Topic: The Immaculate Conception
Question: I have a friend who's hung up on his opinion that if Mary was conceived without original sin then shouldn't her parents be as well and so on down the line.
Answer:
I have seen this silly argument many times. The British theologian Emil Brunner actually has the temerity to say this in the 1930's. It is a ridiculous argument because the whole point of the Immaculate Conception (IC) is that Mary was preserved from all sin (Original and Actual) by a special grace of God. This is a singular grace to Mary alone and has nothing to do with her parents. In essence she was granted redeemed by the antecedent grace of Christ in anticipation of her divine maternity. Jesus derived his human nature from his mother. Had the human nature which Christ inherited been tainted by even Original Sin, then it would have had to be redeemed. How can a redeemer himself need redemption? By Mary being redeemed and thereby having a sinless human nature she was therefore able to provide the perfect human nature necessary for the Incarnation. The prot cultists who raise the above objection to the IC make the mistake of thinking that the necessity that Jesus inherit a sinless nature from his mother meant that she also had to inherit a sinless nature from her parents. They just don't understand the real theological problem. Christ cannot ever need redemption. He was the Divine Son eternally begotten of the Father. He could not be incarnated into human flesh that had to be redeemed. His perfect human nature had to exist as a condition for the Incarnation. There was no problem though with Mary herself being redeemed herself. A further objection that prots raise is that if Mary's nature was sinless, then she could have redeemed mankind by her own perfect life. They fail to realize that Mary's sinlessness was due to God's grace and was inexorably linked to the work of her Son. Mary indeed had a perfect life to offer to God but being merely human it was of only finite value and could not redeem mankind from its manifold sinfulness. Besides, her entire life was directed towards supporting the ministry of her son. Jesus was a divine person and so his offering was of infinite value and capable of redeeming all men past, present and future. The offering of Mary's life to God in union with the sacrifice of her son was of great significance for mankind. In doing this she became a type of both the faithful Christian and of the universal Church. For this reason she is given the title Co-Redemptrix. She did not merit anything on her own independently of God's grace, but her suffering at Calvary in sympathy with her son became the model for all of us who follow him.
Art Sippo
The Catholic Legate