Immaculate Conception: Part II
Pope Pius IX
Immaculate Conception
T HAT this original innocence of the august Virgin agrees perfectly with her admirable holiness and with her exalted dignity as Mother of God, the Catholic Church has never ceased, by many proofs and daily more and more by conspicuous acts, to explain, propose and cherish. In this, as in all things, the Church is taught by the Holy Spirit and is the pillar and foundation of truth, possessing as she does the divinely received doctrine, which is contained in the deposit of heavenly revelation.
This doctrine, which flourished from the most ancient times, and which was implanted deep in the minds of the faithful, and which was wonderfully propagated by the care and zeal of the holy Pontiffs, the Church herself has very clearly pointed out when she did not hesitate to propose the Conception of the Virgin for the public cult and veneration of the faithful. By this illustrious act she presented the Conception of the Virgin as singular, wonderful, vastly different in origin from the rest of men, and so to be venerated as entirely holy. For the Church celebrates feasts only of things that are holy.
It is for this reason, the very words by which the Sacred Scriptures speak of Uncreated Wisdom, and by which they represent His eternal origin, the Church has been accustomed to use not only in the ecclesiastical Offices but also in the Sacred Liturgy (the Eucharistic Sacrifice) , applying them to this Virgin’s origin. For her origin was pre-ordained by one and the same decree with the Incarnation of Divine Wisdom.
Vastly Different in Origin Than The Rest of Men
Although all of these things, received by the faithful almost everywhere, show with what zeal also the Roman Church, the mother and teacher of all churches, has promoted the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin, still the illustrious acts of the Roman Church evidently deserve to be reviewed singly, since the dignity and authority of this Church are as great as is her due, considering that she is the center of Catholic truth and unity, and that in her alone religion has been preserved inviolate, and that from her the other churches must receive the tradition of the faith.
The Roman Church, therefore, had nothing more at heart than to state, protect, promote and vindicate in the most eloquent ways the cult and doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin. This fact the many and truly illustrious acts of the Roman Pontiffs. Our predecessors, most clearly and evidently testify and proclaim.
Preserved From Every Stain of Sin
God so highly recommends to us to honor father and mother. He made it His duty to honor as much as possible the one who was to be His Mother. And what honor could be more reasonable, more fitting, more deserving for a Mother of God than that of being preserved from every stain of sin? It is such a calamity to be in the state of sin. For however short a time it may be. A great doctor of the Church once said that if these two graces were incompatible and Mary had been given the choice either of being preserved from Original Sin or of being the Mother of God and the Queen of heaven and earth with this stain, she would have chosen, without the least hesitation, to be freed from Original Sin.
The Immaculate Conception: Italian Painter: Guido Reni: 1627
Moreover, was it not proper that she be granted all the privileges accorded to the other creatures? But we know that the angels and the souls of Adam and Eve were created in the state of grace. Why deny this privilege to Mary, therefore, who was to be their Queen? God surely did not wish her to be inferior in any way!
Other Immaculate Conception articles: Immaculate Conception, Mary’s Model of Holiness
Part I of this article may be found here.
Moreover, was it not proper that she be granted all the privileges accorded to the other creatures? But we know that the angels and the souls of Adam and Eve were created in the state of grace. Why deny this privilege to Mary, therefore, who was to be their Queen? God surely did not wish her to be inferior in any way!
What wise man capable of choosing for himself a mother without blemish or reproach would not do everything in his power to make her so? Is it conceivable that God (Who is Wisdom Itself) should have permitted the Virgin of Virgins to be the abode of the infernal serpent before becoming the Temple of the Holy Spirit? . . . a daughter of perdition before becoming the Mother of God? . . . a slave of Satan before being the Queen of Angels . . . ?
Exception to the Rule
That is why when God decreed that all children of Adam should inherit the curse put upon their common father, He said to the Virgin Mary these words King Assuerus was to say later to his spouse Queen Esther (who was but a figure of the blessed Virgin) : “This law is not made for thee but for all others.‘” (Esther 15 :13) While God permitted the devil to become master of the soul of every new-born child, He was saying: “I shall place enmities between thee and the woman . . . she shall crush thy head!”
It is this exemption from Original Sin which the Catechism calls the mystery of the Immaculate Conception. This truth was proclaimed a dogma of faith by Pope Pius IX, in 1854. History records that at the very moment Pope Pius IX began reading the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, a ray of sunshine piercing the dark stormy clouds outside penetrated into St. Peter’s and enveloped the head of the Sovereign Pontiff in a halo of light – a delicate sign of Mary’s approval of the Holy Father’s action!
I Am The Immaculate Conception
Four years later, in 1858, the Blessed Virgin appeared to a little girl, Bernadette Soubirous; eighteen times did she appear to her and eighteen times was the child rapt in ecstacy. When asked, one day, to identify herself, the apparition did so by calling herself by a name that could only apply to the Blessed Virgin; she said simply : ”I am the Immaculate Conception.’
Let it be noted that this name had been up to that time unknown. It was a common thing to say that the Blessed Virgin was immaculate, without stain; but no one as yet had called Mary The Immaculate Conception. It is Mary herself who has told us of this name of hers. In confirming thereby the dogma proclaimed four years previously – another manifestation of Our Lady’s approbation of the proclamation made by Pius IX!
Pius IX and Mary
But this was not to be the last proof of Mary’s tender solicitude towards Pius IX. The year which followed the proclamation of the dogma, she protected him in a very evident way. It was the occasion of the frightful incident of March 12, 1859. The Holy Father had betaken himself to the Church of St. Agnes-outside-the walls, Rome, where with an imposing number of cardinals and prelates he was to assist at a religious ceremony and subsequently receive the homages of the members of the College of the Propaganda.
After the religious ceremony, the Holy Father and his numerous retinue assembled in the adjacent monastery, in a spacious hall decorated for the circumstance. Doubtless, as subsequent events were to prove, the floor joists of the old building were worm eaten for, at the moment when the formal presentations were about to begin a loud clacking sound was heard. Splitting down at the very center, the whole floor began to cave in. For a moment a dead silence prevented anyone from screaming and even from breathing. One voice only was heard, vibrant, suppliant: the voice of the Holy Father. Madonna immacolata! Holy Virgin Immaculate!
Our Lady’s Protecting Hand
At that split second the entire floor caved in and the Holy Father’s throne fell forward. Horrible confusion ensued, heightened by thick clouds of plaster dust. It gave the impression that all was lost; that the Holy Father was dead, that all had perished in the holocaust.
A few moments later, however, everyone recovers from the shock and the rescuing begins. The Holy Father is picked up safe and sound. He is neither hurt nor even scratched. His robes are not even torn. He is found praying and thanking God. He gazes on as from the debris around him are rescued. The Cardinal-Vicar, Cardinal Antonelli and many other cardinals and relates, none of whom had been hurt in the fall.
As for the one hundred and some odd students of the Propaganda, only two had been seriously injured. And they, because they had tried to save their lives by leading out of the windows. But there was no fatal accident.
Our Lady is visibly protecting the Holy Father, Pope Pius IX, and all those who accompanied him. In doing so, the Blessed Mother wished to show once again her protecting hand.
Prayer
O, Immaculate Virgin! I rejoice to see you enriched by such purity. I thank God for having preserved you from all stain of sin, particularly from Original Sin.
