Immaculate Conception: What does it mean? (I)

The Immaculate Conception is one of the main reasons why some Protestants attack the Virgin Mary, i.e. they refuse to accept the fact that Our Lady was preserved from original sin. Those who contest this dogma imagine that they are targeting only Catholics, when in fact it is also an Orthodox belief, albeit under a slightly different name: The "All Pure."

Protestants should realize that the Immaculate Conception is in conformity with Scripture. Of course it was not Mary’s own doing! It was a gift of God. "The Mighty One has done great things for me," Mary proclaims in her song of praise, known as the ‘Magnificat’ (Luke 1:49).

How could God not have been able to do for Mary what He had done for Eve? For before original sin, Eve too was without original sin! Do we have the right to tell God what to do or not to do? God’s exceptional gift to the Virgin Mary is mentioned in Scripture on several occasions:

First, it was revealed by the Archangel Gabriel, who, when addressing Mary, said to her, "Hail Mary" or "Rejoice O Mary," because in Greek the greeting is rendered by the expression Kairé = rejoice. Gabriel then uses the word Kekaritomene, which means "who has been filled with grace." What did the Angel mean by that? There is no other occasion in the whole Bible where an angel of God greets a human being in this way. So did the Angel just mean to say that Mary was very lucky? Of course not! The Angel's words carry the full meaning of "filled with grace."

Adapted from an article by Hervé Marie Catta* 1,000 Questions

*Hervé Marie Catta (b. 1939) is the husband of Martine Laffitte Catta, the co-founder with Pierre Goursat of the Emmanuel Community. He is a true historical figure of the charismatic movement in France and witness to a great turning point in the history of the Church beginning in the USA in the 1970s.