DAY 96
CHALLENGE
How could the Virgin Mary be sinless? She’s human like everyone else.
DEFENSE
Despite our state in the present life, being human does not mean being a sinner.
If being human did entail sin, then God would have built sin into human nature, which would make him the author of evil. Instead, human nature was damaged because of the misuse of free will—which is itself a good, as it enables people to freely choose love.
Because human nature does not entail sin, it is possible for humans to be free of sin. Thus Adam and Eve were sinless before the fall of man.
There was a time in all of our lives when, in spite of our fallen nature, none of us had commited personal sin. Paul notes that in the womb Jacob and Esau “were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad” (Rom. 9:11).
And there will be a time in the future when, if we die in God’s friendship, we will all be sinless, for we will not continue to sin in heaven, because “nothing unclean shall enter it” (Rev. 21:27). Instead, we will have “the holiness without which no one will see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14), for “when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). All the saved will be given this gift of total holiness, and because of her special role in God’s plan of the ages, Mary was given it early.
Jesus Christ—the Second Adam (1 Cor. 15:45)—was free of all sin (2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 4:15; 1 Pet. 2:22; 1 John 3:5). In the same way, Mary—the Second Eve (CCC 411, 494)—was also preserved from all sin. This gift was given to her because of what Christ did on the cross. It was applied to her early to make her holy in a special way and thus a more fitting mother for the Son of God.
Consequently, Mary’s holiness “from the first instant of her conception comes wholly from Christ: She is redeemed, in a more exalted fashion, by reason of the merits of her Son” (CCC 492).
Human nature thus does not entail sin—which can give us all hope of one day being free of it!