Every mother wants her children to inherit or acquire all her good qualities. Hence, our Immaculate and holy Mother wants us to be her holy and pure children. The original sin from which Mary was preserved is the original sin from which we have been freed by Baptism. The grace of Christ that was hers from her conception is the same grace of Christ that is ours from our Baptism. Mary is significant for us because the central factors in her life are the central factors in our own lives. Perhaps the lesson is that, no matter in which direction we may be facing, we need Mary Immaculate in our lives in order to lead us to her Son and to remember who He is: the Lord of heaven and earth!
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Bishop Fulton Sheen on the Immaculate Conception: “Just suppose that you could have pre-existed your own mother, in much the same way that an artist pre-exists his painting. Furthermore, suppose that you had the infinite power to make your mother anything that you pleased, just as a great artist, like Raphael, has the power to realize his artistic ideas. Suppose you had this double power: what kind of mother would you have made for yourself?
Would you not have made her, so far as human beauty goes, the most beautiful woman in the world; and so far as beauty of the soul goes, one who would radiate every virtue, every manner of kindness and charity and loveliness; one who by the purity of her life and her mind and her heart would be an inspiration not only to you but even to everyone else, so that all would look up to her as the very incarnation of what is best in motherhood?
Do you think that the Lord, who not only pre-existed His own mother but who had the infinite power to make her just as He chose, would, in virtue of all the infinite delicacy of His spirit make her any less pure and loving and beautiful than you would have made your own mother?”
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The Immaculate Conception is a dogma based mainly on Christian tradition, Holy Scripture and theological reasoning. It was defined in 1854 by Pope Pius IX as a dogma of Faith. How might we define it? “From the first moment of her conception, Mary was preserved immune from original sin by the singular grace of God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, #491) This means that original sanctity, innocence, and justice were conferred upon her at her conception, and that she was exempted from all the evil effects of original sin, excluding sorrow, pain, disease, and death which are temporal penalties given to Adam.
