Yesterday was the Feast of the Immaculate Conception as celebrated in the Roman Catholic Church. I looked for a picture that would illustrate the Immaculate Conception, but what I found were paintings that show Mary in glory like the Murillo above. Now that I think about it, there is really no way to illustrate the Immaculate Conception. What was I thinking?
Elizabeth Kaeton wrote a post at Telling Secrets titled Dirty Mary. Elizabeth's post was, in many ways, a trip down memory lane for me, although I am her elder by years. Back in her day and my day in our Roman Catholic schools, the practices did not change much from decade to decade, thus we share a good many experiences.
We learned early that the Immaculate Conception was definitely not to be identified with the Virgin Birth of Jesus, although, even today, many folks confuse the two. The Immaculate Conception meant Mary was conceived free of original sin, unlike the rest of us who are born prone to sin. Even as a child I thought it rather unfair of God to burden an innocent infant with original sin because of Adam's disobedience.
For several years of those teachings, I had no idea what conception meant, nor what virgin meant beyond, 'How can this be? I know not man.' We'd have had to have been taught a bit of sex education in a Roman Catholic elementary school to understand the words back in the 1940s. Imagine! I don't remember being particularly curious about what the words meant, which seems odd to me now, because I was a curious child. I learned the teachings by rote from the Q&A format in the Baltimore Catechism, and gave the answers back to the teachers on tests without much thought except to get the answers right.
For centuries, there was controversy about the concept of the Immaculate Conception. Bonaventure, Thomas Aquinas, and Bernard of Clairvaux all had difficulties with the doctrine.
Bernard would seem to have been speaking of conception in the active sense of the mother's cooperation, for in his argument he says: "How can there be absence of sin where there is concupiscence (libido)?" and stronger expressions follow, showing that he is speaking of the mother and not of the child....Pope Pius IX defined the Immaculate Conception as a dogma of the Roman Catholic Church on December 8, 1854
Although I no longer celebrate the feast of the Immaculate Conception, I honor Mary as a strong and brave woman, a woman who is a model for us all of saying 'Yes' to God, even in the face of grave consequences. I continue to pray to Mary to intercede with her son on our behalf.
And the child’s father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, ‘This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul too.’Image from the Web Gallery of Art.
Luke 2:33-35
Yes, Mimi, in hindsight those were not really the "good old days." You. Elizabeth and I share the same RC background complete with all those memories.
ReplyDeleteThose days were and they weren't the good old days. I was fortunate to have mostly kind and smart nuns teaching me, and I have no horror stories to tell beyond some of the silly things we were taught. My home life was in turmoil, so school was a haven of stability and peace for me, for which I'm quite grateful.
ReplyDeleteHow is your experiment working? Email me if you like.
There's something deeply (bizarrely) "Star Trek" about the RC dogma of the Immaculate Conception.
ReplyDeleteYou sci fi geeks know what I mean: throughout the various permutations of Star Trek, they were always, in the "present" of the show, tripping on back to the PAST, to fix something that would then affect their present---and future---etc, etc, etc. It might be FUN, in the context of a given episode/movie...but if you thought about it, it ALWAYS gave you a headache!
So the dogma goes like this. Around 33AD, Jesus dies on the cross---overcoming (once and for all) Original Sin. But by virtue of that triumph, its merits are now [Set warp-drives for time-travel!] RETROJECTED 45-50 years back in time, to Mary's conception (in "Anne's" womb), to preserve her from Original Sin! So now Jesus can be conceived in an immaculate womb, and grow up to be crucified, and retroject that that merit...
{pause}
...and then "the faithful" are supposed to Smile&Nod. "Hey, all things are possible w/ God" y'know!
Possible? Yes.
Logical?
I think Mr Spock might have something to say about this one... O_o
JCF, there is a distinct odor of Star Trek.
ReplyDeletePossible? Yes.
Logical?
Necessary? I think not.
JCF - I had never made the Star Trek connection, but I totally get it now. Makes me giggle.
ReplyDeleteWV: CREWELL. Yeppa
I guess I'm not really immaculate enough to understand the point of the Immaculate Conception.
ReplyDeleteWe had the double whammy in Panamá 'cuz it was la Fiesta de Immaculada Concepción AND Día de las Madres (porque la Bendita Virgen es la Madre de todos).
ReplyDeleteCathy, I believe part of the problem was that if Mary was conceived with original sin, she may have passed the sin on to Jesus.
ReplyDeleteAll the rest of us are/were believed to have been conceived in concupiscence (libido).
You may not have been curious about what "virgin birth" meant, but at when I was 7 I managed to completely mortify my poor mother during the Christmas Eve service at Christ Church, Dover, Delaware by crying out "Mother! Mother! What's the virgin's womb?" while the congregation was singing "O Come All Ye Faithful."
ReplyDeleteBesides, technically the doctrine is that the act of giving birth (not the act of conception) did not result in a loss of virginity. That's an antiquated definition of virginity (the presence of a hymen) with which I am not at all comfortable.
Padre, la día en Panamá sounds more like a triple whammy to me.
ReplyDeletePaul Powers, it's a wonder your sort of questioning does not happen more often.
When theologians start digging deep into the intricacies of what most believers see as miracle, mystery, or myth, they tend to come up with foolishness, like the intact hymen...or transubstantiation.
I think that the RC dogma of "the Immaculate Conception" is a throwback to the time, early in the life of the Church where the Virgin Mary was being considered for a place in the Trinity. If that were to be the case, she would, of course, have to have been free of original sin. She narrowly missed out to the Holy Ghost, which always reminds me of that old limerick (works in French as well as in English):
ReplyDeleteThere was a young man of Dijon,
Who had very little religion.
He said, "As for me,
I detest all the three:
The Father, the Son, and the Pigeon."
In St. Joseph's Seminary, Dunwoodie, in Yonkers New York, there was a mural behind the high altar in the chapel depicting the Assumption. Mary was quite buxom in the picture, and it was fondly nicknamed, "I went to heaven in my Maidenform bra." (harking back to those ads from the 59's and 60's.) Seminarians are, as a whole, somewhat irreverent. Another mural depicted St. Joseph on his deathbed, and the way Joseph was depicted moved us to title that mural, "The Death of Gabby Hayes".
I suppose the fundamental question I have is this: if Joachim and Anna (God's Grannie and Grandpa) conceived Mary immaculately, what does this say about the state of sin in which Anna subsisted?
I, like you, no longer believe in the Immaculate Conception. But that doesn't mean that Mary takes a side seat at the events of Jesus's life.
These so called dogmas will twist anyone's brain.
ReplyDeleteif Joachim and Anna (God's Grannie and Grandpa) conceived Mary immaculately, what does this say about the state of sin in which Anna subsisted?
ReplyDeleteChris, that way lies madness.
There's still a movement going to declare Mary co-Redemptrix with Jesus.
whiteycat, that way lies madness.
Mimi, I was jokin' :) You took me literally. I understand why people think the Immaculate Conception was necessary. I just don't agree.
ReplyDeleteCathy, only half-serious. ;-) I don't agree either.
ReplyDelete