Singinbeauty:
- The whole ‘do you think newborns sin’ argument is weak at best. We aren’t necessarily talking about the ACTION of sinning that is attached to us but we are talking about the Original Sin that is attached from birth. We all fall short of the Glory of God. No one, not even a baby, can earn the place next to God. It is Jesus’ sacrifice that brings us to God, not our own volition.
Anyway, I know that not everyone is going to agree with these points. In fact the majority of you are going to scoff, complain, disagree, and ridicule these thoughts and that is your right. I can’t wait to hear what you have to say!
Hey Singinin’
Most of your thoughts have already been addressed well I think here, but something that I haven’t read a response to and that really concerns me is the end of your third point.
You say that “we all fall short of the Glory of God. No one, not even a baby, can earn the place next to God.”
I just wanted say THAT’S THE WHOLE POINT! No human being can “earn” grace. That’s why it’s GRACE. It is a free gift of our most loving, merciful, and just God. Christ redeemed the whole world. He is the Savior of all mankind. This includes his own mother! This is precisely why we look to what the angel said to the Blessed Mother. . .
He called her “kecharitomene.” This word is just so full of inspiration. An angel of the Lord appeared to a young woman who had found favor with the Lord and the angel said to her “Hail, Kecharitomene! The Lord is with you. Blessed are you among women.” The name given to address Mary literally translates to “full of grace” or “wholly gift of God.”
This is how we understand the blessedness and sinlessness of the Mother of our Lord. She is “full of grace” and the special favor she has found with the Lord is wholly a gift from the Almighty! She, like newborn babies, did not earn this gift of grace and holiness. God is great, He can do anything he desires according to his will! He willed for a young Jewish girl to become the mother of the Lord and he prepared her perfectly for that role.
As Catholics (and Orthodox and many early Protestants), we do not assign Mary attributes that are inappropriate to her position. Her sinlessness is a manifestation of her incredible role in salvation history. It is wholly a gift from God. She was filled with the grace of God such that even before her Son entered the world and fulfilled his saving mission, she could say truly and without reservation:
“My being proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit finds joy in God my savior. . .” (Luke 1:46-47).
None of us proclaim the greatness of the Lord better than when we follow His perfect will for our lives and sin and disobedience have no place in that. And Mary, unlike any other creature, experienced the saving power of her Lord and God and Son from the very first moment the Almighty chose her to bring forth the Savior!