Original Sin and Mary

Based on discussions from the July 26th and 28th postings, another question has arisen that can be found below. The questions concerning Purgatory will be addressed tomorrow.

Q. What about the prospect that since Jesus was man but also God, he had to come from both a sinner (Mary) and God (the Holy Spirit)? God can still fill Mary with grace but does that then mean she's no longer a sinner? Jesus still had the same thoughts, feelings, and desires as humans since he came from one. Thoughts?

A. You bring up a good point again. Jesus was both fully human and fully God, which would mean 100% human and 100% God, which is mathematically impossible, which is why it's a mystery to our human mind and its limitations. And now my stereotypical Catholic side of being unable to accurately quote the Bible presents itself, but somewhere in the Bible I recall it saying something like Jesus was human in all things, but sin. Perhaps Jesus was human in the same way Adam and Eve were human, free from orginal sin. In His case, he would have been free from original sin because He, as the Word, existed before the original sin was committed and wasn't "made" when he was conceived as a human in Mary's womb, but simply "begotten" as God's only begotten son. He would have had the some thoughts, feelings, and desires as humans - be tempted to sin - but would not have fallen into sin since somewhere else in the Bible it refers to Jesus as He who knew no sin was made sin for us to redeem us from our sins.

As for Mary, since she was declared full of grace before she accepted Jesus into her womb, that's the argument for her having been conceived without original sin as a free gift from God to her to have someone worthy to carry His son, almost more of a gift to His son (who never knew sin even in a past tense sense through his mother) than to her really since she hadn't done anything to merit that gift. Since I believe God is the greatest good, I am always comfortable interpreting scripture as in giving God the benefit of my doubt and having Him perform the greatest good like conceiving Mary without sin, even though cleansing her from sin before Jesus was begotten in her womb may have still been good enough. Others can become full of grace after having sinned by emptying themselves to make room for God's grace.