According to Catholicism, how was Mary born without original sin?
Upvote:2
According to Catholicism, how was Mary born without original sin?
And the angel answering, said to her: The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the most High shall overshadow thee. And therefore also the Holy which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. - Luke 1:35
The idea that the Virgin Mary was Immaculately conceived and born without any stain of original sin was due to the fact that it was by a unique privilege accorded by Almighty God.
The Immaculate Conception is a dogma of the Catholic Church which states that the Virgin Mary was free of original sin from the moment of her conception. It proved highly controversial in the Middle Ages, but was revived in the 19th century and was adopted as Church dogma when Pope Pius IX promulgated Ineffabilis Deus in 1854; this had the overwhelming support of the Church's hierarchy, although a few, including the Archbishop of Paris, warned that the Immaculate Conception is not stated in the New Testament and cannot be deduced from it. Protestants overwhelmingly rejected Ineffabilis Deus as an exercise in papal power and the doctrine itself as without foundation in Scripture, and Eastern Orthodoxy, although it reveres Mary in its liturgy, called on the Roman church to return to the faith of the early centuries. The iconography of the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception shows her standing, with arms outspread or hands clasped in prayer, and her feast day is 8 December.
Doctrine
The Immaculate Conception of Mary is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church, meaning that it is held to be a truth divinely revealed, the denial of which is heresy. Defined by Pope Pius IX in Ineffabilis Deus, 1854, it states that Mary, through God's grace, was conceived free from the stain of original sin through her role as the Mother of God:
We declare, pronounce, and define that the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin, is a doctrine revealed by God and therefore to be believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful.
(Since the 19th century a dogma has come to bear the meaning of a divinely revealed truth proclaimed by Church teaching and hence binding for all time on the faithful; while the Immaculate Conception asserts only Mary's freedom from original sin, the Council of Trent, held between 1545 and 1563, affirmed in addition her freedom from personal sin.)
The Immaculate Conception in Scripture is not explicitly supported for the doctrine of Mary's Immaculate Conception, but Catholic theologians say that biblical support is not totally absent either.
Sacred Scripture does not explicitly proclaim the doctrine of Mary's Immaculate Conception (i.e. freedom from original sin from the very start of her life). The Catholic Church reflected on this question for centuries, considering biblical texts which seemed related to the topic, at least implicitly. As a result of this prolonged reflection, Pius IX issued a dogmatic definition in 1854 affirming Mary's Immaculate Conception. This declaration (Ineffabilis Deus) indicates that the teaching has been infallibly revealed by God through the living Tradition of the Church. There are also a number of scriptural passages which may be cited in support of the teaching. The angelic greeting in Lk 1:28 refers to Mary as "highly favored" or "full of grace." Both translations refer to the Greek term kecharitomene, the past perfect participle of charis which means a gift, favor or grace. In Biblical Greek, this verbal form suggests permanence and singularity. Such singular, permanent grace in Mary is essentially the same concept affirmed in the dogma of the Immaculate Conception.
Another source of biblical evidence involves the references to Mary as "Woman" (e.g. Jn 2 and Jn 19). The evangelist alludes to Eve, who is called "Woman" in Gen 2. There are other parallels between the Genesis account of Creation and its Fall and the Johannine account of the Redemption. For example, the tree of knowledge caused Adam's death in paradise. The tree of the cross caused the death of Jesus, the new Adam, in Jn 19. So there is a certain biblical parallel between Mary, the Woman of the New Creation, and Eve, the Woman formed in original justice at the first Creation (i.e. before the Fall). This parallel is stated explicitly by very early Church Fathers like Justin Martyr (d ca 160) and Irenaeus (d. ca 220). None of this is explicit proof of the doctrine. However, it is solid support from Scripture alone. - Immaculate Conception: Scripture
For more information about this subject matter the following may be of interest:
More post
- 📝 What Judaic Laws are Christians responsible for upholding?
- 📝 Where can we find the official records of canonizations?
- 📝 Do Jehovah’s Witnesses recognize marriage out of their religion?
- 📝 What is the first recorded observation of Good Friday?
- 📝 Can a sin lead one to hell even under grace? (this is not a Catholic post regarding mortal and venial sin)
- 📝 Is it given by God in human nature to be a creator too?
- 📝 When was infant baptism rejected in the development of Pentecostalism?
- 📝 What is the relation between the Logos of Greek Philosophy and the Logos in Christianity?
- 📝 Is it wrong to consume alcohol?
- 📝 Can a Catholic visiting Protestant Parents attend the Parents Church?
- 📝 What does it mean that God's wrath is infinite and what is its relation to existence of life on other planets?
- 📝 Is a baptized but not confirmed Catholic really a Catholic?
- 📝 If all demons are believers, then why are some humans atheists?
- 📝 What are some of the key differences between Molinism and Thomism?
- 📝 Why didn't God reveal all the answers to life?
- 📝 Is praying the rosary, heard when our attention is difficult to maintain?
- 📝 Does St. Thomas Aquinas think idolatry is the main cause of h*m*sexuality?
- 📝 Do Muslims pray like Christians should?
- 📝 Acts 11:26 regarding the word Christian?
- 📝 What is the Catholic Church's official position on the Spanish Inquisition?
- 📝 What is God's name?
- 📝 Does training up a child always work out in the end?
- 📝 According to premillennialism, are the nations in the New Earth still procreating?
- 📝 Do any denominations have a positon on the doctrinal value of Job's friends?
- 📝 What is the basis for the idiomatic understanding of "three days in the tomb" as two nights and a day?
- 📝 Does Catholic Church have any dogma about h*m*sexuality?
- 📝 Did Martin Luther think John Calvin is a "son of the devil"?
- 📝 What is the biblical basis for believing in the Book of Mormon?
- 📝 What is the Biblical basis for death being the last point for repentance?
- 📝 What is the source of the belief that the deceased become angels?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 According to Catholicism, how was Mary born without original sin?
- 📝 In what sense was Mary born without original sin in Roman Catholic dogma?
- 📝 According to Roman Catholic doctrine, why does Mary refer to God as her Savior if she was born without sin?
- 📝 If Jesus Christ was born without the original sin, then how could He have died?
- 📝 According to the Catholic commentators, was Mary the original candidate for mother of God?
- 📝 According to Catholicism and/ or Protestantism, how many times was Jesus of Nazareth, whether pre-incarnate or incarnate, begotten?
- 📝 How is it that the Virgin Mary was able to understand without discernment that it really was the Archangel Gabriel appeared to her?
- 📝 How could Jesus be born during the reign of Herod, and when Quirinius was governor of Syria, if those periods were not contemporary?
- 📝 According to those holding that Jesus was literally born of a virgin, why did Paul not mention it?
- 📝 According to believers in the inexorable damnation of the unreached, how is God not unfair for letting someone be born in unreachable conditions?
- 📝 Is there any tradition that informs us of how old Mary was when she gave birth to Jesus?
- 📝 How could Jesus be descended from the royal line of David if he was born of the Virgin Birth?
- 📝 How is original sin transmitted?
- 📝 How does one reconcile the sinlessness of Mary with her sin offering in Luke 2:24?
- 📝 How do the Catholic and Orthodox views of original sin differ?
- 📝 Did Mary know she was sinless, according to Roman Catholic teaching?
- 📝 How can John the Baptist be the greatest man born of woman, when Jesus was also born of woman?
- 📝 According to the LDS church, why was Jesus Christ born when he was born?
- 📝 How do we know Mary was a virgin at the time of Jesus' conception?
- 📝 According to a ‘forgiveness in Christ alone’ framework how did ‘sin offerings’ make atonement for sin under the Mosaic Law?
- 📝 How was sin not counted before the law?
- 📝 What was St. Thomas Aquinas's view on the difference between punishment accorded to original sin and punishment accorded to individual sin?
- 📝 According to LDS, if the Fall was a positive thing why would God condemn sin in the flesh?
- 📝 According to the Jehovah's Witnesses, why was Jesus likely not born in December because of Levite temple service schedule?
- 📝 According to Catholicism can you be saved without being baptised?
- 📝 How do Catholics reconcile a metaphorical Adam and Eve with Original Sin
- 📝 How would Catholics respond to the theory that Mary was a surrogate mother that had no DNA in common with Jesus?
- 📝 According to Mormons, how did the unclean spirits sin by "not keeping the first estate"?
- 📝 According to Catholicism how does a person discriminate between hearing the true word of God versus a hallucination or a demon?
- 📝 How does Original Sin come back in man even after being washed at the time of baptism?