The Catechism on the
Immaculate Conception
490 To become the mother of the Savior, Mary
“was enriched by God with gifts appropriate to such a role.” The angel Gabriel at the moment of the
annunciation salutes her as “full of grace.”
In fact, in order for Mary to be able to give the free assent of her
faith to the announcement of her vocation, it was necessary that she be wholly
borne by God’s grace.
491 Through the centuries the Church has become
ever more aware that Mary, “full of grace” through God, was redeemed from the
moment of her conception. That is what the dogma of the Immaculate Conception
confesses, as Pope Pius IX proclaimed in 1854: The most Blessed Virgin Mary
was, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege
of almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the
human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin.
492 The “splendor of an entirely unique
holiness” by which Mary is “enriched from the first instant of her conception”
comes wholly from Christ: she is “redeemed, in a more exalted fashion, by
reason of the merits of her Son.” The
Father blessed Mary more than any other created person “in Christ with every
spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” and chose her “in Christ before the
foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless before him in love.”
493 The Fathers of the Eastern tradition call
the Mother of God “the All-Holy” (Panagia), and celebrate her as “free from any
stain of sin, as though fashioned by the Holy Spirit and formed as a new
creature.” By the grace of God Mary
remained free of every personal sin her whole life long.
“Let it be done to me according to
your word. . .”
494 At the announcement that she would give
birth to “the Son of the Most High” without knowing man, by the power of the
Holy Spirit, Mary responded with the obedience of faith, certain that “with God
nothing will be impossible:” “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be
[done] to me according to your word.”
Thus, giving her consent to God's word, Mary becomes the mother of
Jesus. Espousing the divine will for salvation wholeheartedly, without a single
sin to restrain her, she gave herself entirely to the person and to the work of
her Son; she did so in order to serve the mystery of redemption with him and
dependent on him, by God's grace: As St. Irenaeus says, “Being obedient she
became the cause of salvation for herself and for the whole human race.” Hence not a few of the early Fathers gladly
assert. . .: “The knot of Eve’s disobedience was untied by Mary's obedience:
what the virgin Eve bound through her disbelief, Mary loosened by her
faith.” Comparing her with Eve, they
call Mary “the Mother of the living” and frequently claim: “Death through Eve,
life through Mary.”
2853 Victory over the “prince of this world” was
won once for all at the Hour when Jesus freely gave himself up to death to give
us his life. This is the judgment of this world, and the prince of this world
is “cast out.” “He pursued the woman”
but had no hold on her: the new Eve, “full of grace” of the Holy Spirit, is
preserved from sin and the corruption of death (the Immaculate Conception and
the Assumption of the Most Holy Mother of God, Mary, ever virgin). “Then the
dragon was angry with the woman, and went off to make war on the rest of her
offspring.” Therefore the Spirit and the
Church pray: “Come, Lord Jesus,” since his coming will deliver us from the evil one.
