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From: creps@lateran.ucs.indiana.edu (Stephen A. Creps)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Re: What WAS the immaculate conception
Message-ID: <May.20.05.01.10.1993.22786@athos.rutgers.edu>
Date: 20 May 93 09:01:11 GMT
Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu
Organization: Indiana University
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Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu

In article <May.14.02.11.19.1993.25177@athos.rutgers.edu> seanna@bnr.ca (Seanna (S.M.) Watson) wrote:
>I have quite a problem with the idea that Mary never committed a sin.
>Was Mary fully human?  If it is possible for God to miraculously make 
>a person free of original sin, and free of committing sin their whole
>life, then what is the purpose of the Incarnation of Jesus?  Why can't
>God just repeat the miracle done for Mary to make all the rest of us
>sinless, without the need for repentance and salvation and all that?

   Yes, Mary is fully human.  However, that does not imply that she was
just as subject to sin as we are.  Catholic doctrine says that man's
nature is good (Gen 1:31), but is damaged by Original Sin (Rom 5:12-16).
In that case, being undamaged by Original Sin, Mary is more fully human
than any of the rest of us.

   You ask why God cannot "repeat the miracle" of Mary's preservation
from Original Sin.  A better way to phrase it would be "why _did_ He
not" do it that way, but you misunderstand how Mary's salvation was
obtained.  Like ours, the Blessed Virgin Mary's salvation was obtained
through the merits of the Sacrifice of Christ on the Cross.  However, as
God is not bound by time, which is His creation, God is free to apply
His Sacrifice to anyone at any time, even if that person lived before
Christ came to Earth, from our time-bound perspective.  Therefore,
Christ's Death and Resurrection still served a necessary purpose, and
were necessary even for Mary's salvation.

-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
Steve Creps, Indiana University
creps@lateran.ucs.indiana.edu
