Mary Immaculate in the Writings of St. Thomas

Abstract

MARY IMMACULATE IN THE WRITINGS OF ST. THOMAS I N this year dedicated to Our Lady Thomists have reason to rejoice in St. Thomas' reverent and profound tribute to the God-bearer; reason to rejoice in his many and masterful contributions to Christian understanding of the mystery that is Mary. But there is also the kindly suspicion that in this centenary of the definition of the Virgin's Immaculate Conception the followers of Thomas have not too much to rejoice in; for it seems that in this very question of the Immaculate Conception is St. Thomas' greatest-if not unique-theological failure. Certainly the opinion that St. Thomas denied the Immaculate Conception is both widespread and readily defended. Perhaps nowhere more fittingly than in the pages of The Thomist could there appear at this time of intense cultivation of Mariology a re-examination of the text, context, and general background of St. Thomas' teaching on Our Lady's primitive sanctification. The study has but one purpose: to reproduce, in its entirety, Aquinas' view of this mystery. Our procedure, therefore, must be very simple: we shall examine first the texts of St. Thomas which seem, either explicitly or implicitly, to favor the Immaculate Conception; secondly we shall indicate the three classes of texts which seem opposed to the dogma; thirdly we shall examine closely the wording, context, and background of the principal texts. That we approach this re-examination without pre-convictions is suggested first by reverence for so great a Doctor of the Church as Thomas; for, as Pope Pius XI reminded us all, in honoring Thomas we honor the authority of the teaching Church.1 It is suggested secondly by intellectual honesty: to 1 Pius XI Ency. Studiorum Ducem, 29 June 1928. 433 484 THOMAS U. MULLANEY which may be appended, by way of public confession, the admission that this study was undertaken in the firm pre-conviction that St. Thomas had unquestionably denied the Immaculate Conception of our Lady! I. 1. The texts of St. Thomas which must or can be interpreted in favor of our Lady's Immaculate Conception are not confined to any one period of his life. At the beginning of his first theological work-his Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard-Thomas gives us our initial revelation of his thought on Mary's original freedom from sin. We read: "The increase of purity (from sin) is in accordance with the recession from its contrary; and because in the Blessed Virgin this was a purifying from all sin, therefore she attained the summit of purity; but beneath God, in Whom there is not even capability of deficiency, such as is to be found in every creature whatsoever." 2 And a bit later in the same. Book of Sentences St. Thomas amplifies that statement, spells out its meaning. "Purity is intensified by recession from its contrary; therefore there can be some created reality than which nothing in creation can be more pure, if (that reality) is stained by no taint of sin; and such was the purity of the Blessed Virgin who was immune from original and actual sin; yet (she was) beneath God, inasmuch as there was in her capability of sinning." 3 These closely-related texts need little comment. These points alone need be urged with respect to them. First there is no doubt whatever of their authenticity, no doubt whatever that here St. Thomas expressly affirms Mary's immunity from original sin, and from all sin. Secondly, the first of the two texts, considered even apart from the second, is sufficient to indicate St. Thomas' mind on the matter. Many early Fathers of the Church and ecclesiastical authors whose words are cited in favor of Mary's Immaculate Conception expressed them2 1 Sent., d. 17, q. ~. a. 4. • Ibid., d. 44, q. I, a. 3, ad 3. MARY IMMACULATE IN THE WRITINGS OF ST. THOMAS 435 selves only in such general terms as did St. Thomas in this first place. Thirdly, however, too much importance should not be attached to these texts for the reason that in the places cited the Immaculate Conception is not being treated ex professo but only incidentally...