Full of Grace - The Immaculate Conception
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Immaculate Conception
THE DOCTRINE
"In the Constitution Ineffabilis Deus of 8 December, 1854, Pius IX pronounced and defined that the Blessed Virgin Mary "in the first instance of her conception, by a singular privilege and grace granted by God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the human race, was preserved exempt from all stain of original sin." (CE)
On this page I have 3 biblical explanations of Mary as
"Full of Grace".
(1) And coming to her, he said, "Hail, Full of Grace! The Lord is with you." {Luke 1:28}, (DRB)
[the following is an excerpt from Karl Keating's bk. Catholicism and Fundamentalism; 1988 Ignatius Press.]
"This is the traditional rendering, based on the Latin Vulgate. The phrase "full of grace" is a translation, by way of the Latin, of the Greek kecharitomene. Theologically the word indicates a transformation of the subject ". The sense is not just "to look upon with favor, but to transform by this favor of grace." The newer translations leave out something the Greek conveys, something the older translation conveys, which is that this grace is at once permanent and of a singular kind. The Greek indicates a perfection of grace. The grace Mary enjoyed must not only have been as "full" or strong or complete as possible at any given time, but it must have been extended over the whole of her life, from conception. That is, she must have been in a state of sanctifying grace from the first moment of her existence to have been called "full of grace" or to have been filled with divine favor in a singular way. This is just what the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception holds: that Mary, "in the first instant of her conception was, by a singular grace and privilege of Almighty God in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, preserved exempt from all stain of original sin."
What about [Romans 3:23] "all have sinned"? Some people as a rule, think that it means more than that every one is subject to original sin. They think it means every one commits actual sins. They conclude it means Mary must have sinned during her life, and that certainly would speak against an Immaculate Conception. Is this analysis solid? Not really. Think about a child below the age of reason. By definition he can not sin., since sinning requires the ability to reason and the ability to intend to sin. If the child dies before ever committing an actual sin, because he is not mature enough to know what he is doing, what act of his brings him under their interpretation of [Romans 3:23]? None, of course. Paul's comment to the Christians in Rome thus would seem to have one of two meanings. Despite the phrasing, it might mean that it refers not to absolutely every one, but just to the mass of mankind, (which means young children and other special cases, such as Mary, would be excluded without having to be singled out). If not that, then it would mean that every one, without exception, is subject to original sin, which is true for a young child, for the unborn, even for Mary-but she, although due to be subject to it, was preserved from it's stain." [end from Karl Keating's bk.]
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(2) NOTE: Scripture writers express the idea of "very" or an (adjective) by repeating the word more than once. In all the attribute’s attributed to God the only one repeated 3 times is "Holy, Holy, Holy", for example; [Isaiah 6:3]. Because of the Lord’s Holiness no one could approach Him, not even His servant Moses. We see that even Moses wasn't pure enough to enter the "the tabernacle of the tent of meeting"; Exodus 40:35 "And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting, because the cloud abode upon it, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.".
We see the same idea throughout the Old Testament, that is, people were not able to approach the Lord’s Glory Cloud without dying. Even His consecrated priesthood.
Leviticus 16:2 "and the LORD said to Moses, "Tell Aaron your brother not to come at all times into the holy place within the veil, before the mercy seat which is upon the ark, lest he die; for I will appear in the cloud upon the mercy seat."
There are other examples from Scripture, but the above should suffice.
In [Exodus 40:34-35] "the cloud covered the tabernacle" the same verb is used in [Luke 1:35] "the power of the Most High will overshadow you;" (Dr. Scott Hahn).
Think about this; if the Blessed Mother was not free from all sin, if she was not completely filled with "sanctifying grace", "How many milliseconds would she last before she died when the "Glory cloud" descended upon her?'"
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(3) Genesis 3:14 "The LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, cursed are you above all cattle, and above all wild animals; upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. 15 I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel."
15 "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed;"
I would like to go over this verse from the Old Testament to show the sinlessness of Mary.
For those of you who haven't heard that this section of Scripture in called the Earliest Gospel (Proto-evangelium), quite plainly this was the first promise of God to send His Son to conquer evil. God talking to the Devil says; "he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel." Jesus will crush the head of the serpent while all Satan can do is strike at His heel.
But, I need to point out something else. Who is the "woman" in the verse? Now, many of you reading this know that God shifts from Eve - to the New Eve… Mary. But, there are some who don't know this, so I need to go over this idea.
God, of course, starts out talking to Eve, "Genesis 3:13 Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this that you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent beguiled me, and I ate."
Then He talks to the serpent.
But, then He makes a statement about the future and He refers to some other "woman". We know this because of the context of His statement, "I will put enmity between you and the woman". The word "enmity", in this case, means "complete repulsion".
enmity
deep-rooted hatred. "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, between thy
seed and her seed" (Gen. 3:15). The friendship of the world is "enmity with
God" (James 4:4; 1 John 2:15, 16). The "carnal mind" is "enmity against God"
(Rom. 8:7). By the abrogation of the Mosaic institutes the "enmity" between Jew
and Gentile is removed. They are reconciled, are "made one" (Eph. 2:15, 16)
Source: Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary
It would be like two positive ends of large magnets, no matter how hard you might try they will not go together… that is enmity.
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That is what God put between the "woman" and the serpent.
Now, we can plainly see that Eve did not have enmity with the serpent, she was 'beguiled' by him. "The serpent beguiled me, and I ate." That’s not enmity!
So, when God was speaking to the serpent and promising to put enmity between him and a "woman", what woman would that be? Are there any clues in the Scripture verses under discussion?
Yes!
15 "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed;"
God promises that the "seed" of the "woman" would conquer the serpent. We all know who conquers Satan… Jesus. So, the woman whom the seed=Jesus comes from is, of course, the Blessed Mother.
So, the woman that has "enmity" with Satan is the Blessed Mother! Remember the definition of the word enmity. There is absolutely no attraction between Satan and the woman, so Mary could never have sinned or there wouldn't be a complete repulsion between her and the Devil.
I want to make one more point about this verse.
15 "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed;"
The bible makes no distinction here between the enmity that Christ has toward Satan and the enmity of the woman and Satan! The enmity is shown as equal!
We know that there is no darkness or sin in Jesus. He has complete enmity with Satan. By the same token this verse suggests that Mary's enmity with Satan is equal to that of Christ's.
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