God is infinite; he is not limited. It may be hard for you or I to comprehend, but by Jesus dying on the cross he gave us the greatest example of loving sacrifice we could possibly ever obtain. Sure, it was not necessary for God to do so, but He chose to.
good idea. I’ll do that.
No, it is simply Catholic teaching that this is how Jesus did it.
Does it bear a *nihil obstat * and imprimatur?
Yes, it depended on rank of the person.
Yes, but because God is omnibonevolent, omniscient, and omnipotent, A death on the cross was the best option God could have chosen. If there were a better option, God would have known about it and would have chosen that. There is something in Jesus’s suffering and death that make it the best possible option. It just doesn’t make sense that Jesus would have died on the cross if he could have simply wisked away our original sin without suffering and dying.
What is substitionary atonement?
I would suspect because Mary being conceived without Original Sin is important because of what it says something about Jesus.
I didn’t know a lot about the idea of Immaculate Conception. So, I just did some research. I guess it was not accepted as Catholic dogma until 1854. The idea was rejected by Thomas Aquinas, and other prominent theologians. Is it a universally held view in the Catholic Church, or is it still subject to controversy?First of all, we need to be careful about claiming what God would or would not do.
That being said, I always understood Original Sin to be something that we inherited from our parents all the way back to Adam. Since Mary was Immaculately Conceived, she was free from the stain and therefore could not have passed it on to Jesus. Furthermore, since Jesus’ Father is God, He could not have possibly inherited it that way, either. TBH though, this explanation seem a little legalistic and lacking in the “awesome power” department that God is so good at.
The natural follow-up question, of course, is, “If God allowed Mary to be conceived without Original Sin, then why wouldn’t He do that for everyone?”
I know it’s not much of an answer, but see the quote from Isaiah. God does things in His own way, in His own time. Although, I believe this relates to the age-old question, “If God is perfect and can do anything He wants, why didn’t He create a world in which no one would ever sin?” The honest answer is that even the greatest minds of our (and all) times have struggled with this question. Hopefully we will know and understand all when we see God face-to-face. In the meantime, all we can do is hope and trust.
Right. If God had to choose only one person to be without original sin, Mary would be the obvious choice. But there is no reason why he would have to stop at one.
He can do anything, so I suppose you are technically correct. But He is God, I’m sure there is a reason. I don’t think God did this randomly. To my best guess (and it is just a guess) I would suggest that it is because we aren’t Jesus. Everything about Mary is because of what it says about Jesus.
Once it is pronounced dogma it is not subject to controversy.
I’m taking the RCIA classes and am trying to sort things out - what do we base this belief on - where does it come from? I understand the logic behind it, but I don’t know where the ideas originate from. Thanks so much for helping.
The sentence I bolded is the key here as to why you don’t understand yet, zro. God is a mystery. We do not understand everything He does.
They emanate from the kerygma, swplan, which is what was proclaimed once, for all, by the Apostles.
Kerygma means proclamation. I think you’re trying to tell me that the Apostles proclaimed these things in the time of the early church and it was passed to us through reliable hands… I think that’s what it is, but I’m not clear on it - is that right? I’m just trying to figure out how it is that certain conclusions are made.
Kerygma is the Deposit of Faith given to us through Sacred Tradition.
Some words are confusing to me. Kerygma literally means Proclamation, but through tradition it has come to hold a deeper meaning. ‘Testament’ is another word like that - Testament means a story, recalling, or a history, but through tradition, I’ve been told, it has gained additional meaning.