Posted in Christianity

Recently I found out that some of my friends thought that the Immaculate Conception referred to Jesus.  So as a public service announcement, I thought I would blog about the topic of the Immaculate Conception a bit.

The phrase "Immaculate Conception" is talking about Mary, the Blessed Mother.  Mary was conceived without original sin, thus she was immaculately conceived.  Then God preserved her from sinning throughout her life.  Why? Go back to the Old Testament and read the specifications for the Ark of the Covenant.  If God would take that much care with the place where His Word was going to be, wouldn't He take just as much care with the place where the Word become Flesh would be?

Another thought is - if you could preserve your mother from original sin and from committing any sin, wouldn't you?  And at the end of her life, wouldn't you bring her body and soul to heaven right away if you could?  Thus we have the Assumption of Mary.

I'm sure you all think that, since I grew up Catholic, I've known this forever.  Actually, I specifically remember learning who the phrase "Immaculate Conception" referred to, and I still have the book I learned it from!  It's called Tests and Teasers from Reader's Digest.  I got it when I was about 10 years old.  Test # 86, called "The World's Cussedest Quiz" contains the relevant question, and I recall thinking, "Of course the Immaculate Conception means Jesus!" and then checking the answers.  Yes, I learned more about the Catholic faith from Reader's Digest than from my very lame CCD classes.  Moving on...

The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception was proclaimed in 1854, but that doesn't mean that people didn't believe it before that.  It's just that it was finally proclaimed as something that Catholics are supposed to believe to be Catholic.  Around the time that this issue was being discussed in Rome, a poor illiterate French girl began seeing apparitions of a lady in Lourdes, France.  Bernadette did not know who the lady was, but obeyed and asked the priest to have a chapel built there.  The priest told her to ask the lady who she was, and the reply Bernadette received was, "I am the Immaculate Conception."  These words had no meaning for Bernadette, but she relayed them to the priest and he told her that the words referred to the Blessed Mother.  He also then believed her story, knowing that she could not have known the phrase "Immaculate Conception."

Lourdes is probably the most famous of the Marian apparitions, and this seems as good a time as any to explain the Catholic view of apparitions.  No one is required to believe in them at all.  After extensive investigation, the most that will happen is that the apparition will be declared "worthy of belief."  That means that there are no doctrinal errors in the messages, and faithful Catholics can go ahead and believe it happened if they want.  The local bishop begins the investigation and makes his determination. 

And now is probably as good a time as any to explain that the supposed Medjugorje apparitions are unapproved and in my opinion, definitely NOT from heaven.  Unfortunately, some Catholic churches in the U.S. sponsor trips there.  One of my sisters went on a trip there a few years back and sent us some souvenirs.  A book on the "apparitions" was enclosed and I began reading it, only to be quite dismayed and put it down again.  We then decided to get rid of all the items from Medjugorje.  But now I've strayed pretty far from the topic of the Immaculate Conception, so I won't go into all that.  I hope I've cleared up some common "misconceptions"!