We cannot meditate properly on the Immaculate Conception of Mary, the Mother of Christ, if we do not bear in mind the true meaning of the term we are using. Conception means the beginning of human life and is not limited simply to the biological or bodily aspect but concerns also the spirit created by God at the moment when the parents generate a new body. The spirit constitutes the soul of this body or organism-the basis and the source of all life and of all those elements characteristic of the human person.

The conception of a human being is the beginning of existence for a new spirit, and here we find the basis for understanding the meaning of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. Every human spirit could have begun in the state of sanctifying grace; in other words, it could have shared in the divine nature from the first moment of its existence and possessed a real capacity to participate in the interior life of God. The essence of sanctifying grace is in fact the divine life as grafted into the human soul, and if we do not understand this, it is impossible to view the Immaculate Conception correctly. The supernatural mystery of grace forms the immediate context for gaining an understanding of the privileged condition of the Mother of Christ.

We know from revelation (and there is no other way of knowing anything about this subject) that, as a consequence of the original sin of our first forebears, every person is conceived without sanctifying grace; it is this lack that forms the essence of original sin. Thus God creates the spirit to be the soul of the organism that begins its existence, but he does not bestow grace on it. In other words, at the moment of conception he does not give it a share in is own nature nor the capacity to take part in his interior life.

The human being therefore begins his existence far from God, without the strength of the supernatural bond. This strength will be given to him later by redemption, which is for all of us the source of grace and the basis of salvation - the grace and salvation which we lack at the moment of conception. Mary, on the other hand, possessed sanctifying grace right from the beginning, and we are reminded of this daily by the phrase from Saint Luke's gospel, "full of grace," which we recite at the Angelus.

The Immaculate Conception thus means a special crystallization of grace and supernatural life within Mary's human soul. Like each of us, Mary owes this grace to the redemption wrought by Christ. However, whereas it comes to every other person to free him from original sin and help him to overcome its consequences with a view to salvation and to union with God, it came to Mary in a different way: redemption anticipated and prevented original sin in her.

So if we want to meditate correctly on the Immaculate Conception we must see it in the perspective of the redemption brought about by Jesus Christ, man and God, the Son of Mary - and it is this last factor which explains why she was redeemed in a different way from the rest of us. Through the laws of nature, a son feels a special duty toward his own mother. Mary's Son, who was our Savior, fulfilled this duty perfectly; he redeemed her in a special way and in a special way gave her that grace which redemption unleashes for all of us.

Let us now reflect on what has been said about the Immaculate Conception especially in the context of holiness. Holiness is one of God's attributes and is identified with his essence, whereas it is not identified with the essence of human beings. Man is not holy by nature. (The theory of man's natural perfection, as advanced by Rousseau, is in constant conflict with both interior and exterior experience.) Even so, man tends to see it as the highest human aspiration. Naturally only a philosophico-religious perspective can link man's holiness to God. While it is true that holiness is normally used as referring to a high moral perfection or a certain heroism of life, only a living relationship with God gives it its true character as holiness. It is difficult to talk about saints except in the context of religion, and even the word "saint" belongs to the language of religion.

How are saints formed? For the moment we shall consider this question solely in relation to the mystery of the Immaculate Conception. Since sanctity is an attribute of God and is identified with his very essence, saints are formed by sharing in this essence and in the divine nature. Grace means such participation and is the basis of sanctity; in other words, it is sanctifying grace. However, since grace is a fruit of redemption, it links saints very closely to redemption. A saint is thus a person who in a special way benefits from the fruits of redemption. Now since the Immaculate Conception means the presence of sanctifying grace from the first moment of conception (a privilege exclusive to Mary), we do not hesitate to recognize her as a special saint, addressing her as "Most Holy."

Another aspect of holiness is that it is the fruit of heroic effort and struggle. This is where the concept of sanctity encounters the mystery of original sin, which leaves traces in the soul that are not immediately wiped out by grace but grow gradually fainter in proportion to how we cooperate with grace, although they remain in the soul in the form of tinder for the fires of sin (fomes peccati). In other words, although original sin per se is wiped out in the first grace we are given in baptism, its consequences do in a certain sense remain.

This is why sanctity, which is obtained as a result of redemption, takes form as a fruit of both grace and effort. This is the form in which we know it and in which it is seen and appreciated by all of us because it requires effort and because it represents the fruit of an interior struggle against the three lusts of the eyes, the body, and the spirit (this last referring to pride of life). In each of these lusts there is a type of natural inclination that hides a certain good; however, the inclination is distorted and disordered. Hence the need for interior struggle with ourselves, to which is added exterior struggle, since the world in which we live and move is full of the consequences of original sin: every human being is subject to sin, and the world is made up of human beings.

People become saints through the working of grace, which is the fruit of redemption. A great deal of its energies, however, is directed towards overcoming the consequences of original sin and neutralizing that tinder which is always threatening to catch fire - if not in us, then in others, in whole societies and in humanity as a whole! Thus the main function of grace (gratia sanans) in our spiritual life is that of purification, which must be complete before real inspiration and union with God are possible. If there had been no original sin, human sanctity would have been formed differently; and, indeed, in Mary, who was without it, it did in fact come about differently.

We are accustomed to viewing the formation of sanctity within man in the perspective of the consequences of original sin, and we tend to see its negative side, the struggle against the self, as a substantial and characteristic aspect, and this is to a large extent correct. However, only "to a large extent," since the struggle against the self is not the aim but simply the means of reaching the aim, which is represented by the full development of love (the most authentic outpouring of grace). Original sin brought a serious negative factor into the whole process of humanity's sanctification through grace. Mary's sanctity had to be free of this factor inasmuch as it had to be exclusively positive. However, we are so accustomed to the negative aspect that its absence is almost an irritation, which is why we find it so difficult to picture and describe Mary's sanctity. Contemporary writings give particular emphasis and a great deal of space to the negative aspect of holiness - to the element of struggle - so that it is seen almost as the principal measure of heroism, even though it is admitted that love is even more heroic.

Mary's sanctity is basically founded on her Immaculate Conception, a privilege which she obtained through her Son. Thus her sanctity is different from that of other people, who come to it through and despite original sin. Mary was redeemed differently and became holy differently, even though her holiness did come from sanctifying grace. Although she became holy differently, this does not mean more easily. When considering the sanctity of Mary in the context of the privilege of the Immaculate Conception, people may sometimes think that it was easy for her to become holy inasmuch as, since she was free of original sin and its consequences, she did not have to struggle against the three lusts. This way of thinking reveals a clear symptom of the conviction that the purifying function of grace is the sole or highest one and that the struggle with the self is in a certain sense the aim (or synonym) of sanctity.

Mary became holy more easily only in the sense that she was spared the struggle against the latent tendency to sin. However, she was not spared the labor connected with holiness and the heroism that is inevitably linked to it - labor and heroism that were found not in the struggle with herself as a consequence of original sin but rather in her active participation in the redemptive work of her Son. The gospel gives us clear evidence of this, describing difficulties that were peculiar to Mary's holiness and were comparable only to those of Christ himself. The holiness of Christ was also difficult, even though from the very beginning he had the fullness - and not only the subjective fullness - of grace, a fullness linked to the divine person of the Word-Son and to his universal mission as Redeemer. Nobody would dare suggest that his sanctity was easy, even though it had none of the elements of struggle with the self, which is what constitutes the negative aspect of holiness as it forms and develops in man despite original sin.

Mary's holiness, and the whole process of her sanctification, must be viewed in the framework of her complete and active participation in the redemptive work of her Son. In her, the forces of grace were not directed (or at least not to any great extent) toward overcoming the consequences of original sin and to struggling with the self in the sense I have just discussed; she used them, instead, in order to link herself personally, with her whole life, to the work of redemption.

The role of co-redemptrix (alma socia Redemptoris), which is recognized as proper to the Mother of Christ, gives us a new and more complete way of understanding the mystery of the Immaculate Conception, inasmuch as this was not simply a privilege of the Mother of God-become-man but also anticipated the role which the mother would carry out alongside her Son. Her holiness therefore had to be different, just as it was difficult and heroic in a different way. Another person who would have had to devote a major part of the supernatural energies given by grace to the struggle with the self would never have been able to concern herself in such a perfect and universal manner with other people's redemption as was required by the vocation of the mother of the Redeemer.

In the sense in which we have considered it, the mystery of the Immaculate Conception has explicit reference to the interior life and formation of the Christian. Above all, the close link between the privilege (for the Immaculate Conception does undoubtedly represent a privilege) and the task or mission of Mary in the Kingdom of God has great importance. From this viewpoint the objective structure of the divine economy becomes clearer: there is a basic logic - an invisible, but nonetheless deep, reflection - of life and action in the work of redemption. Even though in its essence grace is a gift of God, human life and in particular man's supernatural destiny are a clear and logical consequence of the sublimity of the gift and of the exalted nature of man's tasks and missions.

When we reflect in this way on the Immaculate Conception of the Mother of Christ, we are indirectly considering our own lives and the role of grace in them. Religion cannot be simply a cultural element added on to the rest of life; rather, it represents a universal commitment to bringing about the Kingdom of God.

8 December 1959