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“Not unless there was an Immaculate Conception….”
It’s a punchline I hear from time-to-time. Most often the jokester is implying that something or someone was (or was not) “conceived without sex … like Jesus.”
I usually bite my lip and say nothing. Often, I’ll wait until the joke-teller is alone; I’ll then try to quietly approach him or her and usually privately say something like this:
“I know you’re an intelligent person and wouldn’t want to tell someone something that isn’t true, but a virgin birth …. ummm … sorry … that’s not the Immaculate Conception.”
Few people are immuned from this dogmatic faux pas.
Religious affiliation doesn’t inoculate one from error. Unfortunately, Catholics often have to be corrected on this infallible teaching in Catholicism.
Intelligence doesn’t spare one either.
After the 2016 Presidential election, Secretary Hillary Clinton joked, “The things that come out of some of these men’s mouths … maybe you (these men) were dropped by immaculate conception.”
According to the article, her joke was received with “rousing applause from the audience.”
Reading this truly made me sad.
Not only did the audience, the news reporter, and the editorial team not know the true meaning of the Immaculate Conception, but the woman telling the joke — who is arguably the most prominent woman in the United States, if not the world — didn’t even know the truth of the Immaculate Conception.
This isn’t a political statement against Mrs. Clinton. I’m sure I can find plenty of theological faux pas on her opponent’s Twitter account. The point of reference here is the Immaculate Conception.
The Immaculate Conception is not an it. The Immaculate Conception is a who.
The Immaculate Conception is actually a woman!
The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that this woman was “redeemed in a more exalted fashion, by reason of the merits of her Son” (CCC 492).
She was a woman full of grace, kecharitomene. A woman blessed above all women. A holy woman who became the Mother of God.
She was conceived just like you and me. However, when she was conceived, she became and forever remained Kecharitomene. Immaculate!
So, it’s not Jesus who was conceived “immaculately”. His mother, Mary, was!
Sorry for ruining future punchlines.
To learn more about the Immaculate Conception, go to Catholic Answers. You may also like to The Science of the Immaculate Conception.
James Henry is also the author of Corporation YOU: A Business Plan for the Soul, ‘Twas, Hail Mary series, and two children’s books: The Second Prince and Klaus: The Gift-giver to ALL! To contact James or book an interview, please contact Mark of Goldman/McCormick PR at (516) 639 0988 or Mark@goldmanmccormick.com.
Corporation YOU 
[…] a child with a deity minus the act intercourse, well … it’s not. In truth, the Immaculate Conception is a person, the Virgin Mary, who was conceived naturally — just like everybody else — except she was conceived […]
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