The Implication of the Immaculate Conception of Mary In a World Enslaved by Sin

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INTRODUCTION:

The fall of man has left humanity in a pitiable state of fallen nature. The sinful nature of our world today is occasioned by the sin of our first parent Adam and Eve. This fall placed humanity and the world in a manacle of enslavement to sin, and from which she cannot save herself and remain incapable of doing so.  Hence, there is a need for a saviour/redeemer capable of doing so. The books of the Old Testament describe the history of salvation, by which the coming of Christ into the world was slowly prepared. The earliest documents, as they are read in the Church and are understood in the light of a further and full revelation, bring the figure of a woman, Mother of the Redeemer, into a gradually clearer light.

Considered in this light, she is already prophetically foreshadowed in the promise of victory over the serpent which was given to our first parents after their fall into sin (cf. Gen 3:15).

The mystery of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary lays the foundation for this redemption process of the world.

Mary received a unique role to play in the plan of salvation for human race. This is essentially the activity of the economy Trinity . More so, in the scriptures, there are traces of Mary’s unique role, which all humanity ought to recognize and uphold in all generations.

 

The fall of man: Root and Foundation for the enslavement of the world to sin:

The Fall of Man explains why sin and misery exist in the world today. Every act of violence, every illness, every tragedy that happens can be traced back to that fateful encounter between our first Parents and Satan; (cf. Gen. 3; Rom. 5:12-21; 1 Cor. 15:21-22, 45-47; 2 Cor. 11:3; 1 Tim 2:13-14).

After God created Adam and Eve, He placed them in a perfect home, the Garden of Eden and in the garden Adam was to eat of the fruits from all other trees except that placed at the middle and if he does eat from it, he will die.

Adam listened and passed on that warning to his wife. Then Satan entered the garden, disguised as a serpent. He did what he is still doing today. He lied to the woman “you will not surely die for God knows that when you eat of this tree your eyes will be opened, and you will be like Him, knowing good and evil” (Cf. Genesis 3:4-5). She then ate the fruit and gave some to her husband to eat thereby disobeying God. Scriptures says “the eyes of both of them were open” (cf. Gen. 3:4-5), they realized they were naked and made hasty coverings from fig leaves.

God then invoked curses on Satan, Eve, and Adam. God could have destroyed them, but out of His gracious love, He did not. But He did however, cast them out of the Garden of Eden, and from that time on, the Scripture recorded a sad history of humanity disobeying God. But God had put his plan of salvation in place before the foundation of the world. He responded to the fall of man with a Saviour and Redeemer, His Son Jesus Christ. But in Adam’s sin, humanity at large lost her original innocence. Thus, Adam and Eve’s disobedience to God were the first human sins. They forever ruined human nature, passing on the desire to sin to everyone born since then.

And so,  the nature of our world today is a world where men live, sleep and wake up in sin. A  world that is circularized by sin. A world that is in bondage, bound by literal chains, but enslaved by sin.

The process starts off subtly with a desire for something. We might give in a little, and the yearning starts growing stronger. At first, our conscience warns us, and we might confess the sin. But we give in again and begin to justify our actions. In time, if this cycle continues, the sting of conscience gradually weakens until we no longer feel it. At that point, we are enslaved.

 

The Immaculate Conception of Mary and viz-a-viz the redemption of man: 

In the dogma that Mary was conceived immaculate, the Catholic Church teaches that from the very moment of her conception, the Blessed Virgin Mary was free from all stain of original sin. This simply means that from the beginning, she was in a state of grace, sharing in God’s own life, and that she was free from the sinful inclinations which have beset human nature after the fall.

There are two passages in the Scripture which points us to this truth. We look first at Genesis 3:15 the ‘First Gospel’ (Proto-evangelium), in which we see the parallel between Mary and Eve: “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.” Now,  if there is to be a complete enmity between the woman and the serpent, then she never should have been in anyway a subject to it even briefly. We can also reason from the text of Lk 1:28, in which the Angel Gabriel calls her ‘Full of Grace’. For God’s grace is completely opposed to Satan’s reign. So if Mary was ‘Full of Grace’, it seems that she must have been conceived immaculate.

Consequently, understanding of the Immaculate Conception shows that God in his divine providence looked from eternity on Mary the humble virgin. Having prepared her by the Holy Spirit, he made her the dwelling place of His only-begotten in order to reconcile to its author, the human nature that has been subjected to eternal death through the fall of our first parent. From her (Mary), He was to receive the flesh of our mortality for the redemption of His people, while she would remain an immaculate virgin also after His birth.

In declaring Mary’s original ‘sinlessness’, the dogma celebrates God’s victory over the power and principalities of this world in the coming into existence of this woman, Mary. In her very being, through the gracious mercy of God, the grip of evil is broken. Grace was freely given to her from the first moment of her existence because she was destined to be the Mother of Jesus. This grace enabled her to live in constant union with God from the beginning. Her response in faith to God brought Christ into the world, and through Christ sin loses its power over the world…..

The symbol of original sin points to an unfaithful world we lived in today. The symbol of the Immaculate Conception shows that even the accumulated sinfulness of the world cannot overcome God’s desire to save humanity. It is therefore an eschatological symbol, a strong foundation for Christian hope, and powerful impetus to a Christian commitment to justice in a world of global violence and exploitation.

In a nutshell, Mary’s role in the salvific nature of mankind is a vocation which God gives her from all eternity. This vocation is mysterious in that it is solidly tied with the mystery of the fall of mankind, the promise of a Saviour, the actual coming of Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of the world and the mystery of the life, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. In it, we can understand the role of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Salvation of mankind only in the mystery of Christ, the Saviour of the world.

 

The Virgin Mary in the Scheme of Salvation:

Our Mother Mary role is so significant because God wants to defeat the devil by the same means with which the devil had conquered our first parent, Adam and Eve.

This divine plan has been expressed by St. John Chrysostom when he says;

Christ conquered the devil using the same means and the same weapon that the devil used to win. The symbols of our fall were a virgin, a tree and death. The virgin was Eve (for she had not yet known man); then there was a tree; and death was Adam’s penalty. And again these three token of our destruction, the virgin, the tree and death, became the tokens of our victory. Instead of eve, there was Mary; instead of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the cross of the Christ; and instead of Adam’s death, the death of Christ.

Adam, as head of the human family, was our representative before God. So only his disobedience became the original sin for mankind. Eve, however, was an accomplice in the wrong doing. She did not deserve the name Eve, which means MOTHER OF ALL THE LIVING (Gen. 3:20), because she helped bring about the spiritual death of her children. Our Mother MARY, on the other hand, deserves to be called the New EVE.  She does not represent us in the work of redemption; that role belongs to Jesus Christ her son, the New Adam who alone is our eternal High Priest and victim for our sins. However, Mary was as much an accomplice in the work of redemption as Eve had been in the fall.

CONCLUSION:

The Catholic Church recognizes MARY as a sign to true hope and comfort for the Pilgrim People of God and Non-Christians alike. Consequently, She (the Church) “pours forth urgent supplication to the Mother of God and of men that she who aided the beginning of the Church by her Immaculate Conception and birth of our Saviour together by her prayers, may now be exalted as she is above all the Angels and Saints, interceding before her son in the fellowship of all the Saints until all families of people, whether honoured with the title of Christian or whether still do not know the Saviour, may be happily gathered together in peace and harmony into the one people of God, for the glory of the Most Holy and Undivided Trinity.

In this premise,  the implication of the Immaculate Conception in our world which has been enslaved by sin and we try to understand, is a God-given role. It is God who predestined her from all eternity to be the Mother of the Saviour. She fulfilled whatever that office as a mother demands.

She was faithful, obedient, and loving as the daughter of God, the Mother of the Redeemer and the Spouse of the Holy Spirit. Since she suffered with the Redeemer, she merits being called Co-Redemptrix with the Redeemer.

She mediates in a subordinate way the merits of Jesus Christ and she is forever our advocate with God since Jesus has made her our Mother. To God be glory for the inestimable role He has given Mary to play in the salvation of men and women. Indeed her Immaculate Conception has won wrought for us our salvation and free the world from her enslavement of sin brought about by the fall of our first parent—Adam and Eve.

Bro. Eme Collins Tochi is a graduate of All Saints Seminary, Uhielle-Ekpoma. He is among the deacon class waiting for diaconate ordination in the diocese of Warri.