Is the Immaculate Conception just another example of Catholics exaggerating Maryβs role, putting her on par with Jesus?
From the outside, some might look at Catholic Marian doctrines this way: Jesus is a king, so Catholics make Mary a queen. Jesus ascended into heaven, so Catholics say Mary was assumed into heaven. Jesus was like us in all things but sin, so Catholics make up the Immaculate Conception to make Mary untouched by sin as well.
But the Immaculate Conception is actually all about Jesus. In fact, everything Catholics believe about Mary is there not to focus our attention solely on her, but to help us understand and love JesusΒ more.
This is especially the case with the Immaculate Conception. God didnβt make Mary βfull of graceβ for her own sake, but to prepare her for the child who would dwell in her womb. The doctrine helps us understand the mystery of her Son better. It points to how the child in her womb is not an ordinary human child, but the divine Son of God. And how fitting it is that the all-holy God would dwell within a woman who was a completely pure vessel β a spotless tabernacle, a holy temple for the divine presence she would carry in her womb!
But is there any Scriptural basis for this doctrine?
Where in the Bible?
Take a moment and imagine the quiet life of one young Jewish woman who from all outward appearances seems to be rather ordinary. She is a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, and she is probably in her early teen years. She lives in a small, insignificant village called Nazareth. Her name is Mary.
Suddenly, in the midst of her simple, routine life, an angel of the Lord appears to her and says, βHail, full of grace, the Lord is with you!β (Luke 1:28).
No angel had ever greeted anyone with such exalted language. Gabriel addresses Mary not by her personal name but with aΒ title, βfull of grace.β As St. John Paul II once commented, ββFull of graceβ is the name Mary possesses in the eyes of God.β1
Maryβs New Name
In Greek, the word commonly translated βfull of graceβ (kecharitomene) indicates that Mary alreadyΒ is filled with Godβs saving grace. Indeed, God has prepared her for this defining moment. Chosen from the beginning of time to be the mother of the Savior, Mary has been shaped by God to be a pure, spotless sanctuary in which his Son will dwell. The all-holy Son of God will enter the world through the womb of a woman who is βfull of grace.β
This Biblical revelation of Maryβs unique grace sheds important light on the doctrine of Maryβs Immaculate Conception, which the Church celebrates on December 8. According to this doctrine, Mary was conceived without original sin, full of grace, full of Godβs life dwelling in her.
While the word βfull of graceβ does not definitively proveΒ the Immaculate Conception (the word itself doesnβt mean, βyou who were conceivedΒ full of graceβ), it does tell us she already had a profound grace working in her before the angel Gabriel every appeared to her. The word could be translated, βyou who have been and continued to be graced.β
Mary Already Had Grace
Though some Bibles translate this word βfavored one,β it actually indicates much more than God looking with favor on Mary. In the only other instance when the New Testament uses this rare verb, it describes a profound interior transformation having taken place in peopleβs souls.
He destined us in love to be his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,Β to the praise of his glorious grace which he freely bestowed (echaritΕsen) on us in the Beloved.Β Β In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace which he lavished upon us (Eph 1:5β8).
Notice the impact on the Ephesian Christians being graced. They are described as having βredemptionβ and βforgiveness of their trespassesβ (1:6β7). Indeed, the verb is associated with the saving, transforming power of grace that makes Christians adopted children of God who are redeemed and forgiven of their sins.
By being called kecharitomene, Mary is being depicted as someone who has already experienced the same grace as the Christians in Ephesians 1:6 β someone who already has received forgiveness of sins and redemption and has become a child of God. Itβs no wonder one of the Mass readings for the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception is from this very passage in Ephesians 1!
Doesnβt Mary Need Salvation?
Still, some may wonder how Mary could be spared the effects of Original Sin. Isnβt she human? Doesnβt she need salvation like everyone else?.
Mary is completely dependent on Christβs work of salvation. But there are two ways one can be saved. One can be saved from a great disaster either by being rescued from it or by being prevented from falling into it in the first place. If my toddler who does not swim falls into the swimming pool, I can jump in to save her. But if I happened to notice her leaning over the pool and about to fall in, I could catch her just before she hit the water. In both cases, my daughter is saved by her father.
The same is true with how our Heavenly Father can save people from sin. He saves the rest of the human family after we have entered this world devoid of the life of God, wounded by Original Sin. But he could save an individual beforeΒ being wounded by sin, by filling them with his life from the moment of their conception, by creating them βfull of grace.β And thatβs what the Church throughout the centuries has seen in this woman from Nazareth β that she was, indeed, conceived βfull of graceβ to prepare her as the holy dwelling place for the Son of God.
This article is based on Edward Sriβs newest book covering every New Testament reference to Mary: Rethinking Mary in the New TestamentΒ (Ignatius Press/Augustine Institute)