Mary Being Sinless

[ToJesusMyHeart]

I believe it. But I realized today that I don't know why the Catholic Church teaches this.

 

Why do we believe Mary was sinless? Why did she need to be sinless? And why did God choose to make Mary sinless, but not the rest of us? Why was she so special to be preserved from sin entirely, but we aren't good enough?

 

I ask because a Baptist was asking me and my answers were lame. 

 

Also, is there Biblical evidence for this besides St. Gabriel's greeting to Mary?

[Not The Philosopher]

Here are a couple of thoughts:

 

- Just as Jesus shows us what a perfect man is, so does Mary show us what a perfect woman is. Furthermore, since she is not divine, she gives us a very clear example of what the rest of us humans will be like.

- It is more fitting for Jesus to be in the womb of a woman who is not affected by sin. Mother and child are, uh, very close in those formative months.

[Basilisa Marie]

It seems to me that most of our theology of Mary doesn't directly come from the Bible, but rather pious extrapolations of it and reason.

 

Mary didn't need to be sinless.  God chose to keep her free from original sin so that she'd be fully free to agree to being Jesus' mom (not bound by any sinful temptation). That's the whole "full of grace" thing. God could have chosen to have a regular, sinful woman be Jesus' mother.  But he didn't, and preserving Mary from original sin was a great free gift to her. Mary was also a very pious and holy woman, we see this in the Magnificat.  She could have freely chosen to sin if she wanted, but because she was preserved from original sin I don't think she faced the same kinds of attraction toward sin like we would. She was certainly tempted, and could have sinned, but she was very close to the Father and her Son, so it's highly unlikely.  

I know some people believed that Jesus got his divinity from God the Father and his humanity totally from Mary, and because it was also believed that original sin was literally passed from parent to child (like dna), Mary "had" to be sinless.  But I don't think those theological ideas are really in vogue anymore. It's not a question of necessity.  It's more of a free gift from God, like all grace is.  

At least, that's how I understand it. 

[ToJesusMyHeart]

But why didn't God give the same gift of grace to us? Why doesn't he love us enough to spare us from original sin too? Why only her?

[Gabriela]

But why didn't God give the same gift of grace to us? Why doesn't he love us enough to spare us from original sin too? Why only her?

 

This is a good question, TJMH, and I have wondered about it on multiple occasions. Specifically the "why was it necessary", because I tend to be of the opinion that God does not do the unnecessary. I've never asked about this question, but when I reason out what I know of the faith before Christ came among us, it makes sense to me, because:

 

In the OT, sin separated one from God, and the only way to get back to Him was to offer a sacrifice in the temple. Imagine that Mary sinned while pregnant and was separated from God. She'd be separated from Him all the way to the temple—that was a long way. But how was it possible that she be separated from Him for so long when God was literally dwelling within her?

 

God is so holy, pure, and perfect that He cannot, by His very nature, come into contact with sin. He can't be united with it in any way. But arguably, the "union" of a mother and her child is even more intense, intimate, and perfect than that of a husband and wife. So if she's gonna' carry God in her womb, she can't come anywhere near His "kryptonite".

 

Make sense?

 

Someone please correct me if my theology is wack here.

[Gabriela]

But why didn't God give the same gift of grace to us? Why doesn't he love us enough to spare us from original sin too? Why only her?

 

Life would be a lot less interesting if He did. ;-)

 

Honestly: I think this is hard to understand because we so commonly bind up sin with free will. We sin because we have the choice to, right? So if Mary didn't have sin, it's because she was protected from that, which means she didn't have free will, but then how could she freely choose to give her fiat to God?

 

My assumption is that, what it means for Mary to be protected from original sin is simply that she was so pious and "full of grace" and "in tune" with God's will that she never gave sin a second thought. That means her free will was intact—she just wasn't into the sin thing. And it was probably a foregone conclusion to God that she'd give her fiat.

 

If you think about how God "hardened the heart" of Pharaoh, you'll see that God does often influence the hearts of people in these extreme ways. Maybe this is all He did to Mary, and this is all it means for her to have been "preserved from original sin".

 

Again: Not a theologian here. Far from it. Corrections welcome.

[BarbTherese]

Read "Theology and Sanity" (Frank Sheed) and a good introduction is another Sheed book (this one available on line) "Theology for Beginners".