Solemnity of The Immaculate Conception 12/8/2011

 This is a re-post of an old post I wrote on the eve of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, an often mis-understood concept, by Catholics and Protestants alike. The question I like to ask is:
"Why wouldn't you want the Mother of God to be born without the stain of original sin?" or "Why is it so important that you believe that the woman chosen by God to bring the savior to our world have original sin.?"
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I recently heard that a song I wrote called Joseph's Blues was played by the associate pastor of my old evangelical church as a part of his advent sermon. My song described Joseph's initial human reaction to Mary's pregnancy (before the angel spoke to him). So I went to the website of the church and listened to the podcast of the sermon (yes, I admit it stoked my ego a bit to hear my song played in front of my old congregation.) The pastor focused his message on the Virgin Birth but then touched on the Immaculate Conception. He said that Pope Pius IX in 1854 invented this doctrine and it had not been present in the first to fourth centuries of the early church. His implication was that Catholics make up new doctrines as they go along. (Which interestingly, is what I was incorrectly taught in my new found days after being born again)

I am posting this today to give a brief apologetic of this misunderstood aspect of Catholicism . When the pope defined the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception as dogma in 1854, he was not creating a new doctrine. As a matter of fact, in the very context of the pronouncement, Pope Pius IX explains carefully and repeatedly that this belief had been held by the early church fathers and was not a new and novel conception (no pun intended). So the doctrine was not new, but the dogmatization of it was. Before 1854, as a Catholic, you weren't bound to accept this doctrine, though the majority of the faithful did. After the dogma was pronounced, as a Catholic you were obligated to accept this ancient doctrine. The Church often dogmatized it's teachings as a way of clarification or to combat heterodox teaching. The Nicean Creed annunciating the doctrine of the Trinity, did not "make up the doctrine", but merely stated it as dogma to stem the rising tide of Arianism. To be a Catholic Christian in the early fourth century, you needed to adhere to the tenets of the creed, if you wanted to consider yourself part of the universal(Catholic) church.


David MacDonald gives a nice summary of this in his website Catholic Bridge:

"How come it took Catholics 1800 years to decide Mary was conceived without sin?
The Immaculate Conception was defined as a pious belief in 1453 and declared a doctrine by Pope Pius in 1854. But we must realize that the Church does not make something Dogma out of thin air. It is made Dogma after many centuries of careful considerations. For instance the Trinity took 300 years to turn into Dogma. The New Testament itself took 400 years. We Catholics are not in a rush to cement doctrine. We take our time.

This belief was a part of the early Church and has always been held as a pious belief by the faithful. We didn't just pull this stuff out of thin air. In fact Martin Luther, the father of the reform spoke about it 300 years before it became Dogma. The early Church father were talking about a millennium before that. Here is what some the greatest Christians were saying over 1600 years ago.

It becomes you to be mindful of us, as you stand near Him who granted you all graces, for you are the Mother of God and our Queen. Help us for the sake of the King, the Lord God Master Who was born of you. For this reason you are called 'full of Grace'..." (373 A.D., St. Athanasius)

Blessed Virgin, immaculate and pure you are the sinless Mother of your Son, the mighty Lord of the universe. You are holy and inviolate, the hope of the hopeless and sinful; we sing your praises. We praise you as full of every grace, for you bore the God-Man. We all venerate you; we invoke you and implore your aid...Holy and immaculate Virgin...be our intercessor and advocate at the hour of death and judgment...you are holy in the sight of God, to Whom be honor and glory, majesty, and power forever (373 A.D., St. Ephrem of Edessa)

You alone and your Mother are more beautiful than the others; for here is no blemish in you, nor any stains upon your Mother. (St. Ephraim, Nisibene Hymns, 27:8, 370 AD) "

So clearly before the end of the fourth century, the early church was describing their belief in the sinlessness of Mary, which the reformers held to as well (at least early on in their writings.)  If all believers of the first 1500 years of Christendom believed that Mary was conceived without original sin, why do some non-Catholics maintain a belief contrary to their own reformers and all those before them?