Br.Jr…
Please explain what u mean ." She’s a divine event" …vis-a-vis what John the Baptizer received, in the womb ?
The Divine Event is what God did. He created Mary without Original Sin. She was never stained by Original Sin. Mary was redeemed by her son’s cross, before her conception. This is the divine event.
We do not say that she was born without Original Sin. We say that she was conceived without it, meaning that she came into existence without Original Sin. In this regard, the event is divine. Mary could not do this for herself. She could not conceive herself, nor could she redeem herself before her conception. This is only possible through divine intervention. The event of her conception is a Divine Event.
We, on the other hand, are conceived and born with Original Sin. Baptism removes the stain of original sin from us, but not the natural consequences of Original Sin.
Proof that she didn’t die ? Also brother, we know she aged …so how can u make those claims above ?
For example, we know that Mary lived about 70 years, give or take, since the calendar cannot be trusted. But that does not mean that she suffered any of the consequences that are the result of Original Sin. Aging and illness are not the same.
The Church has never said that Mary died, nor that she did not die. To affirm this with such confidence is to speak out of turn, as such a statement can only be made by the Magisterium. There is the proof. The silence of the Magisterium is the proof that there is no proof that she died.
If we follow the law of prayer is the law of belief, the liturgy makes no reference to her death. It only speaks about the course of her earthly life coming to an end. This was deliberately written this way so as to avoid saying that she died. There is nothing in the faith of the early Church that speaks authoritatively to the question of death.
Br. JR…
Does the Church teach Mary’s redemption, apart from its very early timing, ANY DIFFERENT from ours ?
Also, did Mary need or, like Christ, undergo water baptism ?
Neither Mary nor Christ needed baptism of water. Christ’s baptism by John foreshadows the Sacrament of Baptism. John himself said that it was not a sacramental baptism. It was a sign of conversion. Sacramental Baptism is more than a sign of conversion. It literally washes away the stain of Original Sin. Jesus and Mary did not have Original Sin; therefore, they did not need sacramental baptism.
The Church teaches us that Mary’s redemption is different from our own in several respects and the same in others.
Let’s begin with the same. She too must be redeemed by the cross. She cannot redeem herself. She was redeemed by the cross.
Let’s go to the difference. The cross is timeless. Therefore, Mary was redeemed before she was conceived, unlike us. We are redeemed after our conception. Mary is the only person who is redeemed before conception, making it possible to be conceived without Original Sin. This is the faith of the Church.
There is another difference between us and Mary. Mary’s Immaculate Conception is the Father’s gift to the Son. She is the first tabernacle. She is the Virgin made Church. The Second Person of the Trinity is spared from all contact with sin prior to his conception by being conceived in the womb of a perfect mother. We are not created perfect. Mary was created perfect, because she had a redemptive mission to fulfill.
Since Jesus takes his human nature from his mother, it was necessary that he have the perfect mother in order to have perfect human nature. Thus the Church teaches us that she is the New Eve and he is the New Adam. Originally, Adam and Eve were given perfect human nature, which they damaged through sin. Jesus and Mary also have been given the same perfect human nature, which both preserve through fidelity to the Father. Mary receives the grace necessary for this, graces beyond what we receive.
The words of Gabriel are very important. In Luke, the angel refers to Mary as “filled with grace”. This is a very Greek expression. To be filled with grace is to be filled with divine life. In other words, Mary had what the rest of us are working for. She had union with the Divine. In Lukan language, to have found favor with the Lord means to have earned the Lord’s predilection. We don’t enjoy such predilection. There is another difference between her and us.
On the one hand, she is redeemed through the timeless sacrifice of the cross just as we are.
On the other hand, she is redeemed before she is conceived, unlike us who are redeemed through Baptism and so forth.
Like us, she strives toward union with the divine, of which the mystics speak. Unlike us, she is conceived united to the divine by a special act of grace.
Like us, God favors her over other creatures (dogs, cats, etc). Unlike us, God favors her over all other human beings.
Like us, she is a mother. Unlike us, she transmits to her son a perfect human nature through the grace of God granted to her at the moment of her conception.
Like her son, she is like us in all things, but sin. Therefore, she is the perfect disciple, unlike us.
As Bl. John Duns Scotus said, God shows his love for his Son through the favors that he grants to the mother from her conception, favors not granted to any other mother.
Her redemption is really a statement about Christ. The eternal Logos, deserved nothing less than a mother who had never known sin. The only possible way is to redeem her before she is conceived, so that she has no contact with sin.
All of this can be found in the Catholic Catechism for Adults published by the USCCB. It’s an excellent book. It uses the CCC as a guide, but is more specific.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, FFV :christmastree1:
