The Immaculate Conception vs. The Incarnation

I remember one day speaking with a fallen-away Catholic who was confident the Catholic Church was full of contradictions. I asked for an example, of which he took a moment to think before providing his snarky reply: “Take the birth of Jesus for example. How is it possible for Mary to conceive Jesus at the beginning of December, then give birth to him on December 25th? It doesn’t make any sense.”

He was of course referring to the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, which is celebrated by the Church on December 8th. And he was right to believe an error in Church teaching, if the Church taught that Jesus being conceived in Mary’s womb occurred on December 8th. However, this is not what the Immaculate Conception is about.

Sadly, this misconception about the Immaculate Conception is common amongst many outside the Church, as well as regularly attending Mass goers. Why is there confusion? If the Immaculate Conception isn’t Jesus being conceived in Mary’s womb, then what is it? Why is this feast celebrated in December? These are all valid questions, which I aim to answer in this article.

For starters, let’s clarify what the Church teaches regarding the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Paragraphs 490 and 491 of The Catechism of the Catholic Church state:

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 born by God’s grace. 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.”

This means God bestowed special graces upon Mary before she was born, so she would not be a sinful creature. However, this does not mean Mary was conceived in her mother’s womb the same way Jesus was conceived in Mary’s womb. Mary had both a human mother (traditionally, St. Anne) and a human father (traditionally, St. Joachim). Simply put, the Blessed Virgin Mary was conceived through normal marital relations, but without the stain of Original Sin in her mother’s womb.

The Feast of the Immaculate Conception is celebrated exactly nine months before the Nativity of Mary, which is celebrated on September 8th of each year, and was formerly declared on December 8, 1854 in Pope Pius IX’s Apostolic Constitution, Ineffabilis Deus (God Ineffable: the Dogmatic

Definition of the Immaculate Conception of Blessed Virgin Mary of the Church). The opening paragraph states:

And indeed it was wholly fitting that so wonderful a mother should be ever resplendent with the glory of most sublime holiness and so completely free from all taint of original sin that she would triumph utterly over the ancient serpent. To her did the Father will to give his only-begotten Son — the Son whom, equal to the Father and begotten by him, the Father loves from his heart — and to give this Son in such a way that he would be the one and the same common Son of God the Father and of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It was she whom the Son himself chose to make his Mother and it was from her that the Holy Spirit willed and brought it about that he should be conceived and born from whom he himself proceeds.

Please do not think that since this document was published in the year 1854, that the teaching and truth of the Immaculate Conception is something new. The understanding that Mary was without sin was a popular teaching in the early years of the Church (even if the term “Immaculate Conception” was not used outright). Sacred Scripture’s use of “full of grace” in the first chapter of the Gospel of Luke is an indication of Mary’s sinlessness (see CCC 490 and 491 again). One could explore the vast parallels of Mary’s sinlessness and creation story’s Eve (I recommend exploring the Catholic Answers website: www.catholic.com for some amazing articles on this topic), but there are writing examples from the early Church that pop out without having to dive deep into this comparison:

St. Ephraim the Syrian in the 4th century: “You alone and your Mother are more beautiful than any others, for there is no blemish in you nor any stains upon your Mother” (Nisibene Hymns).

St. Ambrose of Milan, also in the 4th century: “Mary, a virgin not only undefiled, but a virgin whom grace had made inviolate, free of every stain of sin” (Commentary on Psalm 118).

St. Augustine of Hippo in the 5th century: “We must except the holy Virgin Mary, concerning whom I wish to raise no question when it touches the subject of sins, out of honor to the Lord; for from him we know what abundance of grace for overcoming sin in every particular was conferred upon her who had the merit to conceive and bear him who undoubtedly had no sin” (Nature and Grace).

The teaching of the Immaculate Conception has been long understood and accepted throughout Church history. We know from the Gospels of Matthew and Luke that Jesus was conceived in Mary’s womb. But unfortunately, there still lies confusion between this teaching and that of the Incarnation. To touch briefly on the Incarnation, this is the moment when God became flesh in the Person of Jesus Christ. Theologically speaking, this is the Hypostatic Union. Per Father John Hardon’s Modern Catholic Dictionary (which can be found digitally at www.catholicculture.org), the Hypostatic Union is “the union of the human and divine natures in the one divine person of Christ.”

Now, after reading briefly about both the facts of the Immaculate Conception and the Incarnation, there should not be any confusion, as the differences are clear. But, I think therein lies the problem: knowing the facts. Many assumptions of church teachings have led people astray. Venerable Bishop Fulton Sheen famously said, “There are not one hundred people in the United States who hate the Catholic Church, but there are millions who hate what they wrongly perceive the Catholic Church to be.”

One might be asking how to distinguish between fact and fiction, or where to go to learn more about topics like this. A couple of resources were mentioned above, but another easy way to gain insight is through Catholic programs like Salt & Light Radio. We should take a vested interest in learning about our faith and technology has provided us with various ways of doing so (internet, podcasts, radio, phone apps, etc.).

For some, learning more about God and the Catholic faith helps them grow closer to Christ and His Church. And, with so much beauty, truth, and history within Catholicism, understanding bits and pieces can help you on your journey. Therefore, by knowing the differences between the Immaculate Conception and the Incarnation, the confusion is washed away, and we are given the veneration of our Blessed Mother and the adoration for our God, made man.