Why Didn't God Create Us All Like Mary?

[CarbonCrux]

Hello, thanks for taking the time to read my (admittedly strange) question.

I was just curious why Mary would receive the benefit of being ‘without sin,’ and not the rest of us. Of course, I know that she was chosen to be the special vessel of Jesus, but this seems like human favoritism rather than the act of a all-loving creator (Mary only received the ‘benefit’ of being without sin because this would, in turn, ‘benefit’ the Son of God.)

I’m not just speaking here of the lack of original sin, but also the lack of committed sins. As a creature with free will, Mary had the ability to sin, but had the will power to avoid temptation and a disposition toward the good which, I think, we all would like. Clearly, free will is a great blessing, but why did God equip Mary, and not the rest of us, with the 'control’s to use it solely for the good?

 

[simpleas]

I was thinking the same thing lately, wasn’t sure how to ask the question!
Was going to ask if all human’s from Adam are born with sin, how could Mary be without sin?

 

[R_C]

Our Lady was to be the mother of Christ, thus the mother of the New Creation and by divine right the Queen Mother of all Creation. It was proper that, just as the Ark of the Covenant was of pure gold and incorruptible wood, so the living Ark of the New Covenant was to be pure and incorruptible. Her special privilege was granted to her because the living God foresaw that she would willingly assent to collaborate in God’s redemptive plan, therefore He preserved her in such way that at her conception she did not bear the stain of the original sin.

This was foreseen in Scripture. Here you can see a series of citations (although books have been written on this topic, such as “Hail Holy Queen: the Mother of God in the Word of God” by Scott Hahn.

Consider Psalm 45:

Daughters of kings are among your honored women;
at your right hand is the royal bride in gold of Ophir.

The bride, a princess, looks glorious in her golden gown. In embroidered garments she is presented to the king.

In embroidered garments she is led to the king; her virgin companions follow her-- those brought to be with her.

What a joyful and enthusiastic procession as they enter the king’s palace!

In place of your fathers shall be your sons; you will make them princes in all the earth.

I will perpetuate your memory through all generations; therefore the nations will praise you for ever and ever.

Consider this part of the Canticle of Canticles:

You are altogether beautiful, my love;
there is no stain in you.

You have captivated my heart, my sister, my bride;
you have captivated my heart with one glance of your eyes.

A garden locked is my sister, my bride,
a spring locked, a fountain sealed.

There are …] virgins without number.
My dove, my perfect one, is the only one,
the only one of her mother,
pure to her who bore her.
The young women saw her and called her blessed;

“Who is this who looks down like the dawn,
beautiful as the moon, bright as the sun,
majestic as the stars in procession?

Consider how greatly does the prophet Micah honor her, as he binds the coming of the Messiah to her own Immaculate Conception:

The ruler in Israel will give them up, until the time when she who is to give birth has borne.

Consider what the Church Fathers spoke about her!

"In the same way that Eve was married to Adam and yet was still a virgin …] n the same way then that Eve, by disobeying, became the cause of death for herself and for all of humankind, likewise Mary, having for husband a man who had been destined for her in advance, and yet was still a Virgin, became, by her obedience, cause of salvation (cf. Heb 5:9) for herself and for all of humankind.

How will men depose the mortal birth, if not through a new birth, given against all hope by God as a sign of salvation, which took place in the womb of the Virgin, to regenerate them by the means of faith?

Why did the Divine Word not want to take flesh in Mary’s womb before obtaining her consent through the angel? It’s because He wanted the whole world to be indebted to Mary for the mystery of the Incarnation and recognize in her the beginning of all good. "
Iraeneus of Lyons

You speak in an interesting way when you say the following:

this seems like human favoritism rather than the act of a all-loving creator …]why did God equip Mary, and not the rest of us

Did you not read the Parable of the Workers in Mt 20:1-16? What did the Lord reply to those who thought they were entitled to receive more?

Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own wealth? Or are you envious because I am generous?

And did you not know that it is written:

He gives to His beloved in their sleep

Jesus went up on a mountainside
and called to him those he wanted,
and they came to him.

What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! For he says to Moses,
I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.

It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. …]

One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?”

But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’” Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and* some for common use*?

Bow your head before the perfection of the Holy Virgin Mother and know that by the grace of Christ and by perserverance in cooperation with Him, by forgetting self and bearing our cross, we too shall one day sit before the throne of the Lamb, not “at his left and right”, but we will still behold His glory.

 

[maryj]

Would you imagine that the devil was watching and laying in wait for the woman that was promised would crush his head and was to bare the Redeemer? That our Triune God knew this and that to not only protect her but to protect all of mankind she was conceived and born without the stain of sin, which makes the rest of us fallen in nature? I would imagine that our Blessed Mother endured many attacks by those who wondered why she was so Holy, why she was chosen instead of them. Thank you most merciful Lord for the gift of our Mother!!

ecatholic2000.com/agreda/mystical/city.shtml#__RefHeading___Toc338962828

 

[R_C]

if all humans from Adam are born with sin, how could Mary be without sin?

The Holy Father Pius IX teaches us from the Chair of Peter:

the Blessed Virgin Mary, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God, and in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, Saviour of the human race, was preserved free from every stain of original sin

The Sacred Council of Trent echoed his words stating:

Granted “by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God”, this preservation from original sin is an absolutely gratuitous divine favour, which Mary received at the first moment of her existence.

And the Holy Father Pius XII clarified:

the very singular privilege…was never granted to another person

We often forget what original sin actually is: it means that we are born without sanctifying grace, which is given to us for the first time in Baptism.

What is this singular privilege, then? As Catholic Encyclopedia summarizes,

Our Lady was preserved exempt from all stain of original sin at the first moment of her animation, when her soul was created and infused into the body, and sanctifying grace was given to her before sin could have taken effect in her soul.

The formal active essence of original sin was not removed from her soul, as it is removed from others by baptism; it was excluded, it never was in her soul. Simultaneously with the exclusion of sin. The state of original sanctity, innocence, and justice, as opposed to original sin, was conferred upon her, by which gift every stain and fault, all depraved emotions, passions, and debilities, essentially pertaining to original sin, were excluded. But she was not made exempt from the temporal penalties of Adam — from sorrow, bodily infirmities, and death.

The immunity from original sin was given to Mary by a singular exemption from a universal law through the same merits of Christ, by which other men are cleansed from sin by baptism. Mary needed the redeeming Saviour to obtain this exemption, and to be delivered from the universal necessity and debt of being subject to original sin. The person of Mary, in consequence of her origin from Adam, should have been subject to sin, but, being the new Eve who was to be the mother of the new Adam, she was, by the eternal counsel of God and by the merits of Christ, withdrawn from the general law of original sin. Her redemption was the very masterpiece of Christ’s redeeming wisdom.

We can therefore echo with our Lord: “in the beginning it was not so”. Our Lady, the New Eve, was human just like Eve was, the perfect firstfruit of the new creation. Thus Revelation speaks of the Woman who gave birth to the Son who is to rule all the nations, and then speaks of the Woman’s offspring, “those who keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ” - the New Creation of which St. Paul speaks:

We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.

“What no eye has seen,
what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived”—
the things God has prepared for those who love him—

these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.

He has let us know the mystery of his purpose, according to his good pleasure which he determined beforehand in Christ, for him to act upon when the times had run their course: that he would bring everything together under Christ, as head, everything in the heavens and everything on earth.

Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of one bread.

For as the body is one, and has many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.

For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.

For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.

And he is the head of the body, the church.

Therefore, if we are in Him, then we are all children of Our Lady, and as the Spirit moves us to call to the Father “Abba’”, the same Spirit moves us to call Our Lady “Mother”, just like the Messianic words of the psalm:

O Lord, truly I am your servant; I am your servant, the son of your handmaid.

I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the Lord.

 

[Memaw]

Hello, thanks for taking the time to read my (admittedly strange) question.

I was just curious why Mary would receive the benefit of being ‘without sin,’ and not the rest of us. Of course, I know that she was chosen to be the special vessel of Jesus, but this seems like human favoritism rather than the act of a all-loving creator (Mary only received the ‘benefit’ of being without sin because this would, in turn, ‘benefit’ the Son of God.)

I’m not just speaking here of the lack of original sin, but also the lack of committed sins. As a creature with free will, Mary had the ability to sin, but had the will power to avoid temptation and a disposition toward the good which, I think, we all would like. Clearly, free will is a great blessing, but why did God equip Mary, and not the rest of us, with the 'control’s to use it solely for the good?

He tried, but Adam and Eve messed it up.
We can just be thankful HE did create Mary to be the Mother of OUR SAVIOR. Now we have the chance to regain the Grace lost. No Mary, No JESUS. God Bless, Memaw

 

[godisgood77]

Quote:
***"In the same way that Eve was married to Adam and yet was still a virgin …] n the same way then that Eve, by disobeying, became the cause of death for herself and for all of humankind, likewise Mary, having for husband a man who had been destined for her in advance, and yet was still a Virgin, became, by her obedience, cause of salvation (cf. Heb 5:9) for herself and for all of humankind.

How will men depose the mortal birth, if not through a new birth, given against all hope by God as a sign of salvation, which took place in the womb of the Virgin, to regenerate them by the means of faith?

Why did the Divine Word not want to take flesh in Mary’s womb before obtaining her consent through the angel? It’s because He wanted the whole world to be indebted to Mary for the mystery of the Incarnation and recognize in her the beginning of all good. "
Iraeneus of Lyons***

A couple of things… Where can I read about Eve being a virgin? I have never heard or read this. A side question would be this - why do we hold virginity as some sort of superior state of being?

A second question… Did the Divine word actually obtain Mary’s consent through the Angel prior to coming in to her? If yes, then why did the Angel say Hail Mary, full of grace? The word “Hail” is translated at rejoice. By saying full of grace, the angel is implying that God is in you… Hence … Rejoice!! God is in you. Would mean that it’s already happened.

 

[Ed_Silvia]

---

Hello, thanks for taking the time to read my (admittedly strange) question.

I was just curious why Mary would receive the benefit of being ‘without sin,’ and not the rest of us. Of course, I know that she was chosen to be the special vessel of Jesus, but this seems like human favoritism rather than the act of a all-loving creator (Mary only received the ‘benefit’ of being without sin because this would, in turn, ‘benefit’ the Son of God.)

I’m not just speaking here of the lack of original sin, but also the lack of committed sins. As a creature with free will, Mary had the ability to sin, but had the will power to avoid temptation and a disposition toward the good which, I think, we all would like. Clearly, free will is a great blessing, but why did God equip Mary, and not the rest of us, with the 'control’s to use it solely for the good?

The simple answer is it was not His will that we all be as favored or as “full of grace” as Mary. But he has provided us with Mary to help us, as She did with St John,** the apostle Jesus loved**(like Father like Son), at the foot of the cross to handle any situation that comes our way and in the end find our way back to Him. Peace

 

[godisgood77]

No Mary, No JESUS

There are no limits or contingencies that can be put on Jesus. If you believe Jesus is God, then, with all charity, this statement is absurd.

 

[jimmy]

He tried, but Adam and Eve messed it up.
We can just be thankful HE did create Mary to be the Mother of OUR SAVIOR. Now we have the chance to regain the Grace lost. No Mary, No JESUS. God Bless, Memaw

The question isn’t 'why did he create Mary,. It is ‘why did he create her perfect [and not create us perfect].’ The IC doesn’t affect Jesus. If Mary was born with original sin it doesn’t affect our salvation.

 

[wheels10]

Hello, thanks for taking the time to read my (admittedly strange) question.

I was just curious why Mary would receive the benefit of being ‘without sin,’ and not the rest of us. Of course, I know that she was chosen to be the special vessel of Jesus, but this seems like human favoritism rather than the act of a all-loving creator (Mary only received the ‘benefit’ of being without sin because this would, in turn, ‘benefit’ the Son of God.)

I’m not just speaking here of the lack of original sin, but also the lack of committed sins. As a creature with free will, Mary had the ability to sin, but had the will power to avoid temptation and a disposition toward the good which, I think, we all would like. Clearly, free will is a great blessing, but why did God equip Mary, and not the rest of us, with the 'control’s to use it solely for the good?

Because each person is provided with a unique combination of gifts from God (talents). However we are all given the capacity to Love God. Will we use the gifts that we are given to Love God and our neighbor? Mary did so, Eve did not.

 

[CarbonCrux]

You speak in an interesting way when you say the following:

Did you not read the Parable of the Workers in Mt 20:1-16? What did the Lord reply to those who thought they were entitled to receive more?

And did you not know that it is written:

Bow your head before the perfection of the Holy Virgin Mother and know that by the grace of Christ and by perserverance in cooperation with Him, by forgetting self and bearing our cross, we too shall one day sit before the throne of the Lamb, not “at his left and right”, but we will still behold His glory.

Wow, you’re clearly a better Mariologist (spelling??) than I am, and I appreciate the effort you put into your response. I should note that I don’t question the veneration of Mary, and I didn’t mean any disrespect toward her (though I guess I could have framed my question more reverently, ha.)

I guess my subject line is a little misleading- my question is less about Mary as a person and more about human nature: God created one human being with free will who was still disposed against sin (Mary) so why not create the rest of us in a similar way?

 

[CarbonCrux]

He tried, but Adam and Eve messed it up.
We can just be thankful HE did create Mary to be the Mother of OUR SAVIOR. Now we have the chance to regain the Grace lost. No Mary, No JESUS. God Bless, Memaw

I’ve heard this answer before, but I don’t think that it quite answers my question. After all, if Adam and Eve were ‘full of grace’ as Mary was, they would have had the virtue to resist sin in the first place.

 

[CarbonCrux]

---

The simple answer is it was not His will that we all be as favored or as “full of grace” as Mary. But he has provided us with Mary to help us, as She did with St John,** the apostle Jesus loved**(like Father like Son), at the foot of the cross to handle any situation that comes our way and in the end find our way back to Him. Peace

I guess I’m looking for a non-simple answer to the question 'Well, why wasn’t it God’s will to have us all be “full of grace.”

 

[Della]

There are no limits or contingencies that can be put on Jesus. If you believe Jesus is God, then, with all charity, this statement is absurd.

No Mary, no Jesus is a shorthand way of saying that God willed to give us his Son through Mary and not some other way–to created a Second Eve so we would have our Second Adam through whom all could come to salvation. If I may speak for the poster you cited. :tiphat:

As to the OP’s questions, simply because Mary was preserved from original sin and the desire for sin does not mean her life was a bed of roses. She suffered greatly for the gifts God gave her while on this earth. Whenever God chooses someone for some special task/ministry, they are also given a heavier cross than the rest of us. Without the gifts God gave her could she have borne up under it all? This question is apart from the question of Who she was to conceive in her womb and give birth to–the Son of God himself.

Why doesn’t God grant us all this gift of Christ’s redemption? Because we are to live our lives in this world facing our own tests and trials, not those of Mary. Each of us has our own set of challenges, for which God provides an abundance of his grace, if we avail ourselves of them. Mary had no easy row to hoe. I don’t think I could have been the person she was/is and undergone her trials and come out, not only sane, but a saint filled with every virtue. She worked in cooperation with God’s grace. It wasn’t just dumped on her. And it’s the same for us. Whatever state we are in, we need to cooperate with God’s grace in order to do what he has willed for our lives.

 

[Memaw]

I’ve heard this answer before, but I don’t think that it quite answers my question. After all, if Adam and Eve were ‘full of grace’ as Mary was, they would have had the virtue to resist sin in the first place.

They did have the virtue to resist Satan but they choice to listen to him. They had free will and so did Mary. She choose to keep Her Grace.

 

[Ed_Silvia]

I guess I’m looking for a non-simple answer to the question 'Well, why wasn’t it God’s will to have us all be “full of grace.”

Its like Jesus said to St. Faustina “Love has reasons that reason can’t reason.”

 

[R_C]

Wow, you’re clearly a better Mariologist (spelling??) than I am, and I appreciate the effort you put into your response. I should note that I don’t question the veneration of Mary, and I didn’t mean any disrespect toward her (though I guess I could have framed my question more reverently, ha.)

I guess my subject line is a little misleading- my question is less about Mary as a person and more about human nature: God created one human being with free will who was still disposed against sin (Mary) so why not create the rest of us in a similar way?

Dear friend, I know that you love Our Lady and would never question that Mine was an invitation to join me in venerating her loveliness and God’s gracefulness in making her “his dove, his perfect one, without stain”.

And the reason why the Holy One did not create the rest of us in a similar way is simple: none of us was predestined to give birth to the Incarnate Word!

I understand your question. It seems like we could have avoided the inclination to sin altogether by a gratuitous decision of the Lord. But then, why not just eliminate all sorrow? Why not just put an end to time and space and gather us all in heaven? Why did the Son come in the flesh, bear mockery and be crucified for our sins?

The truth is that it is very hard for us to realize just how terrible was the Original Sin. It took all the sorrows of the Immaculate Lamb of God and His sorrowful death on the cross to atone for it. Who can understand what this is? No, my friend, what we deserved was not an act of arbitrary forgiveness, but immediate annihilation. But God’s boundless mercy was enthroned above His perfect justice, and, as the Church Fathers remind us:

[Men] were made like God, free from suffering and death, provided that they kept His commandments, and were deemed deserving of the name of His sons, and yet they, becoming like Adam and Eve, work out death for themselves; let the interpretation of the Psalm be held just as you wish, yet thereby it is demonstrated that all men are deemed worthy of becoming “gods,” and of having power to become sons of the Highest.

He was God, and then became man, and that to deify us…for as the Lord, putting on the body, became man, so we men are deified by the Word as being taken to Him through His flesh.

Now the gift of grace surpasses every capability of created nature, since it is nothing short of a partaking of the Divine Nature.

The Mystical Doctor st. John of the Cross further adds:

In thus allowing God to work in it, the soul… is at once illumined and transformed in God, and God communicates to it His supernatural Being, in such wise that it appears to be God Himself, and has all that God Himself has. And this union comes to pass when God grants the soul this supernatural favour, that all the things of God and the soul are one in participant transformation

And that Patristic teaching is reflected in our Catechism as well:

The Word became flesh to make us “partakers of the divine nature”: “For this is why the Word became man, and the Son of God became the Son of man: so that man, by entering into communion with the Word and thus receiving divine sonship, might become a son of God.” “For the Son of God became man so that we might become God.” “The only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that he, made man, might make men gods.”

God did create us in the same way, but by justice we inherit the stain merited by our forefathers in the original sin, and by mercy we inherit the gift of sanctifying grace in Baptism merited by the Christ in his wondrous sacrifice of redemption.

Why the Almighty did not smite His creation at once is a mystery of love that we can begin to comprehend when we look at His goodness, but why He chose to redeem us Himself at such a cost, and to bestow on us the unimaginable, extraordinary gift of sanctifying grace, and even further, to remain present with us every day from the raising to the setting of the sun in the Eucharist so that we, unworthy sinners, receive the Living God, now that is a mystery which a lifetime of contemplation would not suffice to clarify.

I can’t say why God chose to grant that special gift to Our Lady, because nobody knows the answer except the Father. We know that it was due to her being the chosen Virgin Mother of God the Son made man, and we know that it is a divinely revealed teaching. But shall we resent that we do not partake in a similar gift? No, for we are deemed worthy of another extraordinary gift, and even further, it is our blessing and our crown to be able to combat against the three concupiscences and the spirit against Christ, because now “where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more”, and in this very struggle is where we cooperate with sanctifying grace and are thus being sanctified.

 

[simpleas]

Dear friend, I know that you love Our Lady and would never question that Mine was an invitation to join me in venerating her loveliness and God’s gracefulness in making her “his dove, his perfect one, without stain”.

And the reason why the Holy One did not create the rest of us in a similar way is simple: none of us was predestined to give birth to the Incarnate Word!

I understand your question. It seems like we could have avoided the inclination to sin altogether by a gratuitous decision of the Lord. But then, why not just eliminate all sorrow? Why not just put an end to time and space and gather us all in heaven? Why did the Son come in the flesh, bear mockery and be crucified for our sins?

The truth is that it is very hard for us to realize just how terrible was the Original Sin. It took all the sorrows of the Immaculate Lamb of God and His sorrowful death on the cross to atone for it. Who can understand what this is? No, my friend, what we deserved was not an act of arbitrary forgiveness, but immediate annihilation. But God’s boundless mercy was enthroned above His perfect justice, and, as the Church Fathers remind us:

The Mystical Doctor st. John of the Cross further adds:

And that Patristic teaching is reflected in our Catechism as well:

God did create us in the same way, but by justice we inherit the stain merited by our forefathers in the original sin, and by mercy we inherit the gift of sanctifying grace in Baptism merited by the Christ in his wondrous sacrifice of redemption.

Why the Almighty did not smite His creation at once is a mystery of love that we can begin to comprehend when we look at His goodness, but why He chose to redeem us Himself at such a cost, and to bestow on us the unimaginable, extraordinary gift of sanctifying grace, and even further, to remain present with us every day from the raising to the setting of the sun in the Eucharist so that we, unworthy sinners, receive the Living God, now that is a mystery which a lifetime of contemplation would not suffice to clarify.

I can’t say why God chose to grant that special gift to Our Lady, because nobody knows the answer except the Father. We know that it was due to her being the chosen Virgin Mother of God the Son made man, and we know that it is a divinely revealed teaching. But shall we resent that we do not partake in a similar gift? No, for we are deemed worthy of another extraordinary gift, and even further, it is our blessing and our crown to be able to combat against the three concupiscences and the spirit against Christ, because now “where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more”, and in this very struggle is where we cooperate with sanctifying grace and are thus being sanctified.

Could you explain what you mean by the high lighted sentence? Just thinking that if the sin was so terrible then God could have destroyed Adam and eve there and then, (we wouldn’t be here now!) But he allows them to procreate/sin etc, until he see’s enough and then chooses Noah and his family to be the only survivor’s? So we start again but still have the stain of sin.
Thanks

 

[R_C]

Could you explain what you mean by the high lighted sentence? Just thinking that if the sin was so terrible then God could have destroyed Adam and eve there and then, (we wouldn’t be here now!) But he allows them to procreate/sin etc, until he see’s enough and then chooses Noah and his family to be the only survivor’s? So we start again but still have the stain of sin.
Thanks

Now, that came out bluntly and reflects my personal understanding, which doesn’t mean it’s erroneous (I sure hope not) but may not be the most precise wording.

What I mean is that the offense of original sin was so terrible that we can only begin to understand it when we see the state of this fallen mankind, our own misery, or when we meditate on what it took to atone for it, the Lord’s passion.

The case of Noah was a different story. Of all generations born after the Fall, the family of Noah was the only one who remained faithful to Him when everyone else wasn’t. What took place is too great for me to understand. Perhaps it was a teaching and a warning for future generations. But God made a *covenant *with Noah and his sons and told them: “be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein.” This is the beginning of God’s divine providence repairing the Fall. God does not change. What He did at the time of Noah, He had foreknown and decided at the beginning of time. God doesn’t sit waiting to see how things go and at some point get annoyed and say: “Enough! Let’s wipe them all out, I should never have allowed them to multiply.”. No, God is providence. All has a meaning. Even suffering and death.

The “fresh start” with Noah of course did not wipe away original sin, but we do not know how God dispensed sanctifying grace in those days. The only thing we know is that under the New Covenant sanctifying grace is given in Baptism ex opere operato (by the very act of the Sacrament). Before Baptism, we just don’t know.

As for the consequences of sin (inclination to further sin, sorrow, death) they play a role in the redemption of mankind and also must be born, first as an act of justice because it’s the price we all pay for our original act of disobedience, and second as an act of mercy to participate in the redemptive suffering of Christ. That is why even in Baptism those are not removed, although the stain of original sin surely is.

By the way, I meditated a lot on your question yesterday, having before my eyes the image of a suffering mankind. We need to pray for peace and benevolence. Some things are unavoidable, but by prayer and penance we can help delay or shorten these things - God told us in Scripture and in Christ’s own words. We also need to pray for the Holy Father. He suffers very much for these things.