Christmas and the Immaculate Conception
Mary's singular grace is commemorated in gold
+ Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney
19 Dec 2004
On next Saturday we shall celebrate Christmas Day, our most popular festival. All main-line Christians unite in believing this commemorates the birth of the Son of God, asserting that Jesus is divine as well as human, having a human mother, Mary, but only God, and no man as his father.
Therefore Christmas is the feast of the Virgin Birth. But it is not the Catholic feast of the Immaculate Conception.
If you are unsure of the difference between the Virgin Birth and the Immaculate Conception, you are in good company.
Recently a senior Federal minister confused the two and earlier in the 20th century two well known writers (and anti-Catholics) H.G. Wells and George Bernard Shaw made the same error.
Only this month a non-Catholic woman asked a priest friend of mine how the Catholic Church could celebrate Christ's conception on December 8th and his birth on December 25th! This was one miracle too many.
Both the words "immaculate" and "conception" are long, unusual and difficult. Catholics too can be tempted to put them into the "too mysterious" basket.
The Catholic doctrine of the Immaculate Conception was only defined by Pope Pius IX in Rome on December 8th, 1854, after 110 bishops from around the world, including the first archbishop of Sydney, J.B. Polding had debated the issue.
Although rooted in Scripture, especially the first chapters of Luke's gospel, this teaching that Mary was born without any sin at all had been opposed by some great Catholic writers. It only slowly won majority support.
This doctrine teaches that Mary was always in a spiritual sense totally beautiful and perfect, full of innocence and holiness. She was worthy to be the mother of the Messiah, of the Son of God. It does not mean that she was virginally conceived. She was conceived and born normally.
Catholics believe that all humans, except Mary, are born with original sin; basically good, but with an internal flaw, an inclination to evil. The natural self-centredness of children is an early example of this and our human history of wars, strife and oppression is a stronger example.
Some reject original sin, speaking of "original blessing", denying that every human heart is imperfect, and finding evil in society's structures. They talk as though everyone is immaculately conceived!
Mary's Immaculate Conception is a singular grace and privilege from God, made possible by the merits of Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. Orthodox Christians also regard Mary as the all holy one, "Panagia", free from any stain of sin. No man is accorded such an honour.
Interesting historical details are that the 300 medals struck by Pope Pius IX to commemorate this declaration were made of gold from the Victorian gold fields donated by Archbishop Goold of Melbourne.
It is also a fact that St Mary's Cathedral in Sydney is dedicated to Mary Immaculate, Help of Christians.
