Last year, my reasoning was immature. When I was arguing why the Catholic Church made the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary a dogma, my focus was wrong. I argued that the Catholic Church does this in order to uphold the value of virginity. Regrettably to say, such an argument was totally irrelevant. The perpetual virginity and the immaculate conception of Old Lady are not quite related, not even the faintest existence of a causal relationship.
However, there was one interesting point which, the other day, was also raised by one of the classmates in the theology course.
When was the Blessed Virgin Mary free from the Original Sin? Was it possible to be at the moment of Annunciation? Why did the Church push the moment all the way back to conception?
I think the reason comes from the greeting of Gabriel.
καὶ εἰσελθὼν πρὸς αὐτὴν εἶπεν, Χαῖρε, κεχαριτωμένη, ὁ κύριος μετὰ σοῦ.
Et ingressus ad eam dixit: “ Ave, gratia plena, Dominus tecum ”. (Nova Vulgata)
And he came to her and said, "Hail, O favored one, the Lord is with you!" (Luke 1:28, RSV)
天使進去向她說：「萬福！充滿恩寵者，上主與你同在！」【在女人中你是蒙祝福的。】
"Gratia plena" means "full of grace". According to Christian teaching, grace is a free gift of God out of His mercy. Salvation relies on grace and the presence of grace is equivalent to the absence of sins. Therefore, when Archangel Gabriel visited Mary, she was already full of grace, without sins. God is timeless. For God, there is no before or after. Therefore, if the Blessed Virgin Mary was without sins when Gabriel visited her, she is without sin ever since eternity. Although Jesus died some 30 years later, the redemption he gained for us human is complete. If God so wishes, He could grant the salvation achieved even before Jesus was crucified!
Look at the case of abortion. The law arbitrarily sets, say 12 weeks, as the cutting line after which abortion is illegal. Its arbitrariness is undefendable. It is unimaginable how a bunch of cells are nonhuman before 12 weeks. The moment these cells are 12 weeks old, they suddenly become human. We cannot satisfactorily explain how any length of time (12 weeks, 24 weeks etc.) can suddenly enable these cells to become human. The Church has no choice but to declare that at the moment of conception, these cells are human. I think the same goes to the immaculate conception of Mary. It is undefendable to argue for the visitation of an angel as the time when Mary became immaculate.
When was the Blessed Virgin Mary free from the Original Sin? Was it possible to be at the moment of Annunciation? Why did the Church push the moment all the way back to conception?
I think the reason comes from the greeting of Gabriel.
καὶ εἰσελθὼν πρὸς αὐτὴν εἶπεν, Χαῖρε, κεχαριτωμένη, ὁ κύριος μετὰ σοῦ.
Et ingressus ad eam dixit: “ Ave, gratia plena, Dominus tecum ”. (Nova Vulgata)
And he came to her and said, "Hail, O favored one, the Lord is with you!" (Luke 1:28, RSV)
天使進去向她說：「萬福！充滿恩寵者，上主與你同在！」【在女人中你是蒙祝福的。】
"Gratia plena" means "full of grace". According to Christian teaching, grace is a free gift of God out of His mercy. Salvation relies on grace and the presence of grace is equivalent to the absence of sins. Therefore, when Archangel Gabriel visited Mary, she was already full of grace, without sins. God is timeless. For God, there is no before or after. Therefore, if the Blessed Virgin Mary was without sins when Gabriel visited her, she is without sin ever since eternity. Although Jesus died some 30 years later, the redemption he gained for us human is complete. If God so wishes, He could grant the salvation achieved even before Jesus was crucified!
Look at the case of abortion. The law arbitrarily sets, say 12 weeks, as the cutting line after which abortion is illegal. Its arbitrariness is undefendable. It is unimaginable how a bunch of cells are nonhuman before 12 weeks. The moment these cells are 12 weeks old, they suddenly become human. We cannot satisfactorily explain how any length of time (12 weeks, 24 weeks etc.) can suddenly enable these cells to become human. The Church has no choice but to declare that at the moment of conception, these cells are human. I think the same goes to the immaculate conception of Mary. It is undefendable to argue for the visitation of an angel as the time when Mary became immaculate.
This evening, I attended the Diocesan celebration mass at the Cathedral. Fr. Patrick Sun is celebrating the silver jubilee of his ordination. He is leaving us and I cannot find any time to say goodbye to him. Therefore, I decided to join this mass. The homily was delivered by Sr. Bernadatte Woo, SPB in Cantonese and Fr. John Cioppa, MM in English. Fr. Cioppa is celebrating the golden jubilee of his ordination. He shared with us that when we looked ahead, time was long but if we looked back, time was short. Fr was sure that when Mary said yes to God, time seemed eternity to look ahead. But when she was standing under the cross and looked back, time flew. As a priest , when he looked back, time really flew. He gave a summary of what had happened in the last 50 years. When we are going through these challenges, time seemed to have been freezed. But whatever may happen to us, Fr strongly believed that God our Redeemer will not leave us unattended.
Sr. Bernadatte is also celebrating her golden jubilee. She delivered her homily first. She strongly felt the presence of God in her life. Once she returned to Shanghai to run workshops for the local church. She was suffering from inflection of her eyes. People came to ask after her health, her condition. A thought flashed across her mind. She had already gone to bed and yet she jumped up to whisper to God that she was suffering from inflection of her eyes. The next morning when she washed her face, she discovered that her inflection was completely cured! God had been with her all the time and she could feel what Gabriel had said: the Lord is with you. At a certain period of time, she was suffering from depression and nervous breakdown. She was scared that she would become insane and she pitied the sisters living with her. How could they live with an insane nun? At last, her release came when she prayed to God that she was willing to become insane because she knew that God would be with her whatever mental condition she was in. She shared many precious personal spiritual experiences with the congregation.
Sr. Bernadatte is also celebrating her golden jubilee. She delivered her homily first. She strongly felt the presence of God in her life. Once she returned to Shanghai to run workshops for the local church. She was suffering from inflection of her eyes. People came to ask after her health, her condition. A thought flashed across her mind. She had already gone to bed and yet she jumped up to whisper to God that she was suffering from inflection of her eyes. The next morning when she washed her face, she discovered that her inflection was completely cured! God had been with her all the time and she could feel what Gabriel had said: the Lord is with you. At a certain period of time, she was suffering from depression and nervous breakdown. She was scared that she would become insane and she pitied the sisters living with her. How could they live with an insane nun? At last, her release came when she prayed to God that she was willing to become insane because she knew that God would be with her whatever mental condition she was in. She shared many precious personal spiritual experiences with the congregation.
Dear Lord, I pray for the Hong Kong Diocese. May she continue to bear witness boldly for You under the patronage of Your mother. Amen.
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