Original Sin, Mary, Childbirth, & Assumption/dormition

[brianthephysicist]

I'm trying to understand what it means for Mary to have been conceived without original sin and living life without sin.

As far as my current understanding, the pain of childbirth (along with the risk of grave medical complications) was given to mankind as another way of sobering us to the reality of the undertaking that is the creation of new life. I don't mean that we aren't supposed to have fun, I just mean that we need to seriously consider our state in life before having children. If I imagine a world without the pain of childbirth, I see the birthrate increasing exponentially without regard for the actual care of the children (more new life = good, but not caring for those lives = bad).

In the past, I've been told that because Mary had no original sin and never sinned in her life, she felt no pains of childbirth when giving birth to Jesus, with the reasoning of the above paragraph that we only need the pains of childbirth in our fallen state. Is this true?

Part of me agrees with it and part of me disagrees with it. I have this sense that saying this is true ignores her sharing in humanity (I get all mixed up inside when people start calling her a creature) or the sense that she dealt with the same issues that we do. But there's another part of me with the esoteric belief that this doesn't ignore her sharing in humanity, but rather fulfills the true dignity of her humanity.



Also, with the same kind of idea of the pain of childbirth as being a kind of suffering that can bring goodness into the world (in the form of respecting new life), my current understanding of death has the same context. This idea that death is here to sober us to the reality of eternity and the need to trust in Him, and reminding us to turn from our sin (most especially in the context of deathbed confessions).

What does this mean for Mary's assumption/dormition? Did she die and then was raised to Heaven body and soul, or did she fall asleep (similar to Adam) and was carried up to Heaven?



Sorry for the rant, but I've been trying to work through this on my own and I haven't been able to really nail any of this down in a cohesive fashion. Help with any single part of this is most helpful, thanks in advance. God bless!

[CatherineM]

The contractions during childbirth provide a function. They help the infant to begin breathing properly. Being a good mom, Mary never shied away from pain. As to the specifics of her birth, his birth, or her death, we don't know for certain. We know the theology involved, but science and physicality involved are those things we call miracles because they are beyond our comprehension.

I do know that if I had Jesus' power to prevent my mother from experiencing the pain of death, I would have.