Born without sin

[Lucy_1]

I was just listening to an old Mother Angelica show on the Immaculate Conception, and she said that Jeremiah, Isaiah, and John the Baptist weren’t immaculately conceived, but they were born without original sin.

I have never heard this before. First, I thought that’s what the Immaculate Conception was-- being born without sin. What’s the distinction? What is a source I could verify this? If true are there others who have been born without sin?

 

[brown_bear]

Jeremiah and John the Baptist were sanctified in the womb of their mothers.

I don’t know what this means exactly, but personally I doubt it is the cancellation of the original sin.

If the Magisterium of the Church had taken a position, of course I would accept it, but I don’t think it happened, while on the other hand the personal opinion of the saints is not “per se” Magisterium.

The Virgin Mary, on the other hand, was certainly preserved from original sin from conception, therefore before birth, since the formation of the zygote.

This yes is the Magisterium of the Church.

 

[ProdglArchitect]

First, I thought that’s what the Immaculate Conception was-- being born without sin.

Mary was conceived without sin. From the moment the sperm and the egg joined, the new creation was sinless and perfected in grace. This means that she was free from all the effects of original sin. Most importantly, she was free from concupiscence (the inclination towards sin.)

John the Baptist was born without sin. That means that at some point between conception and birth he was granted the gift of sanctifying grace through some means known only to God. He would still have been subject to the effects of original sin, since its defect was still present when he was conceived.

 

[Genesis315]

Jeremiah was sanctified in the womb according to Scripture:

Jeremiah 1:[4] And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: [5] Before I formed thee in the bowels of thy mother, I knew thee: and before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and made thee a prophet unto the nations.

I don’t know the support (if any) for Isaiah off the top of my head.

Regarding St. John the Baptist, here is what Scripture says:

Luke 1: [15] For he shall be great before the Lord; and shall drink no wine nor strong drink: and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother’ s womb.

Pope Leo XIII taught this in the encyclical Iucund Semper Expectatione:

Then St. John the Baptist, by a singular privilege, is sanctified in his mother’s womb and favored with special graces that he might prepare the way of the Lord; and this comes to pass by the greeting of Mary who had been inspired to visit her cousin.

Also, Pope Innocent III required a certain profession of faith to be recited by repentant heretics in the letter Fitts exemplo. Here’s the relevant portion (Denzinger 421):

We believe that God is the one and same author of the Old and the New Testament, who existing in the Trinity, as it is said, created all things from nothing; and that John the Baptist, sent by Him, was holy and just, and in the womb of his mother was filled with the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit does not dwell within one unless he is in the state of grace, which means original sin has been remitted.

Also, just to add, St. Thomas notes that the fact that some have been sanctified in the womb answers the objection that original sin is more powerful than the salvation of Christ, since Baptism cannot reach inside the womb. He notes that original sin can be remitted by the gratuitous act of God, like it was for those sanctified in the womb.

Children while in the mother’s womb have not yet come forth into the world to live among other men. Consequently they cannot be subject to the action of man, so as to receive the sacrament, at the hands of man, unto salvation. They can, however, be subject to the action of God, in Whose sight they live, so as, by a kind of privilege, to receive the grace of sanctification; as was the case with those who were sanctified in the womb.

newadvent.org/summa/4068.htm#article11

 

[Vico]

I was just listening to an old Mother Angelica show on the Immaculate Conception, and she said that Jeremiah, Isaiah, and John the Baptist weren’t immaculately conceived, but they were born without original sin.

I have never heard this before. First, I thought that’s what the Immaculate Conception was-- being born without sin. What’s the distinction? What is a source I could verify this? If true are there others who have been born without sin?

The only descendants of Adam that were conceived without original sin are Jesus Christ, and the Blessed Virgin Mary. The exception for the Blessed Virgin Mary is per the Council of Trent Decree on Original Sin. Born is later than conceived so maybe some have been baptized in the womb.

2. If anyone asserts that the transgression of Adam has harmed him alone and not his posterity, and that the sanctity and justice, received from God, which he lost, he has lost for himself alone and not for us also; or that he having been defiled by the sin of disobedience has transfused only death “and the punishments of the body into the whole human race, but not sin also, which is the death of the soul,” let him be anathema, since he contradicts the Apostle who says: “By one man sin entered into the world, and by sin death, and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned”

6. This holy Synod declares nevertheless that it is not its intention to include in this decree, where original sin is treated of, the blessed and immaculate Virgin Mary mother of God, but that the constitutions of Pope Sixtus IV of happy memory are to be observed, under the penalties contained in these constitutions, which it renews.