Can you help me with Mary's Immaculate Conception?

[OldeThom]

I am studying the US CCA in preparation for the RCIA class this Sept. I have been a life long protestant, having been raised a Baptist, but associated with other denominations as well. My question is two-fold: Why was it necessary for Mary to be sinless in order to give birth to Jesus? Accepting that Mary was free from original sin at conception, is the Church also saying she was sinless during her life?

I know that no Scripture (Mary being “full of grace”, notwithstanding) supports the Immaculate Conception directly and that it is through Tradition that it has been taught, passed down and finally made doctrine (1854). I have been wading through the catholic.com’s archive and found some very useful articles, as well as elsewhere. I am trying to understand and accept a very foundational part of the Church not deny it. However, I am finding it hard to believe that Mary lived a sinless life, if that is the case, because, as I have come to understand it all my life, no can be forced to stop sinning, or do good for that matter, because of free will. That no human can “become free” of free will. That all corruption in God’s creation was due to original sin, either temporal, eg., painfully stubbing ones toe, a sickness or even aging, or by some willful act or thought, given the desire to sin (Concupiscence).

Thank you in advance,
Thom

 

[Fr.Vincent_Serpa]

Hi Thom,

Do you think that Jesus didn’t deserve to have a sinless woman as His mother? Certainly He deserved to have such a woman for His mother. Now did He NEED such a woman as His mother. He didn’t need such a mother in the sense that He is God and could handle it.
But by the fact that He is God, He needed such a mother in that He deserved such a one.
We forget how detestable sin is to God. For God to become incarnate in a womb of such filth would be most inappropriate.

Being “full of grace” does not deserve to be sloughed off. The Gospel of Luke attributes those words to the angel Gabriel as addressed to Mary. “Highly favored one” is a poor translation that Protestants like. To be full of grace is just that! Grace can give the strength to live a moral life-even for the likes of us—let alone being full of grace as she was.

To live without the effects of original sin would indeed make living a sinless life quite possible—as Mary did. Even though she was conceived without original sin, by her membership in the human race, she still needed to be redeemed. But she did live without the effects of original sin that we have to contend with.

Fr. Vincent Serpa, O.P.