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Question

Hello Father Angelo,

I have some questions that, although they may seem or be irreverent, reflect some doubts that seriously make me struggle as a Christian.

  1. Who has more freedom? We, who are free to sin too, or Mary who, being conceived without sin, was preserved forever from sinning?
  2. If her impossibility to sin does not constitute a limitation of freedom, then why did not God create Man without the “weakness” to sin (being God omniscient, did He know that the first humans would disobey?)
  3. Otherwise, why conceive only Mary as sinless and not also the other men who came after the redemption accomplished by Christ?
  4. What sense do Christ’s death and resurrection have, if God demonstrated through Mary that He could create a sinless world and another human being perfectly in His image and likeness?
  5. Why do I have to trust in Mary who is not identical to me, as She does not have my sinful nature? In other words, why trust in a humanly unreachable model (Mary) in order to reach another perfectly unreachable model (Jesus)?

Thanks,

Andrea

Priest’s Answer

Dear Andrea,

  1. Truth is, Mary was not preserved from sinning, but rather from sin. She was certainly confirmed in grace but, as I once said, it is not about an intrinsic impossibility to sin. This belonged exclusively to Christ, as He is God made man.

Furthermore, with regard to sin, it must be remembered what the Lord said: 

“Amen, amen, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin” (John 8:34).
Committing sin is to make yourself a slave of sin, dependent on it, thus unable to fly high.

Is this freedom?

2. Your next question is: “why did not God create Man without the “weakness” to sin (being God omniscient, did He know that the first humans would disobey?)”

Indeed, God did not create him with the evil inclination.
Man sprang from God’s hands perfect.
Also Adam and Eve were confirmed in grace but, being free, they did not enjoy the intrinsic impossibility to sin, similarly to Mary.

3. After this, you ask: why conceive only Mary as sinless and not also the other men who came after the redemption accomplished by Christ?

Saint Thomas writes: “this was suitable, lest men might seek to be baptized for the sake of impassibility in the present life, and not for the sake of the glory of life eternal” and also because “this is suitable for our spiritual training: namely, in order that, by fighting against concupiscence and other defects to which he is subject, man may receive the crown of victory” (online Summa Theologiae, Part III, Question 69, Article 3).

4. Then you also ask: “What sense do Christ’s death and resurrection have, if God demonstrated through Mary that He could create a sinless world and another human being perfectly in His image and likeness?”
Having created man free and allowed to sin is not to be considered God’s weakness. Moreover, Mary was given that particular perfection as She was chosen to become God’s Mother and Christ’s partner in the work of Redemption.

With regards to the fact that God let man free to sin, this is what Saint Thomas writes: “Like Saint Augustine says: «Since God is the highest good, He would not allow any evil to exist in His works, unless His omnipotence and goodness were such as to bring good even out of evil»”. Allowing the existence of evil and drawing good out of it thus belongs to God’s infinite goodness (online Summa Theologiae, Part I, Question 2, Article 3, Reply to Objection 1).

5. Finally you ask: “Why do I have to trust in Mary who is not identical to me, as She does not have my sinful nature?”
Mediator is the one who joins two persons that are very distant from each other.
However, the real mediator is also the one who pays the debt that one of these persons owes to the other one so that they can be in true communion with each other.

In this way the person to whom the debt was paid can spread again the abundance of his graces.
Such a mediator is Jesus Christ towards the Father on behalf of all of us .
And so is Mary between us and Jesus, having Christ chosen Her to intercede for us and interpose Her merits in our favour.
What we cannot obtain due to our demerits, can be obtained by Her to whom Christ decided to render himself debtor.

6. Therefore, entrust yourself to Mary. She enables you to obtain from Jesus what you cannot obtain by yourself. Mary loves you with such a love that is greater than the one all mums in the world have. She also places Her merits before Christ in your favour. 

I entrust you to Her as well, I wish you a good continuation of Lent and bless you.

Father Angelo

28th February 2016