|
The Immaculate Conception
An anti-Catholic challenges the fact of Mary's Immaculate Conception--where does it say that in Scripture? he asks.
Now we know that The Catholic Church, the One begun by Christ Himself, has a double Treasury of Truth--Scripture and Tradition--from which to establish Her teaching. (60 2 14; 60 3 6 (Second Thessalonians); 51 15 27 (Acts).
Every one with common sense knows that everything that Jesus taught was not written down. Indeed, Scripture itself states the same:- P 50 21 25 But there are also many other things which Jesus did which, if they were written every one, the world itself, I think, would not be able to contain the books that should be written. P
By these words of Scripture one would think that what was written, was a small part compared to that which was not written!
Another interesting point is that, until the Gospels and the Epistles were written by those original Catholics, the Truths about Jesus were spread by word of mouth--that is to say, Tradition.
We observe here that Scripture
is actually Tradition
put into writing.
This applies to all Scripture--Old and New Testament.
We are therefore assured that Tradition can be a true source of Truth.
At the same time it is important to realise that personal interpretation of Scripture, ignoring or despising the teaching of The Church, can only do great damage to oneself and to one's associates, as well as creating tens of thousands of sects, as exist in our day around the world, and as the first Pope, Peter, in his second Epistle states:-
P 68 1 20 Understanding this first, that no prophecy of scripture is made by private interpretation.
68 1 21 For prophecy came not by the will of man at any time: but the holy men of God spoke, inspired by the Holy Ghost.
68 2 1 But there were also
false prophets among the people,
even as there shall be among you
lying teachers,
who shall bring in sects of perdition,
and deny the Lord who bought them:
bringing upon themselves
swift destruction. P
It is one of the wiles of the anti-Catholic to get the Catholic to ignore The Church and to interpret Scripture for himself! How foolish do they think we Catholics are!!
Deny our Mother The Church and get into the treacherous business of interpreting Scripture for ourselves, when even the great theologians have difficulty in this--and they have access to and understand, Greek, Aramaic and Hebrew manuscripts!
And this acute necessity to rely on The Church is a further common sense attitude, remembering that The Church's great Teachers and Saints over the millenniums, have contributed to the understanding of Scripture and Tradition, and remain part of Church Treasury of Truth available to us to this day.
Accordingly, what I write hereunder, is in accord the Teaching of Catholicism, The Church of Christ.
O Fullness of Grace
PLukes' 49 128And the angel being come in, said unto her: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women where the word for 'full of Grace' is the Greek "kecharitomene", to mean "full of grace". The Greek perfect participle is very strong, the root verb means to put someone in the state of grace/favour.
And especially, the word is used
instead of her name.
This is like saying someone is Mr. Tennis - the ultimate in tennis. So she is Miss Grace, the ultimate in grace." P(Most, Basic Catholic Catechism).
So Scripture tells us that when the Archangel came to Mary to request her co-operation in becoming Mother of The Saviour, he did not call her Mary. No, he called her O fullness of Grace.
Therefore, it is established,
that at that stage
in Mary's life
she was immaculate.
If you are full of Grace or favour in the eyes of God, that means you are sinless and totally approved of, by The Almighty.
Being already immaculate at the time of the Incarnation,
when then did Mary
receive this great Grace
from The Almighty?
Was it when Mary was a child? At her birth? Perhaps at her conception?
How did this happen to her? How did she become The Fullness of Grace?
We know that Mary received her Graces from The Almighty, just as everyone receives Grace. We also know that Mary received her Fullness of Grace through the Infinite Merits of Jesus, her adored Son. She received them in anticipation of Jesus' Coming, just as the great men and women of old, before Jesus' Coming, received them.
Mary received her Fullness of Grace only because she was created for Jesus, just as we are created only for Him; just as the whole of creation was created only for Him.
|
|
