The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 70: The Immaculate Conception (2025)

Episode Date: March 11, 2025

The Catechism introduces us to Mary’s Immaculate Conception and explains why God preserved her “immune from all stain of original sin.” Fr. Mike answers a common question asked in response to this revelation: “Why didn’t God just preserve us all from original sin?” His answer might surprise you. Today's readings are Catechism paragraphs 490-494. This episode has been found to be in conformity with the Catechism by the Institute on the Catechism, under the Subcommittee on the Catechism, USCCB. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/ciy Please note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz and you're listening to the Catechism in a Year podcast where we encounter God's plan of sheer goodness for us, revealed in Scripture and passed down through the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism in a Year is brought to you by Ascension. In 365 days, we'll read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, discovering our identity in God's family as we journey Together Toward Our Heavenly Home. This is Day 70 of your reading, paragraphs 490-494. As always, I'm using the Ascension edition of the Catechism, which includes the Foundations

of Faith approach, but you can follow along with any recent version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Also, you can download your own Catechism in a year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash C-I-Y. And you can click follow or subscribe on your podcast app for daily updates, daily notifications. Just a quick moment on this day 70 to thank all those who supported the production, the making of this podcast with your prayers lifting us all up before the Lord. It's so helpful because this is, I don't know, I don't want to complain, but it's

a lot of work. It's hard to press play. It's hard to press record too. I'll say that. But thank you for your prayers and also thank you for your financial gifts. We literally could not do this without you. So just thank you so much. As I said, it's day 70 and yesterday we started talking about Mary and how, oh man, the Holy Spirit came upon the Blessed Virgin Mary. That God had predestined her. He prepared a body for himself. God sent forth his Son,

but to prepare a body for him, right in the incarnation, he wanted the free cooperation of a creature. Now for this, this is paragraph 488, for this, from all eternity, God shows for the mother of his son a daughter of Israel. And he relied upon her yes. Now today in paragraphs 490 to 494, we're gonna talk about the immaculate conception. Now the immaculate conception doesn't refer to Jesus being immaculately conceived. That's different. But Mary's conception, we believe, was she was immaculately conceived. That's different. But Mary's conception, we believe, was immaculately conceived, which means that from the very first moment of her conception, first moment of her existence, she was preserved by a singular grace, a singular privilege.

She was preserved by Almighty God by the merits of her son's future life, death, and resurrection from all stain of original sin. And why is this necessary? Well, could God have done it otherwise? God can do anything. But why was this fitting? Why is it fitting that Mary is without sin? Well, we talked about this yesterday a little bit. We know how the fall team, right,

who had had a woman, Eve, without sin. And we have the man without sin, Adam, that the angel of light, Lucifer, spoke to a woman without sin, Eve, spoke words to her that caused her to disbelieve and disobey. She handed that disbelief and disobedience to her husband, the man, who handed that disobedience and disbelief to the whole world. Now the redemption team, we know that Jesus Christ is the new Adam who hands on life and obedience to all of us. Well, similarly, we see in Luke's Gospel

an angel of light, Gabriel, who comes to the new Eve, Mary, who is also without sin. And he speaks words to her that cause her to believe and obey by her belief and obedience. She gives birth to the eternal Son of the Father in time, incarnate, who then hands on this belief

and obedience to the whole world. And it's very fitting that Mary be in the same place or a very similar place as the first Eve in order to accomplish this mission. So that's what we're going to talk about today. Also we're going to talk about how in paragraph 494 at the announcement that God would do this, she humbly submits and says, let it be done to me according to your word. So those are the two things we're going to talk about today. First, the Immaculate Conception. And second, that humble acceptance, that humble surrender, that humble fiat, right? The let it be done to me

of Mary. So in order to prepare our hearts for this, let's just pray. Pray and call upon the name of Jesus Christ and ask the Father to bless us as we pray, Father in Heaven. We thank you. In the name of your Son Jesus Christ, please send your Holy Spirit. As you send your Holy Spirit up in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary to bring forth new life, we ask that you please send your Holy Spirit into our lives. Heal what has been wounded in our lives. Fill what's been emptied. Lord God, we ask you to make a space in our lives for you for your truth for your will for your mission

We know Lord God that you called Mary You created her for a mission and you gave her everything she needed to accomplish that mission We trust in you that you will do the same for us Then you have created us for a mission and that you will give us everything that we possibly could ever need for that mission We trust in you. We pray to you. We give you glory this day and every day in Jesus name and that you will give us everything that we possibly could ever need for that mission. We trust in you, we pray to you, and we give you glory this day and every day. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. As I said, it's Day 70, we're at paragraphs 490 to 494. The Immaculate Conception 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 borne by God's grace. Through the centuries, the Church has become evermore 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. The splendor of an entirely unique holiness by which Mary is enriched from the first instant of her conception comes wholly from Christ. She is redeemed in a more exalted fashion by reason of the merits of her Son. The Father blessed Mary more than any other created person in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places and chose her in Christ before the foundation of the

world to be holy and blameless before Him in love. The fathers of the Eastern tradition call the Mother of God the All-Holy, Panagia, and celebrate her as free from any stain of sin as though fashioned by the Holy Spirit and formed as a new creature. By the grace of God, Mary remained free of every personal sin her whole life long. Let it be done to me according to your word. At the announcement that she would give birth to the Son of the Most High without knowing man by the power of the Holy Spirit, Mary responded with the obedience of faith, certain that with God nothing will be impossible.

Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. Let it be done to me according to your word. Thus, giving her consent to God's word, Mary becomes the mother of Jesus. Espousing the divine will for salvation wholeheartedly, without a single sin to restrain her, she gave herself entirely to the person and to the work of her son. She did so in order to serve the mystery of redemption with him and dependent on him by God's grace.

As St. Irenaeus says, being obedient, she became the cause of salvation for herself and for the whole human race. Hence, not a few of the early fathers gladly assert the knot of Eve's disobedience was untied by Mary's obedience. With the Virgin Eve bound through her disbelief, Mary loosened by her faith. Comparing her with Eve, they call Mary the mother

of the living and frequently claim, death through Eve, life through Mary. Okay, so that's our section today, 490-494, which is just an incredible gift. Now I mentioned again yesterday and earlier that here is Mary, who is the new Eve. That these last quotes, these last quotes are incredible, showing us that going back so far, the Church has long, long stated, long made very, very clear that we've always seen Mary as the new Eve, just as Jesus is the new Adam. And I love this. I mean, even just being obedient, she became the cause of salvation for herself and for the whole human race. And here is, you know,

Church Fathers, for example, St. Irenaeus saying, The knot of Eve's disobedience was untied by Mary's obedience. With the Virgin Eve bound through her disbelief, Mary loosened by her faith. Death through Eve, life through Mary. Why is the Church saying, very clearly, it was necessary that she be wholly born by God's grace? Why is it necessary that Mary was conceived without original sin? Now one is we have to know this. She was not conceived without original sin because of any merit of her own. How could you merit being conceived in a certain way? Pope Pius IX, again in 1854, solemnly declared this, that the Most Blessed Virgin Mary was from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of Almighty

God and by the virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race, so it's all her son, preserved immune from all stain of original sin. Why? Because she had to give a full yes. And this is so important in paragraph 494, it says this, thus, giving her consent to God's word, Mary becomes the mother of Jesus. Now this is the next sentence, just kills me.

Is spousing the divine will for salvation wholeheartedly. This is a wholeheart. Now you and I, because we have sin, we don't have a wholeheart. We have a divided heart. We have hearts that can say yes to God, but we say yes weakly. We can assent to God, we can love him, but we love poorly. We love in a fickle way. But here it says here, without a single sin to restrain her, she gave herself entirely to the person and to the work of her Son. And that's so incredible, so necessary. That's why he even uses that word necessary in paragraph 490. In order for her to accomplish the call on her life, it was necessary that she be wholly born by God's grace. That

there was not a single sin to restrain her from this yes. That again, here's Eve's no, right? Here's Eve's no to the Lord. That brought about this brokenness and here is the new Eve. Here's Mary's yes. That brings about a new life. It brings about a new capacity for holiness.

A new capacity for relationship with God. Now, there's something kind of really important here. Really important here. It says that the most blessed virgin Mary was from the first moment of her conception by a singular grace and privilege from Almighty God and from the merits of her son's future life, death, and resurrection preserved from an all-standard virginal sin. The question often asked, well, wait, if God could do that with Mary, why doesn't he just do that with everybody? Honestly, if God could apply the merits of His Son's future life, death, and resurrection to Mary's conception, why couldn't He just apply that to your conception, my conception?

Why didn't He preserve us from the stain of original sin? Now, God could have done that because He did it at least once. This is why it's called a singular grace and privilege. Why didn't He do that? And the answer, here's my offer of an answer. The answer I would offer is, because God always gives us what we need for our vocation. Meaning, God has a call on your life, He has a call on my life. He will always give you exactly what you need to accomplish that call.

He never calls us to something that He doesn't also give us the power to do, to accomplish, to achieve. And you and I, our mission, our vocation was not to undo the knot of Eve's disobedience, but Mary's call was. And so God gave her everything that she needed in order to say yes to this call on her life. And that doesn't take anything away, doesn't diminish the gift he's given you. It doesn't diminish the vocation he called you to. It just highlights the fact that for every one of us,

regardless of what God has called you to, he will always, he will always give you the grace. He'll always give you the power, always give you the opportunity to accomplish that vocation, to accomplish his will, to accomplish that mission that he created you for. Here's the good news. he created you for a mission. Just like he created Mary for a mission,

he created you for a mission. And just like he gave Mary everything that she needed to accomplish that mission, I'm telling you, God himself will give everything that you need, give you everything that you need to accomplish the mission he has in your life. We simply say what Mary said, I am the handmaid of the Lord.

Behold, I'm the servant of the Lord. Let it be done to me according to your word. Now, I said it yesterday, I'll say it again. It's a quote from Carol House Lander. God will never ask you to do anything more than the blessed word to Mary. And all you ever asked her to do was simply say yes. So today, here's the resolution we have.

God, help me to say yes to you. Help me to say yes to your vocation. Help me to say yes to this call you have in my life. Help me to say yes to this mission you created and redeemed me for and are giving me every grace that I need to accomplish this mission. God, I trust in you. Just as the Blessed Virgin Mary said, I'm the handmaid of the Lord, here we are. Behold, we are your servants.

Behold, we are your sons and your daughters, baptized in Jesus Christ and given the Holy Spirit to do all things in your name. I'm just praying for you. I'm just so excited. I'm so pumped because what an incredible gift that Mary is the Immaculate Conception and her yes. By her yes, the Father's will was accomplished in this world. Here we are. By our yes, the Father's will was accomplished in this world. Here we are. By our yes, the Father's will can be accomplished once again. So it's a high call, but it's a great call. And I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.