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Question

Dear father Angelo,

As to the original sin, I’m wondering: why did Adam and Eve fall into temptation, while being preserved from any evil inclination?

If they used their freedom, then it no longer matters that they had no evil inclinations.

I’m also wondering: on what basis do we known that John the Baptist was sanctified and therefore preserved from sin in his mother’s womb?

And, if Mary was immaculate from her conception and preserved from any inclination to evil, what merit did she have in never sinning?

These are my doubts and I hope they are not taken negatively. I would just like to clarify some weak spots in my faith. Thanks a lot for answering me. Best wishes and Merry Christmas (2019)!

Rosa

Answer

Dear Rosa,

1. Even if someone is not inclined to evil, it does not mean that he or she can never do evil.

Even the demons were not inclined to evil, yet some of them rejected God.

Evil does not have its source in inclination but in will, more precisely, in freedom.

Many people, while inclined to commit some evil actions, do not commit them.

And others, while not inclined to them, if tempted, commit them.

The inclination is an impulse, but it is not decisive.

What determines a person to act is always his/her free will.

2. We know that John the Baptist was sanctified in his mother’s womb because Gabriel told to Zechariah when he appeared to him in the temple: “Both were righteous in the eyes of God, observing all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blamelessly.” (Lk 1,8) 

(http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0839/__PWK.HTM)

In the pre-holiday Mass of Saint John, the Church also applies to Saint John what God told to Jeremiah: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I dedicated you, a prophet to the nations I appointed you.” (Jer. 1,5)

(http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0839/__PPF.HTM)

His sanctification, which freed him from original sin, took place when Mary visited her cousin Elizabeth.

3. John’s exultation in front of Mary who carried Jesus in her womb is a perfect parallel to David’s exultation before the Ark of the Covenant.

“The exegetes noted that, in narrating the episode of Mary’s visit to Elizabeth, Luke was inspired by a text from the Old Testament that describes the journey of the Ark of the Covenant to the Temple of Jerusalem (2 Sam 6, 1-13). The Ark in which Yahweh lives is carried to Jerusalem. When the Ark passes by, David dances and leaps for joy. While the Ark, coming from Obed-Edom, reaches the mountains of Palestine, David cries: “How is it possible that the Ark of the Lord comes towards me?”.

The comparison with the Visitation is surprising. The words are the same. The place is the same, the mountains of Palestine. As David leaps (skirtai) in front of the Ark, John leaps (skirtai) in front of Mary; and the words of greeting that Elizabeth addresses to Mary are the same used by David to hail the Ark.

It is easy to appreciate the theological depth that the connection made by Luke between the two episodes confers on the Visitation. The Ark, the place where Yahweh lived among his people in the Old Covenant, is Mary in the New Covenant, because the Word dwelt in her. The episode of the Visitation is thus not simply an anecdote and acquires a divine dimension. This same trend of the holy history continues. God himself is present throughout history “‘working wonders’” and raising messianic joy “(John the Baptist, witness of the Lamb, pp. 30-31).

4. Finally, you ask: “If Mary was immaculate from her conception and preserved from any inclination to evil, what merit did she have in never sinning?”.

The answer is simple: as Eve, in the state of innocence, was not inclined to evil but she was guilty of sinning, so Our Lady, although not inclined to evil, like the Angels before the rebellion, had the merit of do not sin.

As I have already told you, evil is not in inclination, but in free will.

I wish you a Merry Christmas (2020), I remind you to the Lord and I bless you.

Father Angelo