect world.” (Peter Kreft)


As we reflect on the immaculate conception of Mary,
three other things need to be noted:
• Even though Mary was conceived free from
original sin, and even though she remained sinless
throughout her life, this does not mean that she had
no need for God’s saving grace. She did. The
Catechism states: “Through the centuries, the Church
has become ever more aware that Mary, ‘full of
grace’ through God, was redeemed from the first
moment of her conception” (491). We might say that
just as Jesus was conceived in a most unusual way,
Mary was saved from original sin in a most unusual
way.

• Even though Mary did not sin, she could have.
She could have said ‘no’ to the angel Gabriel and she
could have said ‘no’ to God in other ways.

• Even though Mary was conceived free from
original sin, she was not preserved from experiencing
the effects of original sin, namely, the experience of
suffering and death (followed by her assumption into
heaven), living in a world where there is evil and
temptation. Just as Jesus was tempted to do evil, we
can assume that Mary also experienced temptation.
We named above some examples of the sufferings of
Mary.

A striking confirmation of the doctrine of the
Immaculate Conception happened in 1858, four
years after the dogma was declared to be infallibly
true. It happened when Mary appeared to a young,
uneducated girl called Bernadette Soubirous in
Lourdes, France. When Bernadette asked the strange
lady her name, Mary responded, “I am the
Immaculate Conception”. Hundreds of medically
verified miracles and many other healings have
happened in Lourdes. The Church celebrates the
Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception on
December 8th.

Source: http://www.ascensioncatholic.net/catechism/catechism_10.pdf