There is an ancient prayer of the Church known as “Alma Redemptoris Mater”. It goes like this:
Loving Mother of the Redeemer,
gate of heaven, star of the sea,
assist your people who have fallen yet strive to rise again.
To the wonderment of nature you bore your Creator,
yet remained a virgin as before.
You who received Gabriel’s joyful greeting,
have pity on us poor sinners.
The Church has always looked upon Mary as “Immaculate”, conceived without sin. The Immaculate Conception does not refer to her son Jesus, but to Mary, when she was conceived in her mother’s womb. Mary is fully human. We all know she is not a goddess. However, she was conceived without sin.
To fully understand this, we must know something about the thing Christians have always referred to as “Original Sin”.
Adam and Eve were conceived without sin. Adam and Eve, our first parents, lived in Paradise. They were friends with God, their Creator. They walked and talked with God and knew him face to face. Adam and Eve were to be eternal, like God. There was no Death in paradise! This is how humans were made, in the image of God, eternal. That was to be their inheritance to us. If Adam and Eve had not been disobedient to God, they would not have died, and all humans would have inherited eternal life. That was always God’s plan.
However, our first parents sinned in their disobedience to God. They broke their friendship with God. For that, God had to cast them out of Paradise. In fact, they exiled themselves, because enemies of God, those who choose not to obey Him, cannot live in Paradise with God. When they broke friendship with God, they lost eternal life with Him. THEY broke their relationship with God. That is their inheritance to us, a broken relationship with our Creator.
God didn’t stop loving them. They stopped loving God. That meant death for them, not immediately, but a limited life on Earth. Our first parents could not pass on to us eternal life because they lost it. You can’t give what you don’t have. Just like we inherit from them our human features of fingers and toes and hearts and minds, and eyes and ears, we inherited sin and death, our limited life span. By ourselves we cannot enter Paradise. This is Original Sin. And, so we live under the fear of Death.
God hasn’t stopped loving us. Instead, He promised from all time that he would restore us to Him. That is God’s plan. He knew He needed to come among us, as one like us, Immanuel, the Messiah, the Christ to show us the “Way” back to Him. That has always been His plan.
In preparation for our Redemption he needed a new “Eve”, a woman conceived without sin. The new Eve is Mary. Mary was conceived without sin, like Eve. But Eve was disobedient. There was never any separation between Mary and God.
When the Archangel Gabriel came to Mary to announce that she would bear the Son of God, Mary wasn’t raped or overwhelmed or forced. She was free. She was human, and “greatly troubled” at the announcement. The Archangel told her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.” The entire universe, all Creation waited for her response. She was free! She pondered in her heart, but she could never know what this meant. Finally, to the joy of all Creation, she told Gabriel, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” Thank you, Mary, for saying, “YES!”
Don’t be surprised at the Immaculate Conception of Mary. In our Rosary, in the Glorious Mysteries, we have always meditated on her Assumption into Heaven. Mary didn’t know Death. Mary didn’t know sin!
Don’t be surprised at the Immaculate Conception of Mary! That was always God’s plan for mankind to be restored to Him. We receive the same gift by our Baptism. By our Baptism, just like Mary, we are restored to life with God and our Original Sin is taken away! By our Baptism, through the Holy Spirit, we are allowed to join our Creator, and his Son Jesus Christ and his Mother, Mary in eternal life.
Mary wasn’t Baptized. Mary received the gift early, when she was conceived. In a mysterious manner, Mary’s Immaculate Conception is closely tied to our own Redemption through her Son, in the Holy Spirit, who overshadowed her when she said “Yes”.
Loving Mother of the Redeemer,
gate of heaven, star of the sea,
assist your people who have fallen yet strive to rise again.
To the wonderment of nature you bore your Creator,
yet remained a virgin as before.
You who received Gabriel’s joyful greeting,
have pity on us poor sinners.
Luke 1:26-38