John the Baptist was without sin?

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maryalene

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My 2nd grader was telling me that they learned in religion class that John the Baptist was without sin. While he was conceived with original sin, when he lept in Elizabeth’s womb, that was God removing his sin. Therefore, he was sinless during his lifetime, just like Mary and Jesus.

I’ve never heard of this before and am, quite frankly, not sure it sounds right. Has anyone else heard this?
 
He was sanctified in the womb–while we don’t know for sure, that is good reason to believe he might have been sinless. This also goes for the prophet Jeremiah, which Scripture testifies was also sanctified in the womb. Enoch and Elijah also must have been purely sanctified at some point if they were taken straight to Heaven.

The fact however is that none of us can say for sure if these four holy men were sinless. I tend to not think so, because none of them are called “full of grace.”
 
maryalene said:
My 2nd grader was telling me that they learned in religion class that John the Baptist was without sin. While he was conceived with original sin, when he lept in Elizabeth’s womb, that was God removing his sin. Therefore, he was sinless during his lifetime, just like Mary and Jesus.

I’ve never heard of this before and am, quite frankly, not sure it sounds right. Has anyone else heard this?
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No, and you need to correct him on this, John was indeed born cleansed of original sin. John was in essence “baptized” into the Holy Spirit while within the womb of Elizabeth. He was not conceived free of original sin, only Jesus and Mary were. We have no evidence that John lived free of sin. That is not a part of the Catholic Church teaching.
 
Here’s a quote from the online Catholic Encyclopedia that explains why John the Baptist was born without the stain of original sin:
“And it came to pass, that when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the infant” – filled, like the mother, with the Holy Ghost – “leaped for joy in her womb”, as if to acknowledge the presence of his Lord. Then was accomplished the prophetic utterance of the angel that the child should “be filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mother’s womb”. Now as the presence of any sin whatever is incompatible with the indwelling of the Holy Ghost in the soul, it follows that at this moment John was cleansed from the stain of original sin.
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However, the teacher was wrong about John the Baptist being without sin his whole life. He was cleansed of original sin in the womb, but he still had a wounded human nature, just like the rest of us, one prone to sin. Only Jesus and Mary did not.
 
maryalene said:
My 2nd grader was telling me that they learned in religion class that John the Baptist was without sin. While he was conceived with original sin, when he lept in Elizabeth’s womb, that was God removing his sin. Therefore, he was sinless during his lifetime, just like Mary and Jesus.

I’ve never heard of this before and am, quite frankly, not sure it sounds right. Has anyone else heard this?
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It’s Church Tradition that St. John the Baptist was Born without Original Sin. Because he was Conceived with Original Sin he, like us had a human propensity to sin. Not the same as the Blessed Virgin Mary.
 
Thank you all for your quick responses. I might touch base with the teacher to see if my daughter is correctly reporting what they are being taught. Thanks for the clarification!
 
Maryalene,

Glad I saw this thread! Similar thing happened to me, I’m the assistant teacher in a class and the teacher mentioned something about this in discussing feast days.

It was new to me and I took it with a healthy grain of salt. Discussing it with him after class, he said he wasn’t sure of the details but that a former priest had mentioned it in a homily and he would have to look into the details.

So, what little research I’ve done into the matter concurs with what others here have said, which is basically that at conception, John the Baptist was like all of us but that probably at the Visitation when he was filled with the Holy Spirit, he was then cleansed of original sin. Then he was physically born…born free of original sin.

It would be nice to find some real Magesterial information on that topic so we would have something more concrete than a generic “the Church teaches it” response or support for it when asked.
 
Abiien said:
Would it be rightful to say, he was babtized in the womb?
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That’s exactly what I would say. He was in fact in “water” and he did have the Holy Spirit enter him. Sounds like the Basptists Baptism. As for an “official” Church teaching, the Church doesn’t decide on its teachings of its own accord, remember it is led to all truth by the Holy Spirit. If the Holy Spirit hasn’t led the leadership of the Church to “define” this, then the leadership can not. They don’t make up stuff (or accept stuff) because it makes sense to them.
 
Abiien said:
Would it be rightful to say, he was babtized in the womb?
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No, I wouldn’t it would just confuse people with Sacramental Baptism. You would be better to say he was Sanctified while in the womb.
 
Tom said:
That’s exactly what I would say. He was in fact in “water” and he did have the Holy Spirit enter him. Sounds like the Basptists Baptism. As for an “official” Church teaching, the Church doesn’t decide on its teachings of its own accord, remember it is led to all truth by the Holy Spirit. If the Holy Spirit hasn’t led the leadership of the Church to “define” this, then the leadership can not. They don’t make up stuff (or accept stuff) because it makes sense to them.
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Amniotic fluid is not water.
 
But as far as being born without original sin–one of the things I was taught along the way is that the Church celebrates 3 birthdays (all other saints, the day is the day of death, not when they were first born)–and that lack of original sin at birth is why (even though that’s the only thing in common between the three–and also that John the Baptist’s conception was ordinary, thus no feast for that … in contrast to the Annunciation & Immaculate Conception).
 
Melissa said:
the Church celebrates 3 birthdays (all other saints, the day is the day of death, not when they were first born)–and that lack of original sin at birth is why
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Yes, that’s what I’ve understood too. This is pretty interesting, and I’m glad to see there’s no big argument about it here at like 20 posts or whatever.

We also celebrate the day of the Blessed Virgin’s Assumption into Heaven, which would be the closest thing to her death I guess. So she has several feast days once you include the feasts for various apparitions.

Lack of original sin at birth must be, I believe, carefully distinguished from lack of original sin at conception.
 
We also celebrate the day of the Blessed Virgin’s Assumption into Heaven, which would be the closest thing to her death I guess. So she has several feast days once you include the feasts for various apparitions.
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Actually the Feast of the Assumption was originally called the Feast of the Dormition, and still is in the Eastern Catholic Churches, so it does technically commemorate her death 😉

Peace and God bless!
 
John the Baptist was conceived with original sin.

His sanctification in the womb was a mystical (non-formal) Baptism, conferring the same grace as a formal Baptism, but without the formal Sacrament (which did not yet exist).

This sanctification removed the guilt of original sin and gave him sanctifying grace from that time on. However, he still had concupiscence, the tendency toward sin that we all have also.

I believe that John the Baptist was free from all personal sin throughout his life due to that sanctification in the womb and his special role to proclaim Christ before his arrival.

Ron
 
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