Surpassing Purity
There are two ways that we are going to examine Mary’s Surpassing Purity: 1.)She is pure in the sense that she is free from sin, by way of the Immaculate Conception; 2.) She is pure in the sense that she was a virgin her whole life. This is taught in the Church’s teaching of her Perpetual Virginity. Let’s go over the Immaculate Conception, briefly:
The Immaculate Conception is the teaching that refers to MARY’S conception; many people think it refers to the virginal conception. Yes, Jesus’ conception was special and miraculous, but Mary’s conception is also of importance. Mary was conceived without the stain of original sin; she is free from sin. She never sinned. Now, we need to make the distinction that she was still a creature, subject to emotions and temptations, the difference is she just always chose to follow God perfectly because she was not affected by the stain of original sin, which is what inclines us all toward sin. And I need to include that she was conceived naturally, by both of her parents, Anne and Joachim. Whereas Jesus’ conception was miraculously physically, it is what happens with Mary’s soul at her conception is what makes her conception so special. Her soul is pure, beautiful, and free from the stain of sin; free from the stain of selfish motives, half-hearted prayers.
How is this possible, you may ask? Let’s give a bit of background:
Christ’s work of Salvation, the work that he performed through the events of Holy Week, was all a free gift bestowed to the whole human race. Sin entered the world through Adam and Eve and the possibility of heaven had been closed to humans. Sin brought death; so Christ comes to give us the GIFT of himself so to conquer sin and death, making it possible for us to be united back to the Father.
If Christ wants to bestow gifts upon us, how much more does he wish to bestow gifts on His Most Blessed Mother? That is the nature of being a son - to honor your parents and gift them with your love and affection.
This union between Christ and Mary is similar, but also very different from the average mother/son union. Christ, being God, dwelling in existence in the Trinity before He became flesh, had the unique ability to CHOOSE his Mother; to choose the woman who would bear Him to the world.
You see, the Son existed before His mother and he was able to choose the mother that would be best for him. Further, he was able to bestow on this woman all the gifts he would wish as well; there is no limit to God’s giving power.
One of the gifts that Christ gave to his Mother was at her conception: it is known as the Immaculate Conception. Christ chose to give his gift of salvation to His mother at the moment of her conception - she was “conceived without sin”. When her soul was created, Christ, in union with His Heavenly Father, kept her free from Original Sin (the sin that we inherit from Adam and Eve; all humans are born with this sin on our soul).
This teaching of the Church, that Mary was conceived without sin, also applies to her whole life. She was sin-less. In the gospel account of the Angel appearing to Mary and announcing that she would conceive a son , the Angel first greets Mary as “full of grace.” “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you” (Luke 1:28) These words refer to an abundance of grace that is apart of Mary’s very nature. A theologian and professor at Franciscan University of Steubenville, Mark Miravalle, says, “It is true that no person with a fallen nature could possess a fullness of grace, a perfection of grace appropriate only for the woman who was to give God the son an identical, immaculate human nature” (emphasis added).
So Mary is PURE because there is no stain of sin on her soul ever. In this way, her purity surpasses ours, right?! I like to think of Mary as a pure, glass vessel. In order to for a light to shine through the vessel in the most brightest way possible, there needs to be no dirt on the glass, no smudge spots, no streaks. In order for Christ, the Light of the World, to enter this world and shine in the darkness, he first needed to come through a pure vessel. Make sense?
This teaching of the Immaculate Conception is a Dogma of the Church, meaning it is a Church doctrine which has been defined to be revealed truth, directly revealed by God through the Pope or a Ecumenical council (where the Pope together with the bishops declare a teaching). This dogma of Immaculate Conception was defined in 1854 by Pope Pius IX (Blessed).
The next dogma we will examine is Mary’s Perpetual Virginity. This was defined as direct revealed truth by God formally in 553 at the 5th General Council at Constantinople. BUT there is proof of this teaching and understanding that Mary was a virgin her whole life from the early Church Fathers; men who lived a generation or two after the Apostles. It is a very strong understanding and teaching from the early church, so much so, that anyone who denied it was labeled a heretic. And I will even add that Martin Luther, the founder of Protestantism really, even held this teaching, that Mary was always a virgin.
There are three points about Mary’s physical purity and virginity: she was a virgin at the time Jesus was conceived, her virginity remained intact during the actual birth of Jesus (meaning, the hymen was not broken), and lastly that she intended to remain a virgin her whole life, so even after Jesus’ birth, she was a virgin.
For time’s sake, I think that we can all agree and know that Mary was indeed a virgin at the time of Jesus’ conception. I will not spend time proving that point. “Behold, the virgin shall bear be with child, and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel.” Mt. 1:23
But not many people know that the Church holds that Mary did not experience any physical pain and injury at the moment of Christ’s passing from her womb into this world. The pain of childbirth is a punishment for sin, and, since Mary is free from sin, she is exempt from the pain of childbirth! How lucky!
Dr. Mark Miravalle says, “The Father’s of the Church overwhelmingly taught the miraculous birth of Jesus resulted in no injury to the Blessed Virgin Mary’s physical integrity. St. Augustine stated, ‘It is not right that He who came to heal corruption should by His Advent violate integrity.’ Later, St. Thomas Aquinas would defend the miraculous and painless nature of Christ’s birth. As light passes through glass without harming it, so too did Jesus pass through the womb of Mary without the opening of Mary’s womb and without any harm to the physical virginal seal of the Virgin, who was pure and the perfect tabernacle of the unborn Christ.”
I love how the Holy Spirit works, because I read that passage about the virginal birth AFTER I had received that image of Mary as a glass vessel in prayer! So neat!
Ok, finally we will examine how Mary was pure for her entire life. Again, this is a teaching that is very prominent among the men, bishops, and pope of the early Church. Let’s all turn to Luke 1:34. The early Church Fathers saw her response of “How can this be since I have no relations with man?” to refer to a vow that she had made to be a perpetual virgin, giving her whole self in gift to God. Miravalle says, “Mary’s response of ‘I know not man’ would be comparable to someone today who responds to an invitation to a cigarette with the expression, ‘I do not smoke’. Not only does the person not desire to smoke now, but he does not smoke as a permanent disposition (inclusive of his intention not to smoke in the future). In the same way, the Virgin of Nazareth states, ‘I know not man’ referring to a permanent disposition of virginity...certainly such a vow to God would be continued on Mary’s part after the miraculous intervention of God to safeguard her virginity both before the birth of Christ and after…”
So, why should Mary remain a virgin her whole life? Miravalle makes these points:
-Since Jesus is the “only begotten son” of the Father, he also deserves to be the “only begotten son” of his human mother. It refers to Jesus’ special diginity as both human and divine. Because, really, all these teachings about Mary ultimately point us to the greater reality and sacredness of who Jesus is! If Jesus was not God, then Mary would not need to be from from sin and her womb would not need to remain free from any other creatures.
-Mary is able to be a model for not only mothers, but also virgins, those who choose to give a total gift of themselves to God. CCC 507 says, “At once virgin and mother, Mary is the symbol and the most perfect realization of the Church…”
-”Mary did not have marital relations or other children to safeguard the uniqueness of the first Child.”
-I myself will add that she needed to remain a virgin, pure from any man entering her womb, because she is the Holy of Holies as the First Living Tabernacle.
-The CCC in 506 says “Mary is a virgin because her virginity is the sign of her faith “unadultered by any doubt” and of her undivided gift of her self to God’s will.
Like I mentioned last week, some people will point out that the Bible references Jesus’ “brothers”. But the original language of the Bible uses the term for “brothers” to not only mean biological sibling, but also cousins, or even “kinsfolk”. Lastly, people will point out the reference to Jesus as the “first born son” of Mary implies she had other children. Well, not exactly. Every only child is the first born child, right? And the purpose for the author placing this phrase there is to point out the Jewish custom that the first-born son has certain rights and privileges. He is the “heir” of the throne of David, after all.
Lastly, people will point out that this must mean that Joseph and Mary’s marriage is not valid. But, at the heart of the consummation of a marriage, is the free, total, and faithful gift of one’s self to the other, to which the marital act is a physical representation of what is going on spiritually. Joseph and Mary were still able to fully make a gift of themselves to each other and to have a union of hearts. Dr. Mark Miravalle points out that there are numerous examples in Scripture where God asks couples to renounce relations, for times sake, I won’t get into detail, but God asks people to refrain from sexual relations especially because of the presence of that which is holy or sacred.
All of this does not mean that sex is bad; that marriage is a lesser calling by any means. Really, the beauty of marriage shows us the beauty of virginity and vice-versa. At the heart of marriage is the full gift of ourselves to another person. We give our most sacred and treasured gift, the gift of our sexuality, to our spouse. Mary, knowing how sacred the gift of sexuality was, decided to offer that gift BACK to the Father. And that is at the heart of every priest, nun and religious vocation, too.
What does this virtue mean FOR US? We are not free from sin and the majority of us are either married or not virgins, right?
We must STRIVE our hardest to be free from sin. As I was praying about this topic, I had the image of a glass vessel representing Mary, like I shared earlier. And I asked the Lord, what about us? For me, for example, I know that I am so weak and so broken. I have made so many mistakes that my “glass vessel” is probably cracked and has holes in it, along with dirt and smudges. The cracks and holes represent our brokenness, our weakness, our past hurts. The dirt and smudges represent our personal sin. I am not a perfect vessel for the Lord. I will always be broken; I will always need the Lord to heal me from my woundedness. But I need to get rid of sin in my life. There are hurts and brokenness in our lives that we can’t control. There are some sins and weaknesses, though, that we do have power over. In my conversation with Jesus, thinking about all this, he showed me that even though we ALL have cracks and holes, His light is still able to shine through us. Think about it. Light still shines through cracks and holes in a glass vase, right? But not through dirt and mud. We can do our part to make sure that we are as PURE as possible from the dirt and ugliness of sin. This is where confession comes in. Confession removes that dirt from our hearts so that it doesn’t build up to become mud and eventually clay. The longer we let sin fester inside of us, without repenting of it in the Sacrament of Confession, the harder it will be for us to overcome that certain sin; the more damage that sin will do; the harder it is for Christ’s light to shine through us.
And those of us who are married, have been married, are divorced, widowed, single and the virgins are still called to live out the virtue of purity as well. We must have pure relationships with our spouses, not using them as a means to the end of pleasure. We must not objectify them in our sexual relationship, only trying to get a certain satisfaction from them. I raise this issue because I know we are all mature adults here! Every marital act must be open to life. We must not lust after other men. We must be careful about the shows and movies we watch. We must guard ourselves against pornography or erotic novels. We must not use sex as a tool to manipulate our spouses.
“Through chastity we live on earth the life the blessed live in heaven….our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19)...Jesus spouse of virgins, You chose a Virgin for your Mother. Grant me a tender love for chastity and the greatest possible horror of the vice that is contrary. The virtue of chastity and purity is beyond the powers of our nature. I cannot live chastely and purely without a special grace…”
“Put away the old self of your former way of life, corrupted through deceitful desires, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new self created in God’s way in righteousness and holiness of truth. “ Eph. 4:22-24
No matter where we are in terms of our past sins, in terms of our virginity, our sexuality, our purity before God, we CAN be made new. God gives us the gift of becoming a new person in Him. “If we acknowledge our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from every wrongdoing” 1 John 1:9. “Cleanse me with hyssop, that I may be pure; wash me, make me whiter than snow.” Ps. 51:9
I'd like to end with this wonderful passage:
"The most holy Heart of Mary is indeed an excellent image of divine purity and holiness. Not only was her most pure and holy Heart always far removed from every kind of sin, but it was entirely free from attachment to created things, and intimately united to God by its pure and holy love for Him together with the eminent practice of all the other virtues which Mary's Heart possessed in so high a degree...If you would find a place in the sanctuary of Mary's admirable Heart, which so perfectly mirrors the purity and sanctity of the Most High, you must purify your heart and realize the meaning of the words: "This is the will of God, your sanctification." (1 Thess. 4:3) These words are not meant just for souls specially consecrated and set apart. You must apply them to yourself, you who bear the name and imprint of Christ and membership in His mystical Body. The sanctification of your spirit, heart and body is more than a commandment; it is a privilege, a participation, granted to you through the purity and sanctity of the heart of Mary, Mother of the Redeemer and your own Mother." - St. John Eudes
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