"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 the stain of original sin."1 -  Pope Pius IX, in his encyclical 
Ineffabilis Deus (1854).

Even though I was raised Catholic, I must admit that there was a time when I could neither fully 
comprehend the meaning of this statement nor could I properly assess its place in the Christian 
religion.  It was only recently that I could fully appreciate these doctrines and accept them on 
more grounds than merely faith in the magisterium of the Church.  I now believe, and propose to 
the reader, that all the dogmas of the Catholic Church regarding Mary, the Mother of Christ, 
are biblically based and should be accepted as articles of faith by all Christians.  
For this essay, I shall limit the discussion to the Immaculate Conception, in particular, the
biblical basis for it and answers to common objections.
Definitions: To reiterate, the dogma of the Immaculate Conception states that Mary was 
"redeemed from the moment of her conception."2 How? "...by reason of the merits of her Son." 
3

Prerequisites: In order to fully appreciate this essay of mine, the following statements must 
be agreed with.
1) Man is under the effects of the Original Sin of Adam and Eve, and thus requires a Savior to 
redeem us.
2) This Redeemer is Jesus Christ, who has merited redemption through his passion, death and 
resurrection.
3) This effect of redemption is a gift to mankind through the grace of our heavenly Father, 
and is freely given.
4) The Holy Scriptures are God's Word, through which the Truth of salvation is revealed.
5) The Holy Scriptures have multivalent meanings, meaning that there are several levels of 
interpretation to scripture, such as the literal, allegorical, etc.

Let us now proceed.

Objections: These are common objections by doubters to the dogma of the Immaculate Conception.
1) It is not mentioned by name in the Scriptures.
2) The Scriptures explicitly state, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."
(Romans 3:23, New International Version) That would mean that Mary could not be sinless.
3) Mary herself uttered, "...and my spirit rejoices in God my savior." (Luke 1:47, NIV)  
Hence, even Mary needed a savior.  Since she needed a savior, that means that she sinned, 
and therefore cannot be immaculately conceived.

Answers to Objections:
1) There are many things not explicitly stated in Scripture that are nonetheless taken as 
doctrine by many Christians.  Examples of these are the Incarnation, and the Holy Trinity.  
There is no one verse that says "Jesus is both wholly God and wholly man" and yet Christians 
believe it because it can be inferred from Scripture through proper exegesis.  The same reasoning
 applies to other dogmas like the Immaculate Conception.
2) The conclusion of doubters as regards to this verse stem from their interpretation of "all" 
as "every single human being".  Yet from the start we can say that there are exceptions.  
The first and foremost exception is Jesus Christ.  Christ is a man, and yet he has no sin.  
Babies do not have reason, and thus cannot sin.  There we also have another exception.  
Now this does not directly prove anything except that Romans 3:23 cannot be used to counter 
the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, because "all" is used in a collective sense, not in 
the sense of  "every single human being".  This verse refers to sin as actual sin and not 
original sin.
3) By her human nature, Mary needed a savior in that, had God not intervened, then she would 
have inherited the original sin of Adam.  As such, the dogma states that, by a special 
intervention of God, Mary was preserved from the stain of original sin.  This could only have
 been done through the merits of Jesus Christ.  The Immaculate Conception does not deny the 
need for a savior.  In fact, the salvific role of Christ is emphasized all the more.

The Biblical Basis of the Immaculate Conception: Luke 1:28
	This verse has been translated different ways.  The traditional Catholic way is "Hail, 
full of grace, for the Lord is with thee," uttered by the angel Gabriel to Mary.  Other ways of 
translating this phrase include "Rejoice, highly favored daughter".  Still, to properly 
understand this text, one must realize that there is always something lost in the translation.  
Let's restore it now.

	In Greek, the words used by the inspired writer were chaire kecharitomene.  The first is 
properly translated as "rejoice" and is used as a greeting.  It is a parallel of Zephaniah 
3:14-18, which emphasizes "Daughter Zion" and the virgin bride Jerusalem.  The language is also
similar.  St. Jerome translated "Chairo Kercharitomene" to Latin as "Ave gratia plena", from 
which we get the traditional English rendering as "Hail, full of grace," as used in the 
King James Version and the Douay-Rheims Version.  Kecharitomene, however, is a more difficult 
word.  The root word here is the verb charitoo, based on the word charis, meaning grace.  
The suffix "too" implies a causative nature of the verb.  Charitoo is thus properly translated 
as "changed by grace" or  "to make full of grace".  Kecharitomene is a past-perfect verb.  
Hence, a more appropriate translation, I suggest would be "grace has made and effect on."  
Note that the angel Gabriel uses this word as a name, to greet Mary.

	Now, noted author Ignace de la Potterie, SJ notes that the verb charitoo used only one 
other time in the entire New Testament.  This is in Ephesians 1:6-7 "to the praise of his 
glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.  In him we have redemption 
through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace..."  
(NIV)  St. John Chrysostom says that Paul implies that grace in the context of this verse 
implies the grace spoken of here is sanctifying grace.  Hence, logic dictates that the same 
transforming grace should apply to Mary, as the context of Ephesians implies.  However, since 
Kecharitomene is the past-perfect tense, the early fathers of the Church have interpreted the 
overall picture as this: the transforming effect of grace has already taken place with the 
Blessed Virgin.  Mary was already sanctified by the time the angel Gabriel appeared to her.

	The next question is why the Church has defined that Mary was preserved from Original Sin
 from the moment of her birth.  This, in my humble opinion, is probably derived from the idea of
 Mary as Ark of the Covenant, which I will deal later on.
Please watch out for more essays, where I shall tackle the connection between the
Ark of the Covenant, Mary as ever Virgin, and her Assumption in connection with her Immaculate
Conception.

Sources:
De la Potterie, Ignace SJ, Mary in the Mystery of the Covenant, 1992 St. Pauls
1 Pius IX, Ineffabilis Deus, 1854.
2 Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1995 Image, Doubleday, article 491.
3 Lumen Gentium, 56