What caused Mary to die?

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nfinke said:
I was under the impression that being free from original sin
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Original sin is about moral defect, not about bodily deterioration. She always willed to do the LORD’s will, and you might say that she died eating when he said “Take and eat”, but not grabbing to eat to fix her own hunger for herself.
 
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Margaret_Ann said:
She had a perfect human nature because She had no original sin. Therefore, she was not subject to illness, concupiscence, ignorance, weakness of the will and death like the rest of us.
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Jesus was not weak of will or subject to concupiscence, but He certainly in every respect appears to have had a normal human body that got older with the years in the normal human fashion, wept, bled, was hungry and thirsty, suffered and died. There is no reason to think, given that He was like us in all ways but sin, that He was exempt from human illness either. Such is not recorded, but then why would common illnesses be?

And if suffering is salvific, Mary would have suffered too. Illness is one of the ways we suffer.

I don’t know about her death - Enoch and Elijah didn’t die but were assumed into heaven body and soul. The idea that she didn’t suffer illness, though, doesn’t make sense to me.
 
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Don’t Catholics believe that no one dies and everyone ends up in heaven or hell with their body and their soul? If so, why does this matter or way or another?
 
St. Alphonsus Liguori “As the divine love gave her life, so it gave her death; for she died as the holy Doctors and Fathers of the Church generally affirm, of no other infirmity than pure love; for St. IIdephonsus says, that Mary either ought not to die, or only die of love.”
 
Margaret_Ann said:
She had a perfect human nature because She had no original sin. Therefore, she was not subject to illness, concupiscence, ignorance, weakness of the will and death like the rest of us.
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The Church allows Catholics to believe she died or did not die before the Assumption so it is not a teaching that she died or did not die.
 
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We believe that when we die, our souls are separated from our bodies and we will be reunited at the end of the world. Mary is special in that she has her body and soul right now.
 
Dan_Defender said:
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Tis_Bearself:
Once again, Jesus had no original sin. Jesus died.
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I would add that most Catholics believe John the Baptist was born without original sin (yes yes, I know it is not dogma). And he died too.
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Born, or conceived?

I only ask because I wonder if this assertion is based on his leaping in the womb when he “met” Jesus — the first person ever to profess that Jesus is Lord? Perhaps having original sin removed from him as a special privilege because of this? Perhaps fitting that he who baptized Jesus would be sinless himself?
 
An excellent book on the death and Assumption of Mary, Dormition in Patrisitic an Orthodox sources; can be found here:

On the Dormition of Mary

She passed peacefully, was buried by the Apostles, and went into Heaven bodily shortly after, according to various Patristic sources in this book.
 
Yes, Jesus is like us in all things except sin (iirc, that’s from the Epistle of St. Paul to the Hebrews).

However, Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the Second Person of the Holy Trinity with two natures, Divine and human, in the unity of His Divine Person. And according to St. Paul, He is the New Adam (c.f. Romans).

When the first Adam was created, he had a perfect human nature not subject to illness, concupiscence, death or decay.

The same applies to Eve. She had the same prerogatives as Adam. It wasn’t until Adam & Eve sinned that they were stripped of the preternatural gifts of immortality, integrity etc (sorry, I forget the other two). Then they were subject to ignorance, illness, old age and death.
Had Adam & Eve not sinned, things would be very different today (e.g. we’d all be immortal).

Since Jesus IS the New Adam and Mary is the New Eve, then they must be superior to the old Adam & Eve. Therefore, they must have all the prerogatives of the old Adam & Eve and even more, like St. Irenaeus says: “Death through Eve, life through Mary.”

Therefore, they would have not been subject to bodily death since death is one of the effects of original sin. As I previously posted, Jesus willingly died on the cross for our salvation. Mary fell asleep out of pure love for God.

Does that help?
 
I don’t think any Catholics believe, and the Church certainly does not teach, that John the Baptist was conceived without original sin. There is a traditional belief that John the Baptist’s original sin was removed in the womb when he leapt at the approach of Mary pregnant with Jesus, that the leap signified his being filled with God’s grace as he would have been via a Catholic baptism. So accordng to the traditional belief, which is not official Church teaching, he would have been conceived with original sin, but purified prior to his birth.

Official Church teaching says that Mary of course was immaculately conceived without original sin, and Jesus was also conceived without original sin. Mary is the only fully human person conceived without original sin.
 
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For what it’s worth, the Eastern Church has a feast of St John’s conception in addition to the feast of his nativity. In the Latin Church we celebrate three nativities (the three persons born without original sin) but only celebrate two conceptions. Only saints are celebrated with feasts…just a thought.
 
John the Baptist’s conception was miraculous in that his mother was past childbearing age and thought to be barren, and part of God’s plan as he was the forerunner. All this is extensively documented in Scripture. Having a liturgical commemoration of John the Baptist’s miraculous conception does not give any indication to me that he is thought to have been conceived without original sin. I also have not found any support for that belief on any Eastern Church sites.

Besides, if he had been conceived without original sin, then it’s dubious whether God would have needed to give him any additional outpouring of grace when Christ in utero came into John the Baptist’s presence in utero.
 
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The question whether it is death or dormition of Our Lady is yet to be defined by the Church.
 
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