O Sanctissima!

Mary is preeminent among all the saints. Why? It was by her that Christ took on humanity, and so accomplished our redemption. It was by her yes that the Incarnation was set in motion, by her love of the Lord and her purity that God the Father entrusted her with his only begotten Son, by her openness to the Holy Spirit that the Son was conceived in her womb and borne there for 9 months.

And here we come to the crux of why I'm so solidly convinced of the Immaculate Conception of Mary. I think this is the root of the Orthodox conviction that she is Panhagia, as well--because the Temple of the Living God, "the throne of grace", the seat of wisdom, the heaven in which God dwells, the burning bush, the mountain of our Lord's visitation--this is an utterly holy place. When God came to Sinai, the people were told that if they'd failed to preserve themselves in chastity and purity, they would die when they set foot upon the mountain. When Moses approached the burning bush, he was told to remove his sandals, for this was holy ground. When an unauthorized man lay hands on the ark of the covenant (even for the purpose of saving it from toppling over), he was slain instantly. The ark was kept in a zone of holiness when in the campground of the Israelites and in the Holy of Holies in the Temple, into which only the High Priest could go once a year at the feast of atonement to make reparation for the sins of the people. Only the High Priest could enter the Holy of Holies, where the Ark of the Covenant, containing the bread from heaven, the rod of Aaron's priesthood, and the Word of God, was kept, and place blood on the mercy seat, where God sat on earth.

That is, only Jesus the High Priest could enter the womb of Mary, the Temple of the Living God, overshadowed by the Holy Spirit for the salvation of the people and the making-present Emmanuel, God with us. Only Jesus in that womb, only the Bread from heaven, the child ruling with the rod of iron and the one high priest mediating between heaven and earth, only the Logos, the Word of God.

Mary is the Holy of Holies. How on earth could she not have been the Immaculate Conception?